The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-19 00:00:00

LONDON,

FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL l9, MO.

the proposed measure did not give the Admiralty that
power. He did not approve of the exist►ng law; he
thought the remuneration given was e.iztravag,ant and un-
equal. He had seen with the greatest pain accounts of the
destruction of ships and boat t, without the loss on our
part of a single men. He thought that the rne,sures
adopt -d in China might have been necessary, but he did
not consider the recent military executions on the
coast 01136n:co could ;3e classed in the same category.
Ile did not believe that Parliament had intended to pay
Leid-money in such cases as those which had
occurred on the coast of Borneo.—(Hear, hear.)
The most dangerous actions with pirates were those
cases in which the pirates, were not in ships and boats,
but hail entrenched themselves on shore ; 3 et, under this
Bill, no cognizance could be taken cf actions against
pirates on shore. In most cases of actions against pi-
rates in the East India seas the ships of the East India
Company were engaged, and no provision was made for
the remuneration cf their crews. He thought they
ought to be placed, in this respect, on the
same footing with officers and seamen in the navy. He
had the greatest respect for the House of Commons, but
he thought such a numerous assembly was not the best
tribunal to adjudicate upon the sum to be paid for the
destruction of pirates, and yet, under the present Bill,
they were called upon so to adjudicate, because the
Admirall/2, was to recommend to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer the sum to be paid, and he was to move a
vote for that amount in the House of Commons. He
thought that the remuneration to be paid should
be left to the decisio❑ of the Crown. He
should in Committee move certain amendments in
the clauses, and he should likewise propose an additional
clause placing the officers and crews of ships of the
East India Company on the same footing as the officers
and crews of the navy.

