This article examines British attitudes towards the career of Sir James Brooke, the English rajah of Sarawak, between 1846 and 1851. It argues that Brooke's early reception as a hero, and the succeeding debates over the principles of his enterprise, were important for three reasons. First, they suggest that the domestic negotiation of imperial issues was influenced much more profoundly by contextual anxieties about the nature of British politics and character, than by considered engagement with conditions overseas and the character of dependent peoples. Secondly, they demonstrate the continued significance of Britain's ‘civilizing mission’, variously defined, as part of a politics of national identity in this period. Finally, the rejection of the radical challenge to Brooke's suppression of ‘piracy’ in the Eastern seas underscores the increasing dominance at this time of a more pragmatic, self-interested conception of how native peoples should be handled.
