Sir James now decided to proceed to England, as many important affairs required his presence there. On his arrival he found everyone disposed to treat him with distinction, and Lords Clarendon and Palmerston were especially cordial. They even offered a Protectorate, all that was really wanted to ensure the stability of Sarawak and its future progress. But that unfortunate Commission had made the Rajah suspicious of Ministers. He thought they might grant a Protectorate, and then thoroughly neglect Borneo affairs. This was, no doubt, an error, as under the Protectorate of England, Sarawak has progressed to its present prosperous state without needing, or being required to submit to, the slightest interference on the part of Her Majesty’s Government. The Rajah thought, however, that if England had a monetary interest in Sarawak she would be more apt to look after the nascent State. He therefore asked that they should repay him the money he had expended in bringing the country to its present condition. Another reason for this request was that after the Chinese insurrection he had been compelled to borrow £5000 from the Borneo Company, and he wished to repay it. Every penny of his own fortune had been spent, and his only assured income was the pension of £70 which had been granted to him on account of the wound received in Burmah. But this does not alter my opinion that he should have accepted the Protectorate without further question. The Government next offered to establish a naval station in one of the ports of Sarawak; why this was not accepted I never heard. On February 21, 1858, Sir James Brooke went to a Drawing-Room, and Her Majesty spoke to him most graciously, and the Prince Consort shook him cordially by the hand; indeed, the Royal Family ever showed the greatest interest in his career; and his reception at the Prime Minister’s greatly pleased him. Then came a change of Ministry, as Lord Palmerston had been defeated on the Conspiracy Bill, and the Rajah instantly felt a difference in the tone adopted towards him by the Government. Lord Derby cared little for Borneo, though his son, then Lord Stanley, showed a very appreciative interest in Sarawak. The Rajah’s friends thought that by continually agitating, by dinners, meetings, and deputations, they might influence the Government, and they persuaded him to join in the movement, but upon a temperament so nervous as the Rajah’s this wrought infinite mischief. His nephews also were wounding his feelings by writing from Sarawak that the Rajah desired to ‘sell Sarawak into bondage.’ No wonder he felt dreadfully ‘hurt and humiliated,’ and cried out that ‘he was weary, weary of heart, without faith, without hope in man’s honesty.’