The Rajah was created a Commander of the Crown of Italy in April, 1874, and in July, 1899, was promoted to be Grand Officer.
On September 26, 1874, Charles Vyner, the Rajah Muda, was born. The name Vyner was taken from Sir Thomas Vyner, Lord Mayor of London in 1654, who entertained Oliver Cromwell in the Guildhall. His only son, Sir Robert Vyner, on the contrary was a zealous Royalist, and sacrificed some wealth for the cause of the King, and being also in turn Lord Mayor, entertained King Charles II. in 1670. He had been created a baronet, but the baronetcy became extinct in his only son, George, and then the estate of Eastbury in Essex, purchased by the profit of the old Puritan's merchandise, passed to the two daughters of the grandson, the founder of the family, and from one of them, Edith, the Brookes claim descent, through Elizabeth Collet, great-great-granddaughter of Edith, who married a Captain Robert Brooke (son of Robert Brooke of Goodmansfields, London), and Mr. Thomas Brooke, father of the first Rajah, was their grandson.
Whilst the Rajah was in England, the late Lord Derby was at the Foreign Office. He was always very friendly towards Sarawak, and paid the Rajah the compliment of saying that the British Government could never have made such a success of Sarawak, as he had done. This was a fact qui saute aux yeux of all such as knew anything of Foreign Office and Colonial Office ways, but it was none the less satisfactory that the obvious truth should be admitted. Lord Derby and Lord Clarendon were the only two Foreign Secretaries who displayed any appreciation of the work that was being done in Sarawak, and who did not consider its Ruler as beneath their notice.
Lord Grey, formerly Secretary for Colonial Affairs, and the reformer of Colonial administration, was another Minister who extended his sympathies towards Sarawak, and continued to do so long after he had ceased to hold office. In 1894, a few years before his death, he wrote to the Rajah, "Though I do not remember ever having had the advantage of meeting you, the long friendship with your uncle, which I enjoyed, induces me to write you a few lines for the purpose of expressing the great pleasure with which I have read the account of the present state of Sarawak in the Pall Mall Gazette. From the first, as you may be aware, I have taken a deep interest in the work done by Sir James Brooke in Borneo, and have never ceased to follow up the history of the Settlement he formed. I am glad to learn how wisely and successfully you have been carrying on his work, and it has been a great satisfaction to me to read the account of the continued prosperity of your little State." Little in regard to population perhaps, but as large in area as the four Federated Malay States along with Johore.
The Rajah and Ranee returned to Sarawak in June, 1875, and were received with demonstrations of the greatest joy, but at the same time with tokens of sincere sympathy for their loss.
The difficulties that the Rajah had to overcome in suppressing the many intertribal feuds still existing among the thousands of warlike natives, of so many different tribes and races, comprising the interior population of Sarawak, receive illustration from the grievances presented to him on his visiting Baleh fort in the same year. This fort was 180 miles up the Rejang, and had been constructed during his absence in England. It has since been moved down to Kapit.
The complaints made were these:—
Uniat, a Kayan chief, complained that fourteen of his women and children, among the latter two of his own, had been killed by the Poi Dayaks.
Kanian, a Dayak chief, complained of six of his people having been killed by Kayans of the Tinjar (Baram) then in Bruni territory. No redress could be promised in such a case as this.
