King Leopold's Rule in Africa

By Edmund Dene Morel

King Leopold's Rule in Africa Author by Edmund Dene Morel, Original Publication Date: 1905

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookcrop
• Release date: Apr 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869310606

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INTRODUCTION

E. D. MOREL. Hawarden, 1904.

to be discussed, as the representative alike of the Congo Reform Association, and of other Associations and Societies with which the former is on terms of cordial and sympathetic co-operation.

The object of this book is to place before all men who claim the epithet of civilised, the condition of the Congo territories after nearly twenty years of King Leopold's rule.

It has seemed to me that at the present stage in the struggle against an evil which has attained enormous proportions, something more was required than a recapitulation of pre-existing records. I have thought that an effort should be made to explain with some fulness the inward causes leading to those outward effects of which the Congo territories are, and have been, for a considerable period, the scene. This I have endeavoured to do by defining the radical distinction between the development of tropical Africa by trade, which involves the recognition of Native rights in land and forest produce; and the exploitation of Tropical Africa through the methods introduced, legalised, and upheld by King Leopold, the sole arbiter of and legislator for the destinies of the Congo Natives.

I have tried to show that a humane, common-sense and just treatment of the Native races of tropical Africa by the European Powers reposes upon certain fundamental principles, which, if set aside, must inevitably lead to the adoption of an alternate policy profoundly immoral in itself, maintainable by force alone, and bound in the long run to prove economically and politically disastrous.

PART I. HISTORICAL

CHAPTER I. THE BERLIN ACT

How it was brought about—Its aims—The principles it laid down—Its trustee In the Name of Almighty God.

Events of public policy are seldom dictated by causes other than the material interests which the Government that may be concerned considers necessary to uphold, on behalf of the nation with whose mandate it is for the time being entrusted. The contention holds good in the case both of Democracies and Autocracies. Those interests in themselves may be perfectly respectable and legitimate, or they may be the reverse; the fact remains, that, as a rule, the aim of every Government is to promote the interests of its own people, to the exclusion and, if necessary, to the detriment of the interests of other peoples. The sentiment is natural, and until the millennium is reached, frontiers abolished, and universal brotherhood established as a working basis, its selfishness is as justifiable in ethics as it is inevitable in practice. Yet there have been occasions when the Government of a country has been moved by a sentiment divorced from selfishness—a sentiment of broad humanity, in its true sense. Sometimes, where the form of government is democratic, its action has been due to public opinion unmistakably expressed; sometimes to the intense convictions of a great statesman supreme at its councilboard. Sometimes it has been due to the lofty ideals of a ruler wielding autocratic power to an unlimited extent. These noble exceptions have not been numerous, but they have occurred, and no student of history is ignorant of them.

Now, although international jealousies contributed very largely to the Berlin Conference of 1885, it is unquestionable that the spirit displayed at that Conference and the policy it laid down were alike inspired by humanitarian motives— practical humanitarian motives. The existence of international rivalries in Equatorial Africa was admitted, and the desire to allay them expressly stipulated, as one of the principal reasons for the Conference. But apart from that, there was visible throughout the deliberations which took place in the course of the framing of the clauses of the Act, a desire to protect the natives of Africa from injustice and expropriation; to guarantee them in the peaceful possession of their land and property; to check, as far as possible, inter-tribal warfare and the slave-raiding operations of Arab half-castes; and to maintain and develop trade. Particular stress was laid upon the latter point, it being universally recognised that commercial intercourse is, above all things, the surest medium for the advancement of communities from a state of primitive barbarism to a greater knowledge of arts and crafts, and, generally speaking, to a higher conception of life.

The motives which guided the members of the Conference can best be understood by the following extracts from the discussions.

Prince Bismarck, in his opening speech, said:

In convoking the Conference, the Imperial Government was guided by the conviction that all the Governments invited share the wish to bring the natives of Africa within the pale of civilisation by opening up the interior of that continent to commerce....

"The fundamental idea of this programme is to facilitate the access of all commercial nations to the interior of Africa.

The natural development of commerce in Africa gives birth to the very legitimate desire to open up to civilisation the territories which are at present unexplored and unoccupied....

Sir Edward Malet, representing Great Britain, said:

I cannot forget that the natives are not represented amongst us, and that the decisions of the Conference will, nevertheless, have an extreme importance for them. The principle which will command the sympathy and support of Her Majesty's Government will be that of the advancement of legitimate commerce, with securities for the equality of treatment of all nations, and for the well-being of the native races....

