On May 30, 1885, the old Sultan Mumin departed this life, at the venerable age of over one hundred years, and the Pangiran Temanggong Hasim, reputed son of the late Sultan Omar Ali,[315] the predecessor of Sultan Mumin, was elevated to the throne. Sultan Hasim, who was past middle age when he succeeded, was a shrewd man, though hard and vindictive. His antecedents had not been exemplary, but hopes were entertained that, being a man of strength of mind and of advanced ideas, an improvement would be effected in the administration of Bruni, which would lead to the establishment of good order and bring the place and State out of absolute decay into comparative prosperity, but these hopes, strong man as he was, he was powerless to fulfil. In order to appreciate much that occurred during the reign of Sultan Hasim it is necessary to understand the conditions under which he became Sultan, and the effect that these conditions had upon his power and position. His predecessor, Mumin, had an only son, the Pangiran Muda Muhammad Tejudin, a semi-imbecile, nicknamed Binjai, literally the son of misfortune, signifying an idiot. Much as Sultan Mumin would have liked to have proclaimed his son heir to the throne, it was quite impossible for him to do so in opposition to the natural objections of the nobles, upheld, as these were, by the laws of Bruni, which preclude the accession of any prince afflicted with mental or bodily infirmity. The succession would therefore fall upon either of the Sultan's nephews, the Pangiran Bandahara, or the Pangiran di Gadong, and both claimed it. These two powerful princes and wazirs, with their feudal and official territorial rights, and the many nobles and chiefs who owed them allegiance, represented the most powerful factions in the country, and the accession of either to the throne would have plunged the country into bloodshed. To avert this, the British Government persuaded Sultan Mumin, but not without bringing considerable pressure to bear upon him, to nominate the Pangiran Temanggong Hasim, the senior wazir, as his successor, and to appoint him Regent, the old Sultan being too feeble-minded to govern. Hasim's elevation to the throne gave profound offence to the Pangirans Bandahara and di Gadong, and to the majority of the people, who believed the story of his mean birth, and that he had no just title to the rank he held as a prince of blood royal. That his accession was not disputed was due only to its implied support of the British Government, though that support would probably have failed him had he been forced to fall back upon it. The Bandahara and di Gadong, though they retained their offices, for many years refused him their support, and would neither attend his Council nor maintain any kind of relation with him, notwithstanding the fact that they were his two principal Ministers of State; and he was powerless to force them to do so, or to deprive them of their offices.