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Kay % 1857.] THE LEAD ER. 419
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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.; ' Tho Italia...
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SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1857.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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SIR JAMES BROOKE IN BORNEO. "We must go ...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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"Candide" On The Elections. ( To Tka Edi...
who are immortalized in the verse of a Tasso , or an Ariosto , as quellers of men and tamers of horses . Would that this genial spirit were more generally developed ! Would that my tailor ' s eldest daughter , and my hootmaker ' s pretty wife , would call in person to solicit my " further favours ! " The wife ' s place is by the side of her husband—a domestic aphorism that might be brilliantly illustrated by Tom Sayers and the Tipton Slasher if , at the forthcoming struggle for the champion ' s belt , they would come up to " the scratch" supported by their loving spouses .
It has long been a matter of sorrowful conviction in my mind that in this prosaic England we do not pay sufficient attention to- the importance of beauty and grace . Should it ever please an all-wise and inscrutable Providence to place your modest correspondent on the throne of these realms , a very great change should be introduced in that respect . In the first place I would have all deformed and ill-conditioned people put carefully out of sight . Unhappily , there still exist prejudices against shuffling off the mortal coil , of a nature to
prevent the most economical disposal of these unsightly individuals . But , most certainly , they should be removed far from public gaze . In their stead , to obviate the vacant appearance our streets might at first be expected to exhibit , I would erect beautiful statues at all the crossings , and would make even the lamp-posts of an elegant and ornamental design . There should be , none of the monstrous effigies of bareheaded , barefooted gentlemen , of a rusty hue , and loosely wrapped in unwashed peignoirs that at present disfigure our cities . There can be no doubt that our own features , and secondarily
our temper and disposition , are gradually moulded into a resemblance of those that most frequently fill the eye , and , through the eye , the mind . It is thus that married couples after a time are so generally taken for brother and sister . And in like manner the unborn babe would acquire the expression of the angelic statue in front of the drawing-room windows . Depend upon it , sir , that this would prove superior even to Mrs . General ' s system . Apollo and the Graces would do more than " paper , potatoes , prunes , and prism . " But this by way of parenthesis .
There is another point connected with electioneering time that appears to me in the highest degree favourable to the feelings and convictions of a believer in human nature like myself . At no other period will you witness such magnanimous sacrifices of private friendship , or such complete postponement of friendly ties and interests to the public good . Men may for years previously have suspected their intimate acquaintances of dishonourable conduct , but never have they breathed a syllable of such suspicions , in the hope that their neighbour would see the error of his ways , and turn and repetit . But let the blast of a disputed election sound in their ears , and instantly they drag into light the hidden things of darkness . For their country ' s sake , they arc
willing to renounce those dear friends with whom they have so often taken sweet counsel and a social glass . And with equal alacrity do they open their arms to the sinner so soon as their country no longer demands of them the renunciation of their gossips . A notable instance of this lately came within my own knowledge . I was sojourning for a few days in a very populous and wealthy city , enjoying a most prosperous trade , and beautified through the spoliation of towns in the interior . The excitement of the election and consequent abnegation of self were at their height . One of the candidates was a gentleman of ample fortune , acquired in trade , who for long years had been an honoured citizen , and whoso invitations to dinner or to a dnnce had never been declined but with regret . All this long time he had been suspected of defrauding the customs in the
iirst place , and his customers in the second . But who would throw tho first stone at such a pleasant , such a prosperous , such an hospitable gentleman ? It was not to bo thought of . Now , however , it would have been equally wrong to turn a deaf car to their country ' s call to do their duty . Suddenly , a band of patriots stepped forward , regardless of past or future conviviality , and on the very hustings charged this gentleman with being—a cheat . They had , indeed , insinuated as much beforehand , during tho preceding day or so , but now they openly denounced him in unmistakable languago . The election was consequently lost— " , witli it , the character of an English gentleman ? " Oh , dear ! no . Not at nil . His character wan merely snull ' ori out for tho occasion , because England domandod the sacrifice But it was relighted on the day after , and , no doubt , now blazes forth more brilliantly than over .