But I think this Conference, on careful examination of the question, will recognise the necessity of providing more in detail for the absolute equality of treatment of the subjects of all Powers as regards duties and direct and indirect taxes, residence, liberty to trade and travel, use of roads and railroads, coasting trade, and religious freedom....

"I make it a point of placing it on record that the rigime of freedom of commerce in the Conventional Basin of the Congo... is without limit as to duration...."

Mr. Kasson, representing the United States, said:

It was the earnest desire of the Government of the United States that these discoveries should be utilised for the civilisation of the native races, and for the abolition of the slave-trade; and that early action should be taken to avoid international conflicts likely to arise from national rivalry in the acquisition of special privileges in the vast region so suddenly exposed to commercial enterprise. If that country could be neutralised against aggression with equal privileges for all, such an arrangement ought, in the opinion of my Government, to secure general satisfaction....

The Marquis of Penafiel, representing Portugal, said that his Government shares entirely the far-reaching ideal, so nobly expressed... that commercial relations which will become extended in the African Continent will serve the cause of peace and humanity.

Baron Lambermont, representing Belgium, and Baron de Courcel, representing France, affixed their signatures to the report of the Commission charged with examining the project of declaration relating to freedom of commerce in the Basin of the Congo, and its affluents, which report contains the following passages :—

In immense countries, where communications are rare or imperfect, where the traffic is carried on by primitive or special means, where, in fact, the administrative machinery is in a great part wanting, reason in harmony with experience advises leaving to commerce a great liberty of action....

No doubt whatever exists as to the strict and literal sense which should be applied to the term 'in commercial matters.' It refers exclusively to traffic, to the unlimited power of every one to sell and to buy, to import and export products and manufactured articles. No privileged position can be conferred under this head; the way remains open without any restrictions to free competition in the domain of commerce.

To develop commerce it is not sufficient to open ports or to remove custom-house barriers. Without merchants there is no commerce. If one wishes to attract merchants towards distant countries still imperfectly known, it is necessary to surround with guarantees that which is of essential interest to them, their persons, their goods, the acquisition of property, the right of inheritance, and the exercise of professions. Such is the object of the stipulation which terminates Article 5. It protects not only merchants, but comprises all foreigners and the pioneers of civilisation as well as those of commerce....

Baron de Courcel made the additional declaration:

But beyond the special stipulation of Article 4, we have recognised and sanctioned a certain number of principles which assure the application of freedom of commerce in the Basin of the Congo against all infraction in the future. The prohibition of differential duties, of monopolies or privileges, and of all inequality of treatment to the prejudice of persons belonging to a foreign nationality is affected by no limitation of time. The good which results therefrom should be considered as a definite acquisition.

At the final sitting of the Conference, Prince Bismarck made use of these words:

The resolutions which we are about to sanction formally secure to the trade of all nations free access to the interior of the African Continent. The guarantees which will be provided for freedom of trade in the Basin of the Congo... are such as to afford the most favourable conditions for the development and security of the trade and industry of all nations. In another series of regulations you have shown much careful solicitude for the moral and physical welfare of the native races, and we may cherish the hope that the principle adopted in a spirit of wise moderation will bear fruit and will help to introduce these populations to the advantages of civilisation. f

His sentiments were echoed by Count de Launay, representing Italy, who remarked:

Whatever may be the future reserved for our work, which is subject to the vicissitudes of all things human, we can, for the present at least, testify that we have neglected nothing in the bounds of possibility for opening as far as the centre of the African continent a wide route to the moral and material progress of the native tribes, and the development of the general interests of commerce. We have at the same time aided the cause of religion, of peace, and of humanity, and enlarged the field of international law.

These aspirations expressed by the plenipotentiaries are to be found embodied, in brief, in the following clauses of the Berlin Act:—

"Article I. The trade of all nations shall enjoy complete freedom.

"Article 5. No Power which exercises, or shall exercise, sovereign rights in the above-mentioned regions shall be allowed to grant therein a monopoly or favour of any kind in matters of trade.

Article 7. All the Powers exercising sovereign rights or influence in the aforesaid territories bind themselves to watch over the preservation of the native tribes, and to care for the improvement of the conditions of their moral well-being, and to help in suppressing slavery, and especially the slave-trade.

