ENGLAND'S POLICY TOWARDS AFRICA. 863 



their indulgence was his earnest sympathy with this great work, and his 

 great desire that the influence, the power, and the energy of England, should 

 be put forth, as far as in them lay, to make some preparation, feeble though 

 it might be, for the wrong that Africa had suffered at their hands in times 

 gone by. 



In approaching the subject, they might well ask themselves what it was 

 in that vast Continent — over which so many centuries had rolled without 

 leaving any historic trace — what it was that exercised so wondrous a fascin- 

 ation for the energy and philanthropy of England? Various reasons might be 

 alleged. There was the wondrous phenomena of that mysterious river, the Nile, 

 flowing thousands of miles through arid deserts without a tributary and without 

 a rainfall, and yet, by the beneficent order of providence, still affording suf- 

 ficient streams to cover with fertility the land of Egypt. There was the fascin- 

 ation of a blank map for the geographer, though that map which had been kindly 

 lent them by the Geographical Society, and which was hung in the hall, had 

 almost become obsolete by the discoveries made during the past year. There 

 were also attractions to the man of science, the desire for new avenues of know- 

 ledge, new sources of information and power; and, besides that, the mer- 

 chant was thinking of new outlets for his wares, and there. were new races 

 on which the missionary might expend all the self-sacrificing energy which 

 belonged to the nation which had colonised America and Australia, and which 

 was ever seeking new outlets and new worlds to conquer. All these con- 

 siderations had acted, and were acting with a force which was hardly possible 

 to exaggerate; but though they were proud of this colonising power, they 

 held it, he hoped, a still greater boast that they had endeavoured to grapple 

 with the evil which had before been referred to that evening — the slave trade. 



When England awoke to the sense of the awful enormities of that traf- 

 fic, when she by her self-sacrifice — a self-sacrifice at which the world stood 

 amazed — purified herself of all complication in it, she did not stop there, but 

 went on still further, and expended her blood and treasure, until the traffic was 

 entirely put down on the West Coast of Africa. No matter what the character 

 of her Government, the policy of England in this respect had never changed ; 

 and now, as the traffic which was in full swing on the Eastern Coast, to which 

 their eyes were now directed, there were being brought to bear the same 

 means and efforts. By subsidies, by treaties, and by squadrons, they had 

 worked, in spite of disheartening influences, until the result had been attained 

 so far as they could attain it. They had heard of the recent proclamation 

 of the Sultan of Zanzibar, and they had been told that other influences must 

 be brought to bear upon that country in order that it might be carried out. 

 There were two ways of doing away with the slave trade. One was by in- 

 fluencing public opinion in slave-holding countries — an extremely difficult 

 thing to do. They had reason to believe that the Khedive of Egypt was 



