The rebellion was "the direct outcome of the loss of prestige and strength which followed the appointment of the Commission sent to try the Rajah for high crimes and misdemeanours, the favourable findings of which had never been brought home to the native mind by any act of reparation made by the British Government."[221] The Chinese knew that the Rajah had been left to his fate by his country, and, as _The Times_ commented,— had they (the Chinese) had the opportunity of reading recent debates in the British Parliament, their more subtle spirits might have received further encouragement from the belief that we were not only an ultra-peaceful, but an ultra-punctilious people, and that the cutting of Rajah Brooke's throat and the burning of the town might be considered matters beyond our cognizance, until the precise colonial status of Sarawak was determined, and whether a Kunsi Chinese (_sic_, Chinese Kongsi) was under the jurisdiction of any British court. And, the _Daily News_, which through ignorance of the true circumstances had voiced the hostile opinion of the cranks against the Rajah in the matter of the suppression of the Saribas and Sekrang pirates, was candid enough to admit having in the earlier part of Sir James Brooke's career felt it our duty to express our dissent from, and disapproval of, certain parts of his policy, we have sincere pleasure in proclaiming our unreserved admiration of the manner in which he must have exercised his power to have produced such fruits. But it was precisely that part of his policy that had been condemned by Mr. Gladstone and the _Daily News_ which had produced these present marked effects. The condition of the Sarawak Government was now serious, and surrounded with difficulties. The revenue was gone. There was not a shred of a document extant to tell the tale of former times. So complete was the ruin that the Rajah had to wear native costume, which he borrowed here and there. But there was a bright spot amid the gloom, in the devotion of the natives; their sympathy, their kindness, their entire willingness to do what they could, are all balm to a wounded spirit. We have lost everything but the hearts of the people, and that is much to retain.[222] The fidelity of the natives of all races and classes was exemplary. They everywhere took up arms to support the Rajah and their Government, and had the Chinese been twenty times as numerous, they would have been driven out.