Thus, as it might have been supposed for many years, if not for all time, a vast portion of Equatorial Africa had been deliberately excluded from international rivalry; a vast field had been thrown open to the legitimate trade of all nations; a policy had been devised which would serve as an example and moral in the relations of all European States with the natives of Africa, a policy at once broad, practical, and humane, a policy truly civilising, upright, and sound.

The Congo Free State was solemnly recognised as a friendly State, and became a distinct entity under the sympathetic sponsorship of the Powers. To King Leopold II. of Belgium, constitutional monarch of a neutral country, was assigned the trusteeship of this great territory so brimful of possibilities, was entrusted this great experiment which seemed to inaugurate an era of lofty effort and high moral purpose. How came it that King Leopold should have been selected to that proud position, and how has King Leopold fulfilled his trust?

CHAPTER II. THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE BERLIN ACT

The Conference of 1876—Foundation of the International Association— The germination of a State—The professed objects of King Leopold—His specific pledges.

Is it necessary for me to say that in inviting you to Brussels, I have not been guided by egotism? No, gentlemen, if Belgium is small, Belgium is happy and content with her lot... but I should be pleased to think that this civilising movement had been inaugurated from Brussels.—King Leopold, September 12, 1876, at the International Conference held in Brussels, from which was born the International Association for the Exploration and Civilisation of Central Africa.

The spirit of this proposed government is free trade, free commerce, unrestricted enterprise, self-supported arbitration on all subjects likely to provoke misunderstandings between man and man, impartial adjudication on all points between subjects irrespective of colour, creed, or nationality; paternal care of each of its subjects' rights, whether black or white, irrespective of rank or social status; encouragement of all enterprise likely to promote the well-being of the State; abstention from interference in domestic and private matters where the public welfare is unconcerned; in short, a government paternal, just, discreet, calculated to promote happiness and contentment. — Stanley, at the Manchester Town Hall, October 21, 1884, urging the recognition by Great Britain of the International Association.

With regard to the question, how it is proposed to govern the Congo State, the legislation of the Congo territory, subject to the supervision and control of the Association, shall be based upon the principles of law recognised by civilised nations, and upon the philanthropic principles set forth in the well-known plan of the Association, whose aim is to civilise Africa by encouragement given to legitimate trade....—Manifesto of the International Association, which subsequently became the Independent State of the Congo.

Africa, the terra incognita of the Western world, the land of darkness and of mystery, of monstrous fables and eccentric legends, passed by swift transition in the sixties and seventies of last century to be the cynosure of all eyes, the loadstar of popular imagination, and in a lesser degree the preoccupation of European Governments. This revolution in modern thought concerning Africa had been brought about by the

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sensational discoveries of Burton, Speke and Grant, Baker and Schweinfurth, and Livingstone. In 1876, King Leopold II., constitutional monarch of Belgium, which owed its political independence to the London Congress of 1830, and the preservation of its threatened neutrality to the action of the British Government in 1870, invited an international Conference to Brussels, to consider the best means which could be devised to open up the centre of the Dark Continent to European civilisation. Dreams of colonial expansion had before that date been nursed by the Belgian monarch, who was careful, however, to assure the assembled explorers and scientists at Brussels of the absolute disinterestedness of his intentions. The upshot of the Conference was the creation of an International Association for the Exploration and Civilisation of Central Africa, and of which King Leopold naturally assumed the presidency.

After some tentative efforts on the part of the Association from the East Coast, which did not lead to anything practical, Stanley suddenly emerged at the mouth of the Congo, from his celebrated voyage across the continent, revealing to the world the existence and course of that mighty river.

King Leopold, realising the immense importance of the discovery, and its possible effect upon the vaguely ambitious projects he was harbouring, hastened to get in touch with the great explorer, whose services he succeeded in enlisting. The energies of the Association, and of the Comite a Etudes du Haul Congo—a sort of dual organisation, responding to one sole directing will, the King's—were henceforth concentrated upon the Congo. Stanley went out on behalf of the Association in 1879, and again in 1882, making treaties with chiefs, founding posts, and establishing a plausible basis in Africa for pending developments on the European chess-board.

