OUR COMMERCE WITH AFRICA. 397 



arms and munitions of war to keep two queens 

 upon their thrones, who have broken faith with us 

 in every treaty they have made for the suppres- 

 sion of the slave-trade ; whose flags are the only 

 ones that now cover the pirate and slaver ; who 

 are at this moment preventing the extension of 

 our trade in Africa, destroying the lives of our 

 seamen, neutralising the enterprise of our mer- 

 chants, and putting us annually to an enormous 

 expense with Mixed Commission Courts, prevent- 

 ive squadrons, head-money to the captors, and 

 compensation-money to the captured. 



What a glorious prospect would open upon 

 Africa if the slave-trade was declared piracy, 

 and the hundred thousand pounds now annually 

 spent by the British Government, in adding to 

 the cruelty of the trade, applied to the education 

 of the people ! The delta and valley of the Niger 

 would soon become as fruitful as that of the 

 Ganges or the Nile. With the negro there are 

 no prejudices to overcome, no castes to be abolish- 

 ed, no written languages to throw obstacles in 

 the way of truth, or to the general adoption of 

 the English language. 



We have the power in our own hands, moral, 

 physical, and mechanical ; the first, based on the 



