On the 21st October 1858, after making a brief speech in the Free Trade Hall at Manchester, he says, ‘I felt a creeping movement come over me. I soon knew what it was, and walked with Fairbairn[11] to the doctor’s. Life, I thought, was gone, and I rejoiced in the hope that my death would do for Sarawak what my life had not been able to effect.’ Thus the Rajah described his first attack of paralysis. This closed his active participation in the movement, though his friends did all they could, and a very strong effort was made to interest the commercial classes and induce the Government to do something in support of his position in Borneo. As soon as the Rajah could be moved with safety, he went to his cottage at Godstone to rest, but with little result, as his friends were then negotiating with the English Government respecting Sarawak. His views on the subject were quite clear and he was now strongly in favour of a Protectorate. Many wished the Government to take the country over as a Crown colony, but that would have proved an expensive failure, as the people were not sufficiently advanced to bear the necessary taxation. A great deputation, one of the most influential that ever waited on a Minister, had an interview with Lord Derby, but all to no purpose. His lordship was as unsympathetic as he could well be. He failed to appreciate the noble conduct of the Rajah, and could only look upon his efforts in Sarawak as a sort of speculation—half commercial, half political. He had evidently not taken the trouble to study the subject, or he was incapable of appreciating a generous nature. But the Cabinet was not of the same opinion, and soon overtures were made by Lord Malmesbury with reference to a Protectorate being granted by England. Before anything could be settled, however, Lord Derby’s Ministry resigned. The Rajah was now again worried by his pecuniary embarrassments. The Borneo Company pressed for the repayment of the £5000 advanced after the Chinese insurrection, but a generous lady came forward and freed him from this claim. At the same time some of his friends raised a testimonial to mark the appreciation of his public work. Had there not been some underhand opposition by those who pretended to support it, it might have reached the amount expected, namely, £20,000, but it only realised £8800. With a portion of this he bought the small estate of Burrator on the skirts of Dartmoor, and here he ever felt truly at home. He became strongly attached to the place, and it was difficult to make him leave it even for a season. It was a charmingly wild spot, under the shadow of the great tors which render the country about them so wonderfully picturesque. The air is pure and bracing, and his sojourn there may be said to have relit the lamp of life which had been almost extinguished.