Step by step the real motives inspiring the King's initial action in 1876 were coming to the fore. In the earliest stages His Majesty invited, in effect, the world to regard him as a second Henry the Navigator. As a philanthropist he has ever posed, but by 1880 the idea of an African State of which he should be the European sovereign had already defined itself very clearly in His Majesty's mind, and given to his philanthropy that severely practical side for which it has been ever remarkable.

With the rivalry between Stanley and de Brazza on the banks of the Congo, and the dispute between France and the Association in respect to the Niadi-Kwilu, it is unnecessary to deal here. These historical incidents have been frequently narrated, with slight variations as to dates and motives, by Mr. Fox-Bourne, by M. Cattier. M. Jean Darcy, and others; and apart from the fact that I could not hope to improve upon what has been written hitherto on that subject, my object is to steer clear of all matters not absolutely germane to the question at issue. The event that precipitated the rapidly maturing plans pursued by King Leopold with a pertinacity which, had the outcome of his intervention been anything but what it is, could be described as magnificent, was the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of February 26, 1884, which Sir Charles Dilke and, subsequently, Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice (Lord Lansdowne's brother), were prominently concerned in drafting. By this Treaty Portugal's claim to the coast-line between the 8° and 50 12 of latitude south was recognised by Great Britain, together with a strip of territory on both sides of the river Congo as far as Noki, Portugal thus obtaining the mouth of the river. In exchange for the recognition of this claim, which, as Sir Charles Dilke puts it, historically considered, was, in my opinion good," § Portugal pledged herself, amongst other things, to a moderate tariff, and to a strict equality of commercial treatment for all nations. The objects of this Treaty were several, but to King Leopold it conveyed a plain intimation that the true aims of the Association had been perceived by the British Government, and that the African sceptre fondly caressed in his imagination was slipping from his grasp. But King Leopold rose to the occasion, and succeeded in bringing off a signal diplomatic victory.

General Henry Sandford || (King Leopold's political bagman for America, as Stanley had become his mouthpiece for England) reported glibly about territory having been ceded to the Association for the use and benefit of free states established and being established—what a grisly satire it seems in these days!—and begged for American recognition of the Association as an independent State. The United States Government acceded to this request. This action, undertaken, as has long since been apparent, on assurances for which there was no basis in fact, confers a peculiar responsibility upon the American people in connection with the state of affairs prevailing in the Congo territories to-day.

Simultaneously with the successful efforts to win over America, Stanley went to London and Manchester to stir up the West African mercantile community against the Treaty, which was not popular in Europe, and not favoured by the merchant firms established on the Congo (who were then doing a very considerable trade), for the identical reasons which Stanley skilfully played upon in addressing his English audiences. The London and Manchester Chambers of Commerce believed what Stanley told them as to the aims of King Leopold, and, backed by the Press, started what Sir Harry Johnston has called a nonsensical agitation against the Treaty. The difficulties of the British Government, already considerable, were intensified by the home opposition, and finally the Treaty was abandoned.

Meanwhile the international position in Africa was singularly complicated. The interests of France, Portugal, England, and the Association—that is to say, King Leopold —were all more or less involved. An inextricable jumble was the result, and when Bismarck suggested a conference, the various parties concerned acquiesced. Whatever may have been uppermost in the famous Chancellor's thoughts at the time, there can be no doubt that the Conference embodied a great idea and a grand ideal.

The Conference met, took expert advice, discussed and elaborated with extreme care a series of principles which should regulate European policy in Tropical Africa. The result of the Conference, so far as the Association was concerned, was a foregone conclusion before it had completed its labours. Indeed, before the Conference closed, the lead given by the United States had been followed by the Powers of Europe. But the recognition desired, and obtained by King Leopold, was a recognition founded upon certain pledges specifically made by his representatives. In the Exchange of Declarations between the British Government and the Association, done at Berlin on December 16, 1884, the Association is described as having been "founded by His Majesty the King of the Belgians, for the purpose of promoting the civilisation and commerce of Africa, and for other humane and benevolent purposes" It is further stated in that document (the Free States myth being studiously kept to the fore):

"That the Association and the said Free States will do all in their power to prevent the slave-trade, and to suppress slavery. On the faith of these assurances the British Government declared their sympathy with, and approval of, the humane and benevolent purposes of the Association." Those pledges given by the Association were amplified and set forth clearly and succinctly in the General Act of the Conference of Berlin, signed by the Powers collectively, which Act became the charter of the new State's existence, as is expressly admitted in the Belgian code of laws known as the Pandectes Beiges, and as was no less explicitly avowed at the close of the Conference by Count van der StraetenPonthoz, delegate for Belgium, in the following terms:

"The Acts of the Conference give practically effect to the bold and generous ideas conceived by His Majesty. The Belgian Government and nation will, therefore, gratefully adhere to the work elaborated by the High Assembly, thanks to which the existence of the New State is henceforth assured, whilst rules have been laid down by which the general interests of humanity will profit."