The Earl of ELLESMERE believed that hereafter Sir
James Brooke would be ranked among the heroes of
civilization—(Hear, hear)—and ho regretted that the
Noble Earl should hive attempted to draw a distinction
between his achievements in the suppression of piracy
in Borneo, and the achievements of those who had de-
stroyed the pirates which infested the seas of China.—
(Cheers.) Were we to risk the lives of fellow-country-
men in the seas of Borneo by neglecting to use those
means which Providence had placed in our hands
for protecting them from pirates? If we were,
it would be better at once to give up all
attempts at colonization or civilization in com-
merce. He could not hear anything like an attack
upon the character of Sir James Brooke without start-
ing up in his defence, although he had no personal ac-
quaintance with him.
The Earl of . ELLENBOROUGH explained that
he considered the attack upon the Dyaks of.
Borneo was more within the category of
national war than of an etteck upon pirates.
He had endeavoured to prevent when in office the taking
possession of Labuan, and he believed that he was right.
He believed it would be useless to this country, but not
to Sir James Brooke and others, who were speculating.
in Borneo.—(lronical cheers.) ie had read with great
alarm the proposition of Sir James Brooke to establish
forts in Borneo, and he warned the Government against
taking possession of any part of Borneo. We had
already colonies enough, and ho felt that the occupation
of any part of Borneo would lead from war to war and
conquest to conquest.
Earl GREY held in his hand papers received yester-
day from Singapore which proved the piratical character
of the expedition which Sir James Brooke destroyed. One
of the witnesses whose evidence was contained in these
papers had been plundered by these very pirates, and
had had his ship burnt. This was ono case, but there
were several cases in which persons had been attacked
by these pirates not only for their property, but for their
ht eels. They were attacked and plundered by
this very fleet which Sir James Brooke bad
destroyed. The merchants of Singapore had presented
to him an address, stating that the operations of these
pirates had been destructive of commerce. Five years
ago commerce could not be carried on in unarmed ships,
but in consequence of the operations of Sir James
Brooke unarmed ships could carry on their
commerce uninterrupted.—(hear, bear.) To this pi-
ratical tribe every warning had been given, and it was
not until they had refused all their warnings that they
had been attacked. The Noble Earl had said we had
not lost a man. Would he have been la tier pleased if
we had lost several of our brave sailors and soldiers?—
(Hear, hear.) Did he mean to contend that because
their men were armed with bows and arrows we
were not to use 32-pounders. With regard to Labuan,
it could not. be considered as an ordinary colony; it was
occupied for the same purposes, and, in the same manner as
Singapore. So far from the colony laing a com-
plete failure, as the Noble Earl had said, the
marshes had been drained; within the last
year there had be en no fever at all,
and, aceording to the reports of the surgeons, the colony
was as healthy as Singapore, and, within the last few
months, there had been no death in Labuan, and only two
persons on the sick list. It was only occupied for
commercial purposes, in the same way as Singapore. At
the period when we had first occupied Singapore, an ob-
jection of precisely the same character as that advanced
by the Noble Earl in the present instance had been made
to the policy of that measure, and precisely the same
prophecy had been put forward as to the inevitable
failure of the settlement. But could any one deny at
present that the formation of that settlement had been of
great advantage to British commerce. in the East, and
had contributed very much to the spread of the seeds of
civilization in that quarter of the world? Labuan was a
settlement of the same description. It was intended that
it should afford a depot for our commerce, and yield a
valuable supply of coals for our steam-vessels. The
'Noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Aberdeen as we under-
stood) had expressed a strong opinion in favour of the
policy of occupying that settlement, and he (Earl Grey)
had entirely agreed with him upon tho subject. The Noble
Earl, however, said that the settlement had proved to bo
a complete failure. Now it so happened that he (Earl
Grey) had on the preceding day received a report from
Sir J. Brooke as to the progress of the settlement. It
was undoubtedly true that the settlers had in the first
instance great difficulties to contend with. He
believed that in almost every case in which a settlement
had been made on land which bud been in a state of na-
ture, disease had broken out among the settlers. Labuan
had been no exception to that rule. There had been a
marsh in the immediate vicinity of the town, and in con-
sequence of that circumstance a good deal of sickness
had prevailed among the settlers iu the autumn of 1848.
But that marsh had since been drained, and last year
there had been no fever at all in the settlement. He had
received a report from a medical gentleman in the island,
stating that it was at present as healthy as Singapore, or
any other of our possessions. Then, again, he found
that in the year 1848 there had been a great deal of
sickness among the garrison at Labuan, which had con-
sisted of a detachment of only 48 men from a Madras
regiment; but that the detachment having been lately
relieved after having been several months in the island,
it appeared that there had not been a single death
among them, and that there had been only two men
on the sick list. The Noble Earl had said that the
settlement was making no progress. Now, in reply to
that statement, he (Earl Grey) should observe that it
had never been expected that any great num-
ber of Europeans would establish themselves in
such a place, although it had been expected
that merchants from China and other parts of
the East would settle down there. Let it be remembered
that in those barbarous countries it was impossible that
trade could be carried on unless there was some place
where large quantities of goods could be deposited. In
consequence of the amount of disease which had pre.
railed in Labuan in the year 1848, traders had at first
been unwilling to settle down there; but as there had
been no such amount of disease last year, that unwilling-
ness had been removed; and he had just received a com-
munication from Sir J. Brooke, dated the 2d of February
last, stating that many traders had fled to the island on
account of the security which it offered, and that they
were busily engaged there in building houses for them-
selves. Then, the Noble Earl had stated that no coal
company had yet been established in Labuan; but he
(Earl Grey) believed that that was owing to the general
disturbance in all commerce which had taken place in the
year 1848. A beginning had, however, already been
made towards the establishment of a coal company in the
island. Ho found that there had been actually furnished
there to her Majesty's navy very nearly 2,000 tons of
coals, which the engineers in her Majesty's service had
reported to be of a very excellent description. And
what had been the price of these coals? It had at first
been arranged that they were to be sold at the rate of
Its. per ton at the pit's mouth. But as there would
have been considerable expense and inconvenience in re-
moving them from that to the coast, the contract had
been altered, and it had been arranged that they were
to be brought to the ships at the rate of 20s. per ton,
while the parties selling them would be liable to a pay-
ment, in the shape of duty, of 2s. 6d. per ton; so that the
real cost of each ton to the public would only be 17s. 6d.
Now the contract price of coals at Singapore was 335. 6d.
per ton, and there would therefore be a considerable
saving effected by the very first purchase of coals at
Labuan. He saw it stated in the newspapers that an
additional coal field had recently been discovered in the
island in a much more favourable position for shipment
on bard our vessels than any that had yet been known,
and that would no doubt tend further to diminish the
price of the article. Before he sat down he could
not help referring—and referring with great regret—
to one observation which had been made by the Noble
Earl. The Noble Earl had said that that settlement
could sot be of any advantage to the country, whatever
it might be to Sir J. Brooke and other speculators. Now
he (Earl Grey) confessed that he had not expected a re-
mark of that kind in that House.—(Hear, hear.) He
agreed with his Noble Friend, the Noble Earl on the
cross.beuches (the Earl of Ellesmere) upon that point,
and he admiral the character of Sir J. Brooke more than
that of almost any man he could mention. His self-de-
votion, his entire disinterestedness, his refusal to accept
fang advantage whatever for himself—(Hear, hear)—
the fact that he had been governed only by the highest
motives of charity and of Christianity, were, in his opi-
nion, matters beyond all doubt. lle had himself, that
very day, seen a letter written by Sir J. Brooke so long
ego as the year 1846, in reply to a request of certain•
persons that he should join them iu a speculation
by which ho might become one of the richest
commoners in England; and in that reply Sir J.
Brooke stated that he saw no objections to other parties
entering upon such speculations, but that for his part he
was fully determined in keeping himself' aloof from
them, lest he might endanger the success of the higher
objects he had in view. That was the answer of Sir
J. Brooke to that application, and he (Earl Grey)
thought it Ras also an answer to the charge that bud
just been advanced by the Noble Earl..—(Hear, bear.)
He believed he was justified in stating that so far from
having made a profit by what he had done, Sir J.
Brooke had very largely sacrificed his fortune as well as
his time in endeavouring to carry out his benevolent
objects. And more than that—he grieved to say that
from the accounts he had received on the preceding
day he greatly feared that Sir J, Broke had; by his