into the market of the world millions of customers, who may be taught to grow the raw material which we require, and who require the manufactured commodities which we produce? The one is a trivial and insignificant matter; the other is a subject worthy the most anxious solicitude of the most accomplished statesmen.

It appears to me, however, that the danger of our indulging any thirst for dominion is rather plausible than real. In the first place, the climate there forbids the employment of European armies, if armies indeed formed any part of my plan, which they do not. I look forward to the employment, almost exclusively, of the African race. A few Europeans may be required in some leading departments; but the great body of our agents must have African blood in their veins, and of course to the entire exclusion of our troops.

2dly. In Asia, there was accumulated treasure to tempt our cupidity: in Africa, there is none. Asia was left to the government of a company: the African establishments will, of course, be regularly subjected to parliamentary supervision. Our encroachments upon Asia were made at a time, when little general attention was bestowed, or sympathy felt, for the sufferings and wrongs of a remote people. Now, attention is awake on such topics. India stands as a beacon to warn us against extended dominion; and if there were not, as I believe there are, better principles among our statesmen, there would be a check

to rapacity, and a shield for the weak, in the wakeful commiseration of the public.

I may add, that, were the danger as great as some imagine, it would have disclosed itself ere this. The French have had for some time a settlement on the Senegal; the Danes on the Rio Volta; the Dutch on the Gold Coast; the Portuguese at Loango; the Americans at Cape Mesurado, and the English at Sierra Leone, in the Gambia, and on the Gold Coast; and I

know not that there has been upon the part of any of these a desire manifested to raise an empire in Central Africa. Certainly, there has been none on the part of the British on the contrary, I think there is some reason to complain that our government has been too slow, at least for the welfare of Africa, in accepting territory which has been voluntarily offered to us, and in confirming the treaties which have been made by our officers. We have been in possession of Sierra Leone not very far short of half a century; and I am not aware that it can be alleged that any injury has been thereby inflicted upon the natives.

Lastly. There is this consideration, and to me it seems conclusive :-Granting that the danger to African liberty is as imminent as I consider it to be slight, still the state of the country is such, that, change as it may, it cannot change for the worse.

The other point to which I would call attention is, the encouragement which may be afforded to the infant cultivation of Africa, by promoting the admission and use of its productions. I shall not advert to the

assistance which we may fairly expect from the Legislature in this respect, when the subject is brought under its consideration in all its important bearings; with the example of France and the United States before them, I cannot doubt that Government will introduce such measures as a liberal and enlightened policy will dictate. But individuals have it in their power to contribute largely to the encouragement of African produce, by a preference that will cost them little. Let them recollect that for centuries we were mainly instrumental in checking cultivation in Africa : we ransacked the whole continent in order to procure labourers for the West Indies. Is it, then, too much to ask, now when we are endeavouring to raise her from the gulf of wretchedness into which we have contributed to plunge her, that while she is struggling with enormous difficulties, we should force her industry and excite her to unfold her capabilities by anxiously encouraging the consumption of her produce?

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CHAPTER VI.

ELEVATION OF NATIVE MIND.

"Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence; but the excellency of knowledge is, that Wisdom giveth Life to them that have it."-Ecclesiastes, vii. 12. "That peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may established among them for all generations."-Liturgy.

be

I NOW come to the point which I deliberately consider to b beyond all others momentous in the question before us. I lay great stress upon African commerce, more upon the cultivation of soil, but most of all upon the elevation of the native mind.

This is a wide subject; it embraces the consideration of some difficult questions. They resolve themselves into these: 1st. Are the Africans able and willing to learn? 2d. What, and how shall we teach them?

It is true that the inhabitants of Africa are in the very depths of ignorance and superstition; but, still, there are amongst them redeeming symptoms, however slight, sufficient to prove that the fault is not in their nature, but in their condition; and to teach us, that when we shall have put down that prodigious evil which forbids all hope of their improvement, it is abundantly possible that the millions of Africa may assume

says:

their place among civilized and Christian nations; and that a region, whose rank luxuriance now poisons the atmosphere, may be brought under subjection to the plough, may yield a wealthy harvest to its occupants, and open a new world, as exciting to our skill, capital, and enterprise, as was America on its first discovery. In these views it is a satisfaction to me that I can lean upon an authority so stable as that of Mr. Pitt. Mr. Wilberforce, writing to Mr. Stephen in 1817, "Reflection renders me more and more confident that we shall, or, at least, that they who live a few years will, see the beginnings of great reforms in the West Indies, as well as opening prospects of civilization in Africa. In the latter instance I must say, even to you, that Pitt's death has been an irreparable loss to us. He had truly grand views on the topic of our moral and humane debt to Africa." * And there is a speech on record, of which Mr. Sheridan said at the time, "If Mr. Pitt were always thus to speak, the opposition could not survive a fortnight;" and of which Mr. Fox said 15 years afterwards, that it was "the most powerful eloquence that ever adorned those walls; a speech not of vague and showy ornament, but of solid and irresistible argument;" in that speech Mr. Pitt said, "Some of us may live to see a reverse of that picture, from which we now turn our eyes with shame and regret; we may live to behold the natives of Africa engaged in the calm occupations of industry, and in the pursuit of a just and legitimate commerce; we may behold the beams.

* Wilberforce's Life, vol. iv. p. 306.