GOVERNMENT 265 



object of the government's solicitude. The story 

 of the success of the two white Rajahs of Sarawak 

 has several times been told in whole or in part. 

 But we think it is worth while to try to give 

 some intimate glimpses of the working of the 

 system as it affects the daily lives of the pagan 

 tribes, taking our illustrations in the main from in- 

 cidents in which one of us has been personally 

 concerned. 



From the very inception of his rule, Sir James 

 Brooke laid down and strictly adhered to the 

 principle of associating the natives with himself 

 and his European assistants in the government of 

 the country, and of respecting and maintaining what- 

 ever was not positively objectionable in the laws and 

 customs of the people. And this policy has been as 

 faithfully followed by the present Rajah.^ The Raj of 

 which Sir James Brooke became the absolute ruler in 

 the way described in Chapter II. was a country in which 

 the supreme authority had been exercised for many 

 generations by Malay rulers, and in which the only 

 generally recognised system of law was the Moham- 

 medan law administered by them. The two white 

 Rajahs, instead of imposing any system of European- 

 made laws upon the people, as in their position of 

 benevolent despot they might have been tempted to 

 do, have accepted the Mohammedan law and custom 

 in all matters affecting the population of the Moham- 

 medan religion ; and they have gradually introduced 



^ The principles according to which the government has been conducted 

 cannot be better expressed than in the following words of H.H. Sir Charles 

 Brooke, the present Rajah. Writing in the Sarawak Gazette of September 2, 

 1872, he observed that a government such as that of Sarawak may " start from 

 things as we find them, putting its veto on what is dangerous or unjust and 

 supporting what is fair and equitable in the usages of the natives, and letting 

 system and legislation wait upon occasion. When new wants are felt it 

 examines and provides for them by measures rather made on the spot than 

 imported from abroad ; and, to ensure that these shall not be contrary to 

 native customs, the consent of the people is gained for them before they are 

 put in force. The white man's so-called privilege of class is made little of and 

 the rules of government are framed with greater care for the interests of the 

 majority who are not European than for those of the minority of superior race." 