The Powers believed in the pledges of King Leopold; pledges categorically defined in the Exchange of Declarations with Great Britain and the United States; pledges recapitulated by the President of the International Association, Colonel Strauch, in the following terms:

"The Conference to which it is my duty to render homage would, I venture to hope, consider the accession of a Power whose exclusive mission is to introduce civilisation and trade into the centre of Africa as a further pledge of the fruits which its important labour must produce;" pledges given in reiterated and glowing periods, and doubtless quite sincerely at the time, by Stanley before the London and Manchester Chambers of Commerce. King Leopold had devoted his revenues to the work of the Association; he had given expression to such earnest and philanthropic sentiments, he appeared to be animated by feelings so eminently worthy of respect and admiration, that Mr. Busch, the representative of Germany, presiding over the last sitting of the Conference, was only saying what was the generally accepted opinion at the time when he declared:

We all do justice to the high aim of the undertaking to which His Majesty the King of the Belgians has affixed his name.

Such were the circumstances under which King Leopold, constitutional monarch of Belgium, became trustee for one million square miles of African territory, and guardian of, perhaps, some twenty million Africans.

It is, I think, especially important to-day, that no shadow of doubt should be entertained by a single person in regard to the nature of the pledges given by King Leopold to the world, through his representatives, at the time the Congo State was in process of birth, and prior, therefore, to its baptism. The statements already quoted cannot, of course, allow of hesitation on the point; nevertheless, we shall find much valuable and additional proof in the speeches delivered by Stanley on behalf of the Association in London  and Manchester in 1884.f Here are some extracts from the London speech on Civilisation and Commerce :

We wish (i.e. the Association) to secure equal rights to all, and the utmost freedom of commerce....

"While we travelled through and through the Congo lands, making roads, stations, negotiating for privileges, surveying the vast area, teaching and preparing the natives for the near advent of a bright and happy future for them, winning them by gentleness, appeasing their passions, inculcating commercial principles, showing to them the nature of the produce that would be marketable X when the white man should come; and everywhere accepted as their friends and benefactors...."

Commerce cannot expand in a new-born region like the Congo Basin, if it is not relieved of all fear of that dread Portuguese tariff.

At the Conference (the Conference of 1876, at which King Leopold disclaimed all egotism ) it was recommended to establish hospitable and scientific stations under a flag, which was to be blue with a gold star in the centre, figurative, I suppose, of the morning star, forerunner of the light that was to shine over the Dark Continent. One of the objects of the Association was to influence as much as possible the suppression of the slave-trade in the interior.

The purpose of the Association is to compel commerce and industry to follow it eagerly by the very inviting prospects held before commercial and industrial enterprise.

At Manchester, on October 21, 1884, those magnificent promises and sentiments were renewed. Stanley, who had been staying the day previous with Mr. J. F. Hutton, President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the father of my friend Mr. J. Arthur Hutton, the present Chairman of the West African Section of that Chamber, had so impressed his host that the latter, upon introducing Stanley to the meeting at the Town Hall, exclaimed—

He is here to tell us that these millions on the banks of the Congo are eager for our trade ; he is here also to show us how the freedom of those Africans may be maintained, and how the complete freedom of commerce of all countries may be established, and how all the customs houses and all vexatious restrictions and impediments to trade may be utterly abolished and swept away from the banks of the Congo.

Freedom of commerce, synonymous with the freedom of the native—that was, and is, the truth—the truth we are preaching now; the truth embodied in the Berlin Act; the truth enunciated by Stanley; the truth King Leopold and his agents bound themselves on their personal honour and by public pledges to adhere to. Let us remember these solemn and reiterated pledges as we follow the developments of a surprising evolution.

On a par with assurances of freedom to the native, encouragement of commerce, suppression of evils, holy horror of the hateful tariff, were the protestations of philanthropic motive. Listen to them!

