[1] The reader will find excellent matter on this subject in Mary
Carpenter's recent volume on Reformatory Schools, and in a 'Report of
the Proceedings of a Conference on the Subject of Preventive and
Reformatory Schools, held at Birmingham on the 9th and 10th of December
1851.'
'MEN OF THE TIME.'
A neat little volume, well filled with information, has made its
appearance under this title;[2] the object being to present sketches of
living notables--men who, in their several walks of life, tread in
advance of the general multitude in this and other countries; and from
whose actions we may learn the character and aims of the passing era.
The idea of gathering together materials of this kind, and laying the
result in an accessible form before the public, is a good one. All will
depend, however, on the manner of execution. The attempt before us,
being the first of its kind, is perhaps necessarily imperfect, and we
may expect some improvements should the work realise the expectations of
its publisher. For example, we miss the names of various men of note, to
whom England owes many acknowledgments--such as Dr Neill Arnott, Mr
Edwin Chadwick, Archibald Alison, &c.--and in several instances, also,
the sketches actually given are very deficient in attainable facts;
while there occur notices of individuals whose names can scarcely be
said to be known to the public. With these imperfections, the work is a
handy biographic compendium, full of amusing particulars, that cannot
fail to be useful in the way of reference. To provincial libraries, the
book will be a cheap and agreeable accession. As a specimen of the
manner of execution, we present the following scraps of quotation:--
'Brooke, Rajah Sir James, is a Somersetshire man, born on the 29th of
April 1803, at Combe Grove, near Bath. His father was engaged in the
civil service of the East India Company; and when of sufficient age, the
future rajah was sent to India as a cadet, and, on the Burmese war
breaking out, went to the scene of operations; entered upon active
military service; and whilst storming a stockade, received a bullet in
his chest. This wound kept him for awhile balanced between life and
death, but a strong constitution stood him in good stead, and he was
able to reach England on furlough, to seek the full restoration of his
health. When sufficiently strong, he set out on a tour through France,
Switzerland, and Italy, the languages, as well as manners and condition
of which he studied; but the longest leave of absence will expire at
last, and we find our hero, in due course, again setting out for the
East; failing, however, to reach it at once, for the ship in which he
sailed was wrecked on the Isle of Wight. In his next vessel, he was more
fortunate, and safely reached India, to resume his duties; but finding a
long official correspondence requisite to explain why a shipwreck should
have delayed an officer's return, he resigned the service of the East
India Company, and in 1830 sailed from Calcutta for China. "In this
voyage," says Captain Keppel, in his _Expedition to Borneo_, "while
going up the China seas, he saw for the first time the islands of the
Asiatic Archipelago--islands of vast importance and unparalleled
beauty--lying neglected and almost unknown. He inquired and read, and
became convinced that Borneo and the Eastern Isles afforded an open
field for enterprise and research. To carry to the Malay races, so long
the terror of the European merchant-vessel, the blessings of
civilisation, to suppress piracy, and extirpate the slave-trade, became
his humane and generous objects; and from that hour the energies of his
powerful mind were devoted to this one pursuit. Often foiled--often
disappointed, with a perseverance and enthusiasm which defied all
obstacle, he was not until 1838 enabled to set sail from England on his
darling project."' Having procured and manned a yacht, he set out on his
expedition to the Eastern seas, in spite of all sarcasms from croakers;
and 'when the news came home that he had truly engaged in the
suppression of the Malay sea-robbers, and had been rewarded by the
cession to him, by a grateful native prince, of the territory and
governorship of Sarawak--a tract embracing about 3000 square miles of
country, with a sea-board of about fifty miles--said croakers began to
think the adventurous undertaking not so wild after all. The steps by
which he became rajah of Sarawak may be here recounted. When in his
vessel, the _Royalist_, he reached the coast of that country, he found
its ruler engaged in the suppression of one of the rebellions frequent
in uncivilised regions. His aid was solicited by the Rajah Muda Hassim,
and that aid being given, secured the triumph of the authorities. Muda
being soon afterwards called by the sultan to the post of
prime-minister, suggested the making the English captain his successor
at Sarawak--a step eventually taken. The newly-acquired territory was
swampy and ill cultivated by the native Dyaks, who varied their
occupations, as tillers of the land, by excursions amongst neighbouring
villages, _in search of heads_. To rob the native of a neighbouring town
of his cranium, was regarded in much the same light as the capture of a
scalp would be amongst North American savages. Brooke saw at once that
no improvement could arise whilst murder was regarded not only as a
pleasant amusement, but to some extent as a religious duty. He declared
head-hunting a crime punishable by death to the offender. With some
trouble and much risk he succeeded to a great extent in effecting a