And thon , hit , how grout a moral lesson has boon taught to public men by what you call th « " lingo ingratitude" of tho electors of Cottonhnm . Iloncoforth they will learn to labour without hope or expectation ol any such vulgar rownnl ns tho gratitude of thoir fellowcountrymen . They will do good for Uh own sake , nor will any baser motives influence their conduct . Hitherto , our statesmen have boon too fond of popular upplau . si 1 , too proud of tho grateful acclamations of their admiring i ' ollow-citizons . They will now ostiinato that admiration at its proper value , and perhaps will think a litt . lo nioro of tho preservation of thoir own health and property . Tims , all thingH ara for the l > cmt ; and , whatever in , in right , oven when apparently lriOHfc wrong . —And ho , once more , X huvo tha honour to bo , wir , your obedient servant ,. Cavdidk .
Kay % 1857.] The Lead Er. 419
Kay % 1857 . ] THE LEAD ER . 419
Notices To Correspondents.; ' Tho Italia...
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . ; ' Tho Italians in Alexandria , " " Icaria , " Miss Parkes' fourth letter , and other communications , are unavoidably omitted this week . Tt is impossible to acknowledge tile mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from rea sans quite independent of the merits of the cDmmunica tion-We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them .
" "" /^Tfpt Ttkh^^ ^Jma •* - Tt) I M|K,/ \ *~ \ F ^ A^Ay ^ Jt£P Ifl Li V I ^V ^^ F^ W ¦ *& »^V / %P J** F /& ? O J& ( ^T V ^ ^-^ V_ - / ?
Cs & C ° Y * +
Saturday, May 2, 1857.
SATURDAY , MAY 2 , 1857 .
_ ^ [ 1 ;, «#}.. Jichuuu Jmiullft. *
pnblit Mara , —<>—
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because thureis nothing' so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep thing ' s fixed when all the world is by thevery law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . Aknoxe . . 4 fe » .
Sir James Brooke In Borneo. "We Must Go ...
SIR JAMES BROOKE IN BORNEO . "We must go back a little before we can rightly estimate the importance of the late events in the Indian Archipelago . The [ Rajabate of Sarawak , under the independent domination of Sir James Brooke , is a territory about eighty miles square , forming the north-west corner of tKe vast island of Boi'neo . It has a mixed population of Malays , Dyaks , and Chinese , the Chinese occupying a , cluster of settlements isolated from the rest of the community . Sir
James Brooke , having obtained the sovereignty of the province , established a code of laws applying equally to all classes of the inhabitants ; the peaceable Malays and Dyaks at once acquiesced ; the piratical tribes resisted , and were subdued ; the Chinese were incessantly restive , and waited for an opportunity to relieve themselves from the presence of a z * egular G-overnment . It mattered not that they prospered under the new system of rule , or that they saw Sarawak flourishing . "Within a few years ,
a wilderness became a garden ; a wretched population of fourteen hundred increased to fourteen thousand at the capital alone ; in the several districts large spaces were opened to agriculture ; slavery , head-hunting , and infanticide were abolished , confidence was established , the country was brightened by the aspects of industry and civilization . There was not a more picturesque town in tho East than Sarawak , with its broad-eaved houses raised on wooden pillars , its elegant
plantations , and the river dividing its various quarters . Certainly , there was none with happier prospects . Yet the Chinese , though benefiting by the development of trade and the extirpation of piracy , remained obstinate mid sulk' ]) , while tho Scivbna and Sakarrans , formerly Sir James Brookio ' s enemies , adopted his authority and were among his most ediciont coadjutors during tho brief but terrible campaign among tho villages and forests i-. hnfc followed the March massacre . Some
time ngo , tho acting-comimasioner was compelled to take a force of Malays and Dyaks down to tho Chinese quarter , and to obtain tho surrender of a culprit at tho point of tho sabre . In every respect , tho Chinese exhibited their contumacy and their hatred of tho . British Kajah ' rf Government . They conspired to defeat his plans , and tho recent outbreak was simply tho development of their intention to overthrow his authority altogether , to take his life , and to establish thoir own supremacy . It was , wo boliove , tho branch of a <> reat conspiracy in Eastern Asia , in which a . largo section of tho Chinese peopleon tho mainland and in tho scattered settle
