394 REMARKS ON 



the efficiency of the government officers in all 

 stations. 



It is with great diffidence I venture upon the 

 subject of the mental and moral improvement 

 of the Africans; and yet, any plan for their 

 civilisation would be incomplete without an 

 extensive and sound system of education, one 

 that would develope their mental energies, and 

 raise their moral standard. I think we should 

 consider Africa as an immense nursery, her sons 

 as children, and ourselves as their teachers ; and, 

 leaving the adult population, combine all our 

 energies in raising the character of the rising 

 generation. 



I would propose, in the first place, to establish 

 at every British station extensive schools for 

 rearing native teachers, combining with mental 

 and moral cultivation, instruction in agriculture 

 and the mechanical arts. Supposing seven, or 

 even ten years, spent in educating five or six 

 thousand of these African youths, brought from 

 all parts of the continent, they would then re- 

 turn to their homes with the habits and manners 

 of Europeans so indelibly impressed upon them, 

 that they would raise the character of their 

 friends and relatives to their own standard, in- 



