The members of the East India Board were furious, and the Ministers of the Crown were "excessively angry." Indeed had it not been for Raffles ... it is certain that Singapore would have been abandoned by the British. Raffles made it, and Raffles saved it.... Raffles' genius and patriotism were rewarded by endless worry, by the disapproval of his employers, and by public censure from his country's Ministers.[[289]]
But the Rajah abandoned the larger policy as hopeless, and devoted his life and his means to his adopted country; and here the British Government, influenced by Gladstone, Cobden, Sidney Herbert, and their Little England followers, did its best to paralyse his efforts.
"My duty has been done at any cost," he wrote sadly, "and the British Government will be responsible for the consequences which must follow upon its abandonment of Sarawak. I do not mention the treatment I have personally received at its hands, for I seek no favour, nor expect justice, and I shall close a troubled career with the conviction that it might have been useful to my country and honourable to myself and a blessing to the native race, but for the indifference, the inconstancy, and, I regret to say, the injustice of the British Government."[[290]]
In an introduction to his nephew the Tuan Muda's Ten Years in Sarawak, written in January 1866, he expressed what had been the ambition of his life, and his disappointment at its nonfulfilment.
I once had a day-dream of advancing the Malayan race by enforcing order and establishing self-government among them; and I dreamed too that my native country would desire the benefit of position, influence, and commerce, without the responsibilities from which she shrinks. But the dream ended with the first waking reality, and I found how true it is, that nations are like men, that the young hope more than they fear, and the old fear more than they hope—that England had ceased to be enterprising, and could not look forward to obtaining great ends by small means perseveringly applied, and that the dependencies are not now regarded as a field of outlay, to yield abundant national returns, but as a source of wasteful expenditure to be wholly cut off. The cost ultimately may verify the old adage, and some day England may wake from the dream of disastrous economy, as I have awakened from my dreams of extended usefulness. I trust the consequences may not be more hurtful to her than they have been to me.
Since this, I have found happiness in advancing the happiness of my people, who, whatever may be their faults, have been true to me and mine through good report and evil report, through prosperity and through misfortune.
From the very commencement of his career in Borneo he had invited the support of the British Government "to relieve an industrious people from oppression, and to check, and if possible, to suppress piracy and the slave trade." He was anxious to see a British Settlement established, under the direction of others if necessary, and he was prepared to transfer his rights and interests to any successor. He looked upon himself in the light of "an agent whom fortune had enabled to open the path," and he felt "if a case of misery ever called for help, it is here, and the act of humanity which redeems the Dayak race[[291]] from the condition of unparalleled wretchedness will open a path for religion, and for commerce, which may in future repay the charity which ought to seek for no remuneration." His wish had always been that the country should be taken under the wing of England, and, though he at first justly asked that what he had sunk into it of his own private fortune should be repaid him, he was finally prepared to waive this consideration if only England would adopt the struggling little State. Failing this, he desired that the British Government would extend a protectorate over the State, so that capitalists should be encouraged to invest money for the development of its resources. But even recognition of Sarawak as an independent State was not granted till 1863. Protection was not accorded till 1888, and then it was offered, not asked for, and was granted, not in the interests of Sarawak, but for the safeguarding of Imperial interests, lest some other foreign power should lay its hands on the little State.
KUCHING (UPPER PART).
Recognition, for which the Rajah had striven for so many years, being at last granted, filled him with the greatest satisfaction. But considering the past history of Sarawak, and bearing in mind how well that country has since done without extraneous aid, it would seem to have been a pity that Sarawak ever attracted the attention of England, and that the Rajah ever sought for encouragement or protection there. Sarawak has stood the test of nearly seventy years as an independent State, and continues its prosperous career, without owing anything to any one, and requiring only to be let alone. But financial troubles had overtaken the State in the latter days of the Rajah, and to him these were an endless source of worry and anxiety. From 1863, to the time of his death in 1868, his letters to his representative in Sarawak, the Tuan Muda, were almost always on this subject. To matters relating to general policy, there is in them little reference to be found; though throughout they express constant forebodings in regard to the future of the raj. "Alone, burdened with debts, with few friends and many foes, how are you to stand without support," he wrote to the Tuan Muda; the last years of his life were clouded by a dread of evils, for he placed too much weight on public opinion, which was generally as erroneous as it was inimical.[[292]] In 1863, the whole responsibility was thrown upon the present Rajah's shoulders, to whom it was left to find a way to establish the revenue on a sound basis, and to reduce a large debt without sacrificing efficiency. The Government under the present Rajah practically commenced in that year.