Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Race, Ethnology, Cultural Geography, Politics, Government, Human Development, Animal Behaviour, Mental Illness

    Compares the behaviour of Malays, who are occasionally seized by a 'fierce frenzy', to that of a statesman who, anticipating the outcome of the reform debate, 'snatches up a rhetorical dagger' and rushes into the debate, 'startling one Minister, pinking another, and flooring a third with rollicking ferocity'. Points out that while the 'savage' can be 'pardoned on account of the climate', the atmosphere of the House of Commons is not an excuse for the statesman.