Whatever you do contrary to the Association, or adverse to its aspirations, you cannot impoverish the Association. The ,£500,000 sterling which it has given away to the Congo it gave freely, the thousands of pounds which it may give annually it gives without any hope of return further than a sentimental satisfaction, therefore you cannot injure it pecuniarily. (Manchester.)

Scheme we have none, further than to civilise the Congo Basin, discountenance the slave-trade, keep the road thither open and untaxed for commerce to enter, improve communications in every possible way to the extent of its means, keep the peace between man and man, and administer what wise laws may be framed for our guidance, and such as are necessary in Christian communities. (Manchester.)

This society has as little to do with Belgium, as a State, as any society in Manchester. It is simply a private society, with a rich prince at the head, whose home is in Belgium, and, therefore, it has its headquarters in Brussels. A sentiment animates it—viz. good will to all men, white or black, a spirit of free trade, and unrestricted intercourse. (Manchester.)

"Though they understand the satisfaction of a sentiment when applied to England, they are slow to understand that it may be a sentiment that induced King Leopold II. to father this International Association. He is a dreamer, like his confrires in the work, because the sentiment is applied to the neglected millions of the Dark Continent. They cannot appreciate rightly, because there are no dividends attached to it, this restless, ardent, vivifying and expansive sentiment, which seeks to extend civilising influences among the dark races, and to brighten up with the glow of civilisation the dark places of sad-browed Africa.... Who knows but that in some distant future the memories of the founders of the International Association will be also revered as the principal factor in the civilisation of regenerated Africa?" (London.)

Regenerated Africa. I wonder whether Sir Henry M. Stanley, cited to-day (unjustly, I believe, for Sir Henry is an invalid living in the glorious pioneering days of the past, with no knowledge of the sordid ends to which his great work has been applied)  in conjunction with Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, Sir Alfred Jones (Consul for the Congo State in Liverpool), and Mr. Demetrius Boulger, as defenders of the Congo State, ever reads his old speeches.

Is it surprising that such eloquence won over his hearers? Is it surprising that the Manchester Chamber of Commerce expressed by resolution its warm sympathy with the earnest efforts of His Majesty the King of the Belgians to establish civilisation and free trade in the Upper Congo, and recommended that the Independent State or States proposed to be founded there may be recognised by all nations, and that the beneficent work there inaugurated may be ultimately extended throughout the whole of that river from its source to its mouth. No wonder the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty was unpopular in England! No wonder that a score of splendid men gathered at first round the blue banner with the golden star! No wonder the Aborigines Protection Society enrolled King Leopold as one of its members! No wonder that all Europe, bowing in respectful admiration at the philanthropy of a royal Peabody, at the re-incarnation with added virtues born of advancement in culture and civilisation, of a Henry the Navigator, feeling the utmost confidence in the integrity, the sense of honour and enlightened statesmanship of the Belgian monarch, placed the fate of millions of African natives, and the destiny of an immense portion of the Dark Continent, with all its promises of future good for Africa and for Europe, in the hands of the rich prince, who, scorning dividends, imbued with views the highest and loftiest which could enrich the human mind and stir the human heart, had prepared the way for a Regenerated Africa!

CHAPTER III. THE SEQUEL TO THE BERLIN ACT, AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CONGO STATE

There is an impression, very widely existing among the people in the Congo State, that when this money is voted by the Brussels Conference, there will be war and raids instead of any beneficial result, and that great evils will grow far greater than the slavetrade, as existing at present. (Hear, hear.) We contend that it ought to be suppressed by judicious efforts, by the extension of legitimate commerce, by fair consideration for the natives, by being just to the Arabs and enlisting their sympathy, and not by exterminating the natives or the Arabs in a series of wars."— Mr. F. W. Fox.

