promoting industry on every hand. The crowning proof of the distinctness and steadiness of this policy was seen in the fidelity of the Dyaks when they rallied round him and his settlement, and brought both off safe from the attack of the Chinese in 1857, when they burned his dwelling, massacred some of his household, and hunted him for his life. One of his most inveterate enemies at home exclaimed, on reading the news, “We have clearly mistaken the man. The devotedness of the Dyaks at such a time, when his fate was in their hands, speaks trumpet-tongued in favour of his government.”
What was that government? Brooke at once showed himself the born-administrator, no less than soldier and sailor. His government was a perfect success throughout its whole term. It was not the military despotism which was the natural resort of the adventurers of the Middle Ages, who ruled with the strong hand what they had gained by the strong hand, and portioned off their dominion among their followers, made ministers without any qualities of statesmanship. Brooke went alone among the Dyaks, not as a conqueror, but to live among them, in order to be at their service. His opinions as to their welfare were at their call; and his time, and his faculties, and his experience; but he desired them to govern themselves, so far as to agree on the objects and principles of government. They were ruled through their own reason, enlightened by his, and not by his will. I doubt whether anything like this was ever seen before, since Europeans began to go among barbaric tribes.
One instance will suffice to illustrate his principle and method. Hitherto it had been a matter of course for the European ruler to stimulate and command the industry of the natives, whether to enrich themselves or to improve the condition and aspect of the territory. The people were made to work, and generally on task-work appointed by the Government. Nothing of the sort took place under Brooke’s administration. He did everything possible for the protection and encouragement of industry; and there he stopped. He did not want the people to enrich him; and he left them free to choose whether to enrich themselves. He chastised their piratical enemies, and made the rivers safe, and promoted trading; but, as the Dyaks are not fond of labour, he acquiesced in their tastes, and countenanced the native arrangement by which the Chinese immigrants did the hard work, and the Dyaks enjoyed their ease and dignity. “My Dyaks are gentlemen,” was in his mind amidst the provisions of his government, as well as in conversation with Europeans. In like manner he encouraged these gentlemen clients of his to discuss the rules and methods of justice, law, and executive government. They decided on the institution of courts of justice; they held counsel on new laws; and they distributed the offices of government, under his sanction. His advice and information were always at their disposal; but they had to ask for the one and the other. In the coolness of the morning, he was always to be found on a public walk by the river side, where he could be consulted by all comers: and many a time did midnight overtake some group of which Brooke was the centre, gravely discussing the affairs of the commonwealth, or speculating on the great questions which interest men of all races in all ages, or narrating the facts of European or Eastern life.
Certain hours of the day were his own; and in them he became perfectly acquainted with the contents of every book in his library; that library destined to be burnt in the revolt of the Chinese, and to be replaced in time by the honourable sympathy of our universities. While he was perplexed by pecuniary needs, and resolved not to tax the people as long as a shred of his own property remained; while he was in a perpetual doubt about the intentions of the Court of Borneo, and in constant expectation of piratical assaults, his people were advancing from day to day in comfort, security, enlightenment and social discipline. His one measure of severity—the making the national custom of taking heads punishable with death—was becoming intelligible to the people, whose instinct of head-taking was yet too strong to be at once extirpated, and all else was promising, when the clouds gathered which were to keep the sunshine from him for the rest of his life.
It is not my business to discuss the policy of England in regard to the Eastern Archipelago. If the advice of Sir Stamford Raffles did not avail to prevent our consigning that important region of the globe to perdition and the Dutch, it might be hardly reasonable to hope that Brooke’s information and counsel would avail to use the remaining opportunity. It is enough to refer here to the one thing which determined the fate of Brooke and his enterprise; the vacillation of the English government. The British flag once protected Sarāwak; and great was the benefit to the community, native and European, and to their friends and their enemies. We had once a settlement at Labuan, and Brooke was the Governor; and then again, the government drew back. At one time there was every reason to hope that British protection would give us the benefit of the harbours of Borneo for refuge and for trade; and of the coal which abounds there, exactly in the best place for our steamers; and of the best telegraphic centre that could be desired, for the sake of Australia, China, and India, all extending on different sides: and the anxious hopes of Brooke rose high; and then again they were dashed by some apathy or some mysterious reluctance on the part of government; or overthrown by a mere change of administration. Through all this he carried on his rule as if the fate of his people depended on himself. He came triumphantly out of an inquiry into his character as Rajah of Sarāwak, which could never have been countenanced by any government which understood the man. The result confirmed his influence in his dominions; and the revolt of the Chinese, as I have said, was the occasion of proving what the relation between himself and his people really was. Long before this, the wife of the Missionary Bishop McDougall had written an anecdote of the obeisance of a Dyak before the portrait of his “great Rajah,” and had borne witness “how deep in the hearts of the natives lie love and reverence for Sir James Brooke:” and now the love and reverence came out in action, so