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especially, plans for its suppression have been so often formed, and efforts for its suppression, so costly both in life and treasure, have been so incessantly made. Have these, alas! been nothing more than experiments, and experiments of which the trial has demonstrated the inadequacy? Are we thrown back after thirty years labor in what was supposed to be an effectual direction, and thrown back, not upon a necessity of greater vigor, not upon the accomplishment of some definite improvement, but upon a feeling of entire ignorance and incompetency? After all that we have 'done we have not put down the slave-trade, and we do not 'know how to do it.' This seems to be the interpretation of that state of mind into which philanthropists in general had fallen, and out of which, with a most gratifying elasticity of the philanthropic principle, there has arisen an unwonted activity to offer new suggestions, and a glad annunciation on the part of some of the 'real remedy.' From having before us no cure for the slavetrade, we have now four or five; and several, if not all of them, are so busy in courting popular favor and the public purse, that it has become our duty to contribute what in our humble sphere we may to the guidance of public opinion.

We shall notice first the scheme of Sir Fowell Buxtonwhom, by the way, we beg cordially to congratulate on the mark of his sovereign's favor which he has lately received as having, without perhaps the absolute claim of priority, for the longest period occupied a prominent place in public regard. We were all told that he had a plan, long before we were permitted to know what it was. There were reasons of state for concealing it, which must operate but must not be disclosed; that is to say, as it now appears, the Remedy was not published lest it might instigate the Spaniards to ask too much money for the sovereignty of Fernando Po. However, at length the secret is out, and its publication, of course, has created the greater sensation in proportion to the curiosity which was antecedently awakened. In our notice of the first part of his work we did not find fault with this concealment; we expressed simply our gratification that such a mind as Sir T. F. Buxton's should be employed on such an object: but we must now say that we think it was decidedly injudicious. According to the expressed anticipations of some at the time, the effect of it has been to cause his plan to be resolved and acted on before it has undergone the salutary ordeal of public discussion. It has gone into operation with all the faults about it to which the productions of single minds must always be liable; and the fruit of searching inquiry and friendly suggestion now, is rather to embarrass what is doing than to improve what is about to be done. We are sorry that Sir Fowell Buxton is placed in this position; and, if we might indulge our feelings on such a subject, wherein we cannot commend his plan we would be silent. This, however, our sense of duty will not permit; and

if we should contribute at all to augment the embarrassments which, if we are rightly informed, the conductors of the African Civilization Society already feel, and which we are sure they will feel with growing severity, we must require this distinguished philanthropist to take the blame to himself.

In proceeding to remark on the scheme of Sir T. F. Buxton, we shall not allow ourselves to be detained by what he designates preparatory measures,' but affirms not to be the remedy 'namely, the increase of our squadron, and the formation of treaties with the native chiefs. We shall advance at once to his main position, which we thus take from his own statement of it in the second chapter of the Remedy.

If, instead of our expensive and fruitless negociations with Portugal, we had been, during the last twenty years, engaged in extending our intercourse with the nations of Africa, unfolding to them the capabilities of her soil and the inexhaustible store of wealth which human labor might derive from its cultivation, and convincing them that the slave-trade alone debars them from enjoying a vastly more affluent supply of our valuable commodities, and if we had leagued ourselves with them to suppress that baneful traffic which is their enemy even more than it is ours, there is reason to believe that Africa would not have been what Africa is, in spite of all our exertions, one universal den of desolation, misery, and crime.

Why do I despair of winning the hearty co-operation of those European powers who now encourage or connive at the slave-trade? I answer, because we have no sufficient bribe to offer. The secret of their resistance is the 180 per cent. profit which attaches to the slavetrade. This is a temptation which we cannot outbid. It has been, and it will be, the source of their persevering disregard of the claims of humanity, and of their contempt for the engagements, however solemn, which they have contracted with us.

But why do I entertain a confident persuasion that we may obtain the cordial concurrence of the African powers? Because the slavetrade is not their gain, but their loss. It is their ruin, because it is capable of demonstration, that, but for the slave-trade, the other trade of Africa would be increased fifty or a hundred-fold.

If it be true that Africa would be enriched, and that her population would enjoy in multiplied abundance those commodities, for the acquisition of which she now incurs such intense misery, the one needful thing in order to induce them to unite with us in repressing the slavetrade, is to convince them that they will gain by selling the productive labor of the people, instead of the people themselves.'

-Buxton, pp. 302-305.

For the accomplishment of this object his plan divides itself into three parts, the promotion of trade, agriculture, and education; of which in a subsequent portion of the volume he thus summarily speaks: I lay great stress upon African commercc,

'more upon the cultivation of the soil, but most of all upon the ele'vation of the native mind.' p. 457. For the last of these purposes he relies mainly upon missionaries of various religious communities, his views concerning whom are exhibited in the following passage.

The facts I have stated are, I apprehend, sufficient to show that there is amongst the Africans a capability of receiving instruction; that there are agents within our reach, well calculated to assist in conferring it; that there is, in many parts at least, a thirst for education, and a readiness to accept the services of missionaries; and that, although the steps already taken have been very few, there has been some little advance. Other circumstances render the project of sending instructors more feasible at the present than at any former time. They will be carried to their destinations by water. British steamers will be upon the Niger to protect them (at the only time that missionaries want protection) on their first settlement among the natives. Missionaries find less difficulty than any other class of persons, perhaps, in winning the confidence of native tribes. The secret of their success is the spirit of fair dealing, and the manifestation of upright and benevolent intentions, which they carry with them. These speak to all men, but especially to the uncivilized, in a language which they accurately comprehend, and to which they freely respond. It would seem, then, that the difficulties, considered a few years ago insurmountable, in the way of an attempt to diffuse intellectual, moral, and religious knowledge amongst millions of the human race plunged in the very depths of ignorant superstition, have been in a great measure removed. Hence it is evident, that the question is not so much as to our power, but as to our willingness, to provide the means of conferring the inestimable benefits of intellectual advancement and true religion.'-Ib. pp. 514, 515.

