86 
seek to take Julie to His Majesty, is the Cardinal superb. Let 
the actor only rise to the occasion and the dramatic effect is 
complete. The audience know it is in store for them, and they 
sit hushed with ’bated breath’ until the last word of that sentence 
is uttered. The speech might almost have been an anti-climax, 
had not the author with consummate skill reserved the powerful 
lines which end the scene, where Richelieu denounces Baradas. 
Mr. Sutcliffe recited several short passages from the play and the 
second scene in Act I., where Du Mauprat is brought before the 
Cardinal. 
DISCUSSION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA 
IN ITS RELATION TO BRITISH COMMERCE. 
Introduced by W. L. GRANT. November 25th, 1884. 
Mr. James Lancaster had undertaken to open the discussion 
but illness prevented him from fulfilling the engagement. After 
remarking that Mr. Lancaster had taken special interest in all 
commercial questions relating to Africa, and that he had made 
himself acquainted with the results of recent explorations and 
obtained valuable data for the purpose of the intended paper, 
Mr. Grant referred to the fact that exactly five years before from 
that day Mr. Alderman Greenwood had initiated a discussion on 
the kindred question ‘‘ Is Africa likely to become a Second India 
commercially?” Mr. Grant then said that the recent discoveries 
of Stanley, the intrepid traveller, had once again brought the 
‘‘dark continent’’ into prominence. Attention was more par- 
ticularly concentrated on the Congo basin, as Stanley’s last 
labours had been to unravel the mysteries of the district traversed 
by that remarkable river, to map out the great basin, and bring it 
‘within the fold of the civilized world.” Trade generally was 
depressed, fresh markets for our productions were urgently re- 
quired, and the statements therefore that Africa presented the 
possibilities of imparting fresh life to our languishing industries, 
and provided new opportunities of profitable enterprise deserved 
the most careful consideration. After briefly touching upon the 
immense advance of late years in our knowledge of Africa, Mr. 
Grant said the first question to consider was that of its area and 
population. Mr. Stanley estimated that the area was 18,000,000 
square miles, of which some 10,000,000 were not yet within the 
scope of industrial interchange. The portion capable of cultiva- 
tion he conjectured would be 8,000,000 square miles. The 
population he estimated at 286,000,000, of which numbey 
