That those who vainly sought by the degradation of his position to enrich themselves should have turned round upon him, and have vilified a character whose humane and lofty views were foreign to their own, is not so surprising as that ministers and politicians of the highest repute should have lent ready ears to their libellous and unfounded statements, and have treated with a total absence of a spirit of fair play a man whose policy and methods merited their fullest recognition and support. Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urguet? cui Pudor, et Iustitiae soror, Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas Quando ullum inveniet parem? HORACE, Od. i. 24. ----- Footnote 287: Lord Palmerston, Debate in House of Commons, July 10, 1851. Footnote 288: Sir Spenser St. John says that, "ever since our Mission to Siam (of which the Rajah was the head, having been appointed Special Envoy by the Government) in 1850, Chaufa Mungkat (then Prime Minister, but very shortly afterwards he became the King) had kept up a private correspondence with the Rajah of Sarawak, in whose doings he showed great interest." This King afterwards presented the Rajah with a Siamese State barge, still in use, and a gold snuff-box. We mention this to show the power of the Rajah's influence, and to what good purposes that influence might have been put. Footnote 289: _British Malaya_, p. 71; Sir Frank Swettenham, K.C.M.G. Footnote 290: Extract from a letter to Lord John Russell, dated December 10, 1859. Footnote 291: The Land-Dayaks of the Sadong, Sarawak, and Lundu rivers. Footnote 292: Mr. Templer to the Tuan Muda, March 1872. Footnote 293: Built in Singapore, and commissioned in September 1865. Footnote 294: Launched in March 1867. [Illustration: FORT MARGHERITA, KUCHING.] CHAPTER XII THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND STAGE 1868-1870 [Illustration: BERROW VICARAGE.]