Five years had passed since the foundation of the Congo Free State —a short five years, which had brought many lessons, unpalatable disclosures, bitter disillusion. The veil of philanthropic motive concealing the face of the Congo sphinx had been brushed aside somewhat, and the features which it concealed were not nearly so benign as the world had had reason to expect from the many honeyed words previously uttered. Strange tales were filtering through from Africa anent the treatment of natives by the Belgian agents of the new State. Somehow or other they hardly tallied with the antecedent professions of humanitarian purpose. One heard of numerous combats; of cannibal Bangalas in the employ of the State who feasted upon the bodies of natives slain in these encounters; of Congo State officers receiving tribute of slaves and ivory—for all the world like the half-caste Arabs whose evil deeds they were denouncing up hill and down dale. With the chief of these same Arabs, the Congo State, through Stanley, had contracted a singular alliance, installing him as Governor of Stanley Falls, furnishing him with a specimen of that flag which was to have been the forerunner of the light that was to shine over the Dark Continent; buying that ivory from him of which every pound weight, according to Stanley, had cost the life of a man, woman, or child, and selling it in Europe, while severely taxing its export where merchants were concerned. All this might be susceptible of explanation, but it was rather surprising. It did not accord, somehow, with that glowing report to the Sovereign-King, of which the first paragraph read as follows: La repression de la traite des esclaves a etc l'un des objets principaux poursuivis par votre Majeste des l'origine des entreprises beiges au Congo. That was all very well, and there had been some skirmishes with Arab bands; on the other hand, there was that hoary-headed old sinner, master at Stanley Falls, furnishing the State with ivory for gold payable at Zanzibar. A singular military complexion, too, for a philanthropic undertaking, was being given to the State. Between 1885 and 1888 the military forces of the State had doubled. In 1889 they reached a total of 23 officers, 29 non-commissioned officers, and 2200 regulars; but the most cheerful expectations were officially held out as to forthcoming increases. We can count, ran an official report, in the Bangala country alone upon 5000 militia, and in the neighbourhood of the Aruwimi and Stanley Falls upon at least 3000 men. Here was a prospect of unlimited military expenditure which the rich prince was, apparently, caressing. A series of military operations undertaken to rally the populations of Upoto, N'Dobo, Yambinga, etc., had seemingly necessitated the import in 1888 of three maxims and sixteen bronze cannons." Men rubbed their foreheads and wondered whether they were dreaming. The merchants in the Congo, instead of finding an ally in the new State, had discovered a formidable competitor. Trade, instead of being encouraged, was being heavily handicapped. Advantage had been taken of the silence of the Berlin Act in the matter of export duties, to impose export duties aggregating £50,000 on a year's export trade of £175,000! The most fantastic licences had been clapped upon every object used by traders. A man had to pay £2 for every rowing-boat, £4 for every sailing-boat, £14 for every steam-lighter, £40 for every steamer over 50 tons burthen; 5d. per square yard for lodgings for black workmen, 8s. 4d. per head for every black workman. Rubber was taxed £20 per ton; ivory, £80 per ton. The merchants hardly saw the force of being made to pay for the military adventures in operation above the Cataracts. It was not part of the bargain. They began to sigh for that defunct AngloPortuguese Treaty. More curious still, the State, which had passed a decree proclaiming all vacant land to be its property, was beginning to display a singular method of interpreting the word vacant. The grotesque absurdity of a regulation forbidding the hunting of the elephant throughout the whole extent of the State's territory without special permission, when three-quarters of the Congo territories were even unexplored, was seen to have a peculiar side to it in view of the State's own transactions in that article. Another regulation prohibiting the trade in rubber and gumcopal in the Aruwimi district under penalty of a fine of 50 to 2000 francs, was hardly less singular. In short, the character of the new dispensation was already as unlike its published programme as chalk from cheese.

Meanwhile Cardinal Lavigerie was preaching a holy crusade against the African internal slave-trade. He found a zealous convert, needless to remark, in the philanthropic Sovereign of the Congo State, to whom it is said Lavigerie suggested the assassination of the worthy Governor of Stanley Falls, the eminently respectable Tippu-Tib. King Leopold preferred to summon a Conference at Brussels, of which the Brussels General Act was the outcome. This Conference, to which the signatory Powers of the Berlin Act adhered, as well as the United States, which had not ratified the former, laid down a series of the most excellent rules. Its virtual, although not intended, effect was to give King Leopold a plausible justification for raising an enormous army of cannibal mercenaries wherewith to destroy the power of the Arab slave-traders (who held enormous stocks of ivory), and to levy import duties to help to pay for the military conquests and promenades he was planning.