reform. Attacking at the same time another custom of the country--that
of piracy--he acted with such vigour, that a class of well-meaning
people at home, stimulated to some extent by the private enemies of
Brooke, accused him of wholesale butchery. The fact that the destruction
of pirates was rewarded by the English executive by the payment of what
was called "head-money," justly increased the outcry. To kill one pirate
entitled the crew of a ship-of-war to a certain prize in money--to kill
a thousand, entitled them to a thousand times the amount. This premium
on blood was wrong in principle, and the result of a wholesale slaughter
of Eastern pirates by order of Brooke, led to the very proper abolition
of the custom of paying this "head-money." The men who are entitled to
the praise of securing this amelioration of our naval system were not,
however, content with the triumph of the just portion of their case;
they sought to brand the rajah as a cruel and greedy adventurer--in
which attempt they fortunately failed. It is surely unjust to test the
acts of a man living and ruling amongst savages by the strict usages of
action acknowledged and found most proper for guidance in civilised
communities. When, after his first appointment, Rajah Brooke returned to
see his friends and to take counsel in England, he was welcomed very
warmly. He was made Knight of the Bath; invited to dine with the Queen;
found his portrait in the print-shops, and his biography in the
magazines and newspapers. The government recognised his position;
ordered a man-of-war to take him to the seat of his new settlement; gave
him the title of Governor of Labuan, with a salary of L.2000 a year,
with an extra L.500 a year as a consular agent, and afforded him the
services of a deputy-governor, also on a good salary--the hope being
that the result of all this would be the opening of a new emporium for
British trade.' To this notice might be added an expression of deep
regret that there should be any controversy as to the real nature of Sir
James Brooke's operations in the East. This scandal ought surely to be
put an end to by some distinct investigation and avowal one way or the
other.
The above notice of Sir James Brooke naturally suggests a recollection
of his relentless accuser, Joseph Hume, and we turn up the account of
that personage.
'Hume, Joseph, a Radical Reformer, whose history adds another memorable
example of perseverance raising its possessor from a humble station to
distinction. He was born at Montrose, in the year 1777. While he was
still young, his father, the master of a small trading-vessel of that
port, died, leaving his widow to bring up a numerous family. Mrs Hume,
it is related, maintained herself and her children by means of a small
earthenware business, and placed Joseph in a school of the town, where
he received an education which included instruction in the elements of
Latin. With such scanty stores of knowledge, he was apprenticed to a
surgeon of Montrose, with whom he served three years. Having attended
the prescribed lectures to the medical classes in the university of
Edinburgh, he was admitted, in 1796, a member of the College of Surgeons
in that city. India was at that time a favourite, and, indeed, almost
the only field for the young who had no other fortune than their talents
and enterprise. To India, accordingly, Mr Hume went, and entered as a
surgeon the naval service of the East India Company. He had not been
there three years, before he was placed on the medical establishment of
Bengal. Here, while increasing his professional reputation, he had the
opportunity of watching the whole operation of the machinery of the
Company's service. His quick eye soon detected the deficiencies of the
greater number of the Company's servants in command of the native
language, an acquirement so valuable in possessions such as ours. He
determined to acquire a knowledge of the dialects of India, not doubting
that a sphere of larger utility and greater emolument would open before
his efforts. The Mahratta war breaking out in 1803, Mr Hume was attached
to Major-general Powell's division, and accompanied it on its march from
Allahabad into Bundelcund. The want of interpreters was now felt, as
Hume had expected, and the commander was glad to find among his surgeons
a man capable of supplying the deficiency. He continued to discharge his
new duties without resigning his medical appointment, and managed to
combine with both the offices of pay-master and post-master of the
troops. His ability to hold direct intercourse with the natives
continued to be of immense service to him, and enabled him to hold
simultaneously a number of offices with most varied duties, such as
nothing but an unwearying frame and an extraordinary capacity could have
enabled any one person to discharge. At the conclusion of the peace, he
returned to the presidency, richer by many golden speculations, for
which a period of war never fails to offer opportunities. In 1808,
having accomplished the object for which he left his native land, he
came to England, and, after an interval of repose, determined upon
making a tour of the country, the better to acquaint himself with the
condition of its inhabitants.' After making this tour, and visiting
various continental countries, he returned to England, where he devoted
himself to a political career; and since 1812, he has for the most part
had a seat in the House of Commons. His parliamentary history since 1818
has been that of a reformer of abuses and enemy of monopoly, and he is
respected even by those who differ from him in opinion.