hed their bodies with knives: many who had been thus
treated were women. When the news of these proceedings reached England,
there was a great public outcry; Mr. Hume, Mr. Cobden, and many members
of the Peace Society, alleging that Rajah Brooke had instigated these
measures for his personal interests; that the inhabitants of these
coasts were not pirates; that their armed prahus were their fleets, by
which they desired to protect themselves from the rajah's aggressions;
and that England was dishonoured by the sanguinary destruction of
harmless and unoffending natives. Evidence was adduced, on the other
hand, to show that the persons destroyed were not inoffensive seafarers,
but bloodthirsty barbarians and pirates. This evidence failed to
convince those who raised and sustained the outcry, and ultimately the
rajah had to return to England and defend, himself. He satisfied the
government and the general public; but the party which had attacked him
conceded little or nothing, and continued to denounce the proceedings
of Sir James, in Borneo, as unjust and aggressive, with the ostensible
object of abolishing the piracy alleged to be so prevalent on those
coasts.

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

An event occurred which disturbed the loyalty of this colony. The home
government felt considerable difficulty in dealing with its convicts,
and, among other places, the Cape of Good Hope was selected for
experiment in the establishment of convict colonisation. The inhabitants
resisted with the greatest determination; and the haughty manner in
which Earl Grey, the colonial minister, bore himself, exasperated the
colonists, and inflamed their animosity against the proposed measure.
Public meetings were called, in which the ministers of religion took
a very prominent part; and it was resolved neither to sell to the
government nor the convicts. The ship having arrived which bore the
unwelcome freight, every form of opposition previously determined upon
was put into execution, and the government was at last compelled to give
up its purpose, and the convict-ship was ordered away to Van Diemen's
Land. The Colonial-office had long projected making the Cape a penal
colony, and it was supposed that political convicts would not be
objected to. The colonists believed that this was merely the plan of
insinuating the thin edge of the wedge, which would ensure the whole
being driven home. John Mitchell was among the convicts; that gentleman
havin