ments are implicated . The incendiaries of Hong-Kong passed the signal to the incendiaries of Sarawak ; but nowhere was the manifestation of their animosity so brutal , so merciless , or so deliberate as in the Hajahate of Sir James Brooke . They collected . b } r night ; they crept in swarms to the residences of the English settlers ; they first flung burning brands upon the roofs , and then fired through , the lattices ; as the inmates ran forth , man , woman , or child , these miscreants carried on the havoc ;
they murdered one Englishman as he stumbled in the grass ; they cut down a woman as her husband bled in her defence ; while she la } -, " calm and conscious , " weltering in her blood , they hacked at her head , and tore the rings oil * her fingers ; they kicked the heads of children about like footballs ; they decapitated one unhappy gentleman , and bore off his skull as a trophy . The houses of the European residents were burned ; Sir James Brooke ' s entire possessions , the accumulations of a life , including a noble library were lost to him ; ten thousand dollars were abstracted from the
Borneo Company's treasury . The night was a revel of assassins , pirates , and incendiaries . The British Rajah himself , surprised during his sleep , called his servant , armed himself with a cutlass and a revolver , gained the creek , swam across , " struggled through the deep mud , and lay down exhausted and panting in the road . " It was not long , however , before he recovered his energy and proceeded to the rescue of the settlement . All honour to the Dutch—his old foes—that they proffered their assistance ; but before
their screw schooner appeared , Sir James Brooke had retaliated with condign justice upon the bloodthirsty horde of burglars who had broken into the peace of a happy and beneficent community . The land Dyaks , or tribes of the interior , were let loose upon the Chinese ; the Malays worked \ ip the rivers , and thus caught them between two hostile lines ; they were slaughtered at some points , and at others hunted into the jungle ; their settlements , with one exception , were obliterated— " not a roof-tree left to cover their dastard heads in the
country . " Perhaps we are to hear an outcry against this act of retributivenecessity . But ol ! this we feel assured , that from the vast majority of intelligent Englishmen and Englishwomen , Sir James Brooke will receive encouragement , sympathy , and admiration . He has sacrificed all he possessed on earth to tho civilization of . Borneo ; he has spent tho better part of his life in endeavouring to push commerce beyond its
ancient limits , to ameliorate tho condition ol the natives , to teach them the advantages of law and order ; ho has done more than a hundred missionary societies to humanize and christianize a barbarous population . In the midst of these , oilbrts ho is attacked by a band of cowards thirsting for his life , but also maddened by a common fury against tho European settler ' s . They afterwards professed to have aimed only at hi ' in and his official
associates ; but what were among tho incentives of Sir James Brooke to visit them with retribution ? A . young , delicate , beautiful woman , tho wifu " of Ins friend , with her head cruelly hacked , twice stubbed , and slashed across- the shoulder with a jagged weapon ; tho head of a defenceless guest , whoso body had been loist in tho Humes ; tho anhes of cino child burnt , and tho mutilated .
limbs of another hewn to pieces ! Wo trust that if any sympathy is aroused , some of it at least ; will bo spared for the victims * . 11 'nuy human oroiitwrea may bo described aa vermin , they are the Chinese , who mako war with arsenic , and light ; with tho clnffffora oi assassins . Sir James Bkookh did nob yieJcl
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 2, 1857, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02051857/page/11/
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