The former two of the objects above mentioned our author proposes to attain by establishing both factories and settlements; the former merely touching Africa at principal points for the purposes of trade, the latter occupying spaces of large extent for those of cultivation. His views of these two elements of his plan are thus expressed.

'I propose, then, that an effort shall be made to cultivate districts of Africa selected for that purpose, in order that her inhabitants may be convinced of the capabilities of their soil, and witness what wonders may be accomplished by their own labor when set in motion by our capital, and guided by our skill.

There is no doubt that mercantile settlements would effect a considerable measure of good; but the good is distant, and will be effected by slow degrees, while the condition of Africa is such, that the delay of a single year carries with it a world of misery, and the certain destruction of a multitude of lives.

'I confess that I think it would be well, on many grounds, if we

could, to confine ourselves to the establishment of factories. I fear, however, that this limitation would retard, if not defeat, our objects.

We should touch Africa at a few prominent points,-at each of these a mart might be established, and something might be done towards the education of children of those who entered our service. But the evil is gigantic, and it requires gigantic efforts to arrest it. I believe, and every word that I have read or heard on the subject confirms me in the impression,-that Africa has within herself resources, which, duly developed, would compensate for the gains of the slavetrade, if these were twenty times as great as they are. But it must never be forgotten that these resources are nothing unless they are fairly and fully called into action.

Factories on the coast may lead the natives to gather the spontaneous productions of nature. They may supply us with wood, with palm-oil, with skins, and with ivory; but beyond the money or the goods paid for these, and beyond occasional and very lax employment to the natives, Africa would gain little. No habits of settled industry will be inspired ; no examples will be placed before those the avenue to whose understanding is through the eyes, and who, however slow they may be to reason, are quick to perceive and intelligent to imitate. I have already said, that two things must be achieved or we shall fail: the one is, to call forth and elevate the native mind; the other is, to provide a larger source of revenue than that derived from the trade in man.

By agriculture-both will be accomplished. The ransom for Africa will be found in her fertile soil; and the moral worth of her people will advance as they become better instructed, more secure, more industrious, and more wealthy. And then will be felt the influence of cultivated intellect on rude reason; the children will be taught by our schools; our very machinery doing easily what is impossible to their unaided strength will eloquently speak to others, and beget that allegiance of mind which is uniformly yielded by untutored to beings of superior capacity. The ministers of the gospel, the best of civilizers, will, as gently as irresistibly, work out a change in the current of opinion, and effect the cheerful renunciation of bloody and licentious customs.

'Such essential reforms as these cannot be expected from the mere establishment of factories on the coast. Something, no doubt, will be gained by these, but not enough to execute the task (of all tasks the most difficult) of giving an impulse to the slumbering energies of the people, and making productive the latent capabilities of the soil. one word, Africa wants more than commerce-she wants cultivation.' —Ib. pp. 336–339.

The extracts we have now given exhibit we hope with sufficient clearness, and we believe with perfect fidelity, Sir Fowell Buxton's theory of the extinction of the slave-trade in Africa. It must have been already manifest to our readers that we are not prepared to give in our adhesion to it, and we shall shortly state the reasons for our reluctance. Before we do so, however, we

wish distinctly and emphatically to say, that we are far from disapproving any of the elements which the theory embraces. We are no enemies to the increase of legitimate trade in Africa, to the advancement of her agriculture, or to the civilization and evangelization of her children. Our objections lie against the combination and employment of these elements as 'the true remedy' for the African slave-trade.

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We object then, in limine, to the exclusiveness with which Sir Fowell Buxton has brought forward his theory. With all con'fidence we may affirm,' says he, p. 278, that nothing perma'nent will be effected [for the extinction of the slave-trade] un'less we raise the native mind.' And again, p. 279, We may 'assume with almost equal confidence that Africa never can be 'delivered till we have called forth the rich productiveness of her 'soil.' Now there is an implied assumption here which we take the liberty of bringing out, namely, that nothing but measures taken in Africa can arrest the African slave-trade. This is the entire principle of the remedy, the substratum of this airy fabric. We altogether deny its correctness. We know of other proceedings, which, if they should be successful, would abolish the slavetrade without coming into contact with Africa at all—we mean proceedings directed to the extinction of slavery. What desolates Africa is the resort had to her shores for the supply of the slavemarket in other countries; let the slave-market be destroyed and she will hear no more of the slave-trade, although not a single effort have been made to elevate her native mind, or to develop the resources of her soil. Of the practicability of such a scheme we are not now giving an opinion; but we think it important that the public should not overlook its possibility, and be driven to trading factories and experimental farms under the imagination that without them' Africa never can be delivered.' Africa can be delivered without them.

Looking at the plan itself, we cannot help expressing our conviction that it is inadequate. The author of it justly calls the mischief with which he proposes to contend 'a gigantic evil,' and admits that it requires a gigantic remedy. We see about the remedy, however, none of the features of a giant. It cannot cover the space over which the slave-trade prevails; and if it could, it would only drive that horrid traffic to other portions of the continent. In discussing this subject there is a liability that the vast magnitude of the regions referred to may be forgotten. Africa comes to be spoken of as though it were a mere point, a sort of Gibraltar, which we could gird with our ships, and dig up with our spades; whereas it is a vast continent, presenting on its eastern side alone a coast line of more than 6,000 miles, and containing one hundred millions of people. And this is the territory which it is proposed, not merely to touch but to command, not partially to

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