The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM TIIE MORNING PAPERS OF Tuts DAY.
TIMES.—Some little time hack the controversy
with regard to Sir James Brooke's operations in
I3Jrneo appeared to have been set at rest fin- ever. The
disgraceful outcry raised against him here in London
had so evidently told against its originators that we
had hoped henceforward to have passed over in silence
any repetition of such attacks. We are compelled,
however, by the debate that took place on Friday
night in the House of Lords, once again to return to
a controversy which ought to have been long since
concluded in the mind of every reasonable man. In
the course of a discussion that took place upon the
repeal of the " Pirates' Head-Money " Bill. Lord
Ellenborough took advantage of the occasion to re-
commence the attack upon Sir James Brooke in just
such a manner as might have been expected from the
character and past history of the man. The Samson
of Somnauth is, it appears, incredulous as
to the policy of any future warlike operations in
the East, even although these operations should be
confined to the putting down a gang of pirates and
establishing an insular post for our commerce off
the island of Borneo. With a singular inconsis-
tency he attacks Sir James Brooke on two grounds.
In the first place, we are told by Lord Ellenborough,
—" It was said a company was formed to work
the mines of coal Labuan contained. Whether such
a company had ever been formed he could not say,
but this he knew, that no company had yet worked
any mines there. It was utterly useless to England,
but it was not useless to those who, like Sir James
Brooke, were speculating in Borneo.' " This accu-
sation, however congenial it might have been to the
atmosphere of other centres of attack against
Sir James Brooke, was little fitted to find
favour with an assembly of English gen-
tlemen. In reply, Earl Grey showed the House
that the object of Lord Ellenborough's attack
"had sacrificed much of his fortune in the great enter-
prises which lie had undertaken for suffering humanity.
lie likewise greatly feared that Sir James Brooke
had endangered not only his property but his most
valuable life." The feeling of the House, and the
force of conviction, were too strong for Lord Ellen-
borough, and he was compelled to retract his first
accusation ; but, in the true Parthian spirit, even in
his flight, he endeavoured to let fly a shaft at the man
of whose Eastern reputation ho probably entertains a
jealousy—for, certainly, no two men ever produced
two such different results in those distant regions as
Lord Ellenborough and Sir James Brooke; the one
with all the resources of the British empire at his dis-
posal, the other subjected to the hard conditions
of a single-handed fight. Forced to retract his
unwarranted charge by the indignant clamour
of the assembly before which it was uttered,
see the terms in which the recantation was made :
" lie had not intended on this occasion to enter into
any discussion on the conduct and character of Sir
J. Brooke. Ile would say candidly of him that he
(Lord Ellenborough) thought him (Sir J. Brooke) a
great, generous, and romantic English gentleman."
Why, then, accuse him almost in the same breath of
being actuated by the most sordid and contemptible
motives ? Why charge this " great, generous, and
romantic English gentleman" with the desire of in-
creasing the balance at his banker's by pushing the
home Government on to a scheme of colonization

hurtful to the public interests—of benefit to no one but
himself? Why leave it to be inferred from the whole
tenour of his speech that the recent warlike operations
on the Bornean coast were planned by this senti-
mental Quixote for the ultimate benefit of his own inter-
ests ? We are prepared for contradictions in the
character of the most remarkable men, but never yet
did such an anomaly exist as a union in the same
person of the qualities ascribed by Lord Ellenborough
to Sir James Brooke. Let the accused be judged by
results, and we are sure it will be found that Lord
Ellenborough is as utterly mistaken in his sneer as
his accusation ; in the manner of his apology as in
the unjustifiable expression which rendered some
kind of apology an absolute necessity. We
have now before us a file of the Singapore Free
Press, which seems to have furnished Earl Grey
Friday
with the leading facts of his speech on
night.
From this, as well as from other sources, we learn
that the signal chastisement inflicted upon the
piratical hordes has been attended with complete
success. The pirates of Sarebas and Sakarran have
sent in a deputation praying for mercy, and engaging
themselves to abandon their evil ways. From Tanjong
Daku to Malladu Bay—a
distance of five hundred
miles—unarmed merchant vessels and native prahus
for the first tirse pass safely to and fro. A few years