It is of little avail to cry over spilled milk, but one cannot but feel amazed at the fatuity of the Powers—Holland excepted—in allowing themselves to be so entirely hoodwinked. However, hoodwinked they were, and all the pledges of the International Association and its agents with regard to the preservation of free trade —that is to say, of trade unhampered by those unpleasant customs dues, the fear of which had destroyed the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty—went by the board. The merchants protested in no uncertain voice. The Dutch Government gave them its support, and at a meeting held at the London Chamber of Commerce on November 4, 1900, under the chairmanship of Sir Albert Rollit, M.P., British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese merchants vigorously denounced the hypocrisy of Africa's regenerator, whose Government—in the words of M. Beraud —has done nothing whatever in the interests of traders that they found there. They were accused, for their pains, of wishing to encourage the slave-trade! The half-dozen pamphlets which were bandied about at that time by upholders and critics of the Leopoldian regime did not leave much shred of respectability to the Independent State of the Congo, whose champions failed to meet the damaging exposure of its methods, as already apparent beneath the mask of philanthropic intent. But the Powers had committed themselves. Holland could not hold out alone indefinitely. The merchants had prepared their bed, and they had to lie on it. In brief, King Leopold had his way, and with prestige enormously increased, fortified by loans contracted with Belgium, which but for the Brussels Act he would probably not have obtained, provided with an additional source of revenue which might under certain circumstances have become considerable, the Sovereign of the Congo State started upon his African career in grim earnest.

At this stage it is necessary to touch upon the personal part played by, and the individual responsibility of King Leopold in framing the policy pursued by the Congo State since 1890.

It has been the custom, it is even now the custom, of people who prefer to indulge in vague and nebulous statements rather than face the facts as they are, to lay the blame for the evil policy which has been put into operation, and for the evil deeds which have necessarily accompanied it, upon the King's advisers in Brussels, and the King's agents in Africa. The contention is wholly and absolutely at variance with the constitution of the State in the first place, and with demonstrable facts in the second place. It is also contrary to common sense. We need not go beyond Belgian authorities to prove this, superfluous as any argument on the subject must be to all who are acquainted with the Congo problem.

The most able and learned treatise on the constitution of the Independent State of the Congo is the work of Professor F. Cattier, of the Brussels University. In Part III., under the title of Droit public et droit administratif he defines in its judicial aspect the distinction between the essential principles of the Belgian Constitution (Droit Public) and the essential principles of the Congo Constitution (droit Public Congolais).

In Belgium, says Professor Cattier, "the King is but one of the trustees of the national sovereignty. Belgium is a constitutional monarchy. Quite different is the situation in the Independent State of the Congo. Sovereignty does not reside in the Congolese nation, it is vested in the person of the Sovereign. Leopold II. is not the trustee, but the titulary of sovereignty. All the rights and all the duties of Government are summarised and incorporated in his person. In Belgium the nation has in its Constitution arranged for the delegation of the attributes of sovereignty. It has created and organised its powers, regulated its forms and means of action, guaranteed specific rights to citizens. In the Congo the Sovereign, being the titulary of the sovereignty absolute {toute entiere) is the direct fountain-head of the legislative, executive, and judicial power. He can, if he chooses, exercise these powers directly and personally. He can, if he prefers it, delegate the execution of the same to certain officials or bodies of officials. That delegation has no other fountain-head but his will. He settles as he pleases the nature and the limits of the delegation to which he consents. He can, at any moment, cancel or modify them. His will cannot meet with any judicial obstacle. Leopold II. would say, from this point of view, and with greater accuracy than did Louis XIV., 'The State, it is I.'... Leopold II., titulary of Congolese Sovereignty, exercises it without being checked by any constitutional link. He is the absolute master of the whole of the internal and external activity of the Independent State. He can frame such laws as may appear good to him to settle questions of public and private law, except respect due to treaties.^ The organisation of justice, the army, the financial systems, the industrial and commercial regimes, are established freely by himself according to the idea, be it accurate or faulty, which he has of their utility or efficacy. He regulates with the same independence all the external relations of the State ; the despatch and reception of diplomatic and consular agents, the treaties, the negotiations, the alliances and the general policy of a State dependent upon him alone.% In a word, Leopold II. possesses personally and exercises personally,% save where he thinks it advisable to delegate them to others, all the prerogatives that popular custom {droit des gens) recognises to Sovereign States.\ No constitutional rule confines the exercise of these prerogatives. On the other hand, his will is subordinate to the respect of international treaties which the Congo State {l'etat du Congo) has concluded."

That is plain