m« A VISIT TO THE INDIAN AItGH[PELAGO, 



saj — of Mr. Hume* It would be mucli pleascanter to 

 tlimk, — I try to tliink, — tliut my Lord Paimerston was 

 right ia his opiniou, that " the honorahle gontleraaii had 

 sufficient natural candour not to feel so confideufc as 

 hitherto as to the souiuiiiess of his conclusions." But why 

 not thai throw it up \y\t\\ a good grace % surveying 

 his depcudances, he raight candidly have exclaimed, 



" Oh JoTe ! I tbink foundAlioDS fly the wrctehei! ; " 



aud might have beat that honourable retreat, which is only 

 inferior to a victory. Why, above all, reiterate to the 

 present moment the \¥Orst things he has ever said, 

 repudiating the friendly extenuations of those who would 

 fain thiDk better things of him, and compel iiiig the once 

 attacked to go still armed, as being still before im enemy 1 



I proceed then to examine in all good humour a sot 

 of letters and documents too ridiculona for auger, and 

 uhiiost for argument. They were^ however, as the world 

 knows, gravely brought out, read, commented on, not 

 only by Mr, Humc^ but by those who follo%ved on his 

 side ; and they were by them considered to Iiave proved 

 beyond cuutrovei-sy a point, which I wisti I could lay 

 down in some new shape, — that Sir Jauiea Brooke had 

 massacred 1500 or 2000 innocents— the Scrcbas 

 Sakarrans mt heinf^ pimtes. 



There is one special reason for giving these witnesses a 

 candid hearing* viz., that their ''evidence" comes up to 

 tho latest date before the destruction of the fleet: the 



