396 REMARKS ON 



sent his son to England for his education. All 

 the chiefs upon the coast would gladly pay for 

 the board and education of their children. In 

 the interior, in every village where Mahomme- 

 danism is professed, the children crowd to learn 

 to mutter Arabic prayers and scraps of the 

 Koran. In America, it is well known that laws 

 are enacted to prevent them learning : there is 

 no question of the desire to learn, if they had the 

 opportunity ; — that we are bound to give them, 

 with a free and liberal hand. If the Government 

 of this country give security to the person, by 

 establishing British stations in the interior, pri- 

 vate benevolence would soon take advantage of 

 the opening ; but I consider that, as the Govern- 

 ment, by its legislative enactments, has nationally 

 deeply injured Africa, the expiation ought to be 

 national ; and that the national system of educa- 

 tion, which they are now giving to their own chil- 

 dren, should be extended to hers. In these times 

 of economy the expense will be a ready excuse for 

 delaying any great measure of African regenera- 

 tion ; and yet, those who will be the first to make 

 use of it, have expended a million within the last 

 few months in keeping a fleet in the Tagus, a 

 squadron on the coast of Spain, and supplying 



