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