is 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 onl