parts of Africa, the knowledge which they may have thus acquired.

The Subscribers will readily perceive that a very wide field is here opened for their benevolent exertions; nor can the Committee contemplate it without an ardent desire that the funds of the Institution may be so enlarged, as to enable them to embrace the opportunity which will in that case be afforded them, of conferring a signal benefit on Africa.

It now only remains for the Committee to lay before the Subscribers the state of the Society's Funds.

Amount of Subscriptions and Donations.... Expence of Printing and circulating the Reports, &c. advertising Meetings, hire of Rooms for Meetings, Collector's Commission, Stationery, and other incidental charges to this time

£2976 2 7

494 2 9

2481 19 10

APPENDIX.

A.

Hints respecting the means of civilizing Africa; submitted to the consideration of the Committee by a Member of the Institution.

"THE great bar to the civilization of AFRICA is now removed, by the abolition of a traffic, which has hitherto shut her out from improvement by a barrier more insuperable than the mountains of Atlas or the sands of Zaara. Her intercourse, therefore, with cultivated nations, will, it may be hoped, hereafter become the channel through which her thirsty land may receive those streams of plenty which are spread so largely over happier regions; and Africa enjoy at last, "in the evening of her days," "the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion." How those benefits and blessings may most certainly and most quickly be communicated, is a problem which well deserves the attention of the greatest masters of political science. A profound knowledge of general principles, as well as an intimate acquaintance with details, are undoubtedly required for its solution. A large investigation of the question is not intended; but a few cursory, and rather obvious remarks on this subject, cannot be un. interesting. The following speculations, however, must be understood only as hints for a general "projet," without insinuating any minute enquiries into the practical

D

difficulties which may oppose its execution. The first advance to excellence is to conceive greatly, and though it may prove impossible to effect all that seems desirable, still it is of great importance to establish a standard, to know what we pursue, and when we deviate.

"The Act lately passed in this country will, at least during the war (if the cession of Biasso* can be obtained from the Portugueze, and that nation can be induced to confine its Slave Trade within the line of its present operation) liberate a range of country from the ravages of the Slave Trade, extending from Cape Verd, in latitude 15 North, to Congo, in latitude 6 South. This is the field in which our beneficence may profitably display itself, for to this vast territory we have sufficient access. It is filled, to the distance of 100 or 150 miles into the interior, with a great number of petty principalities under the government of their several chieftains, who may for the most part be considered as absolute. Many of these little states are independent of each other; while some are bound together by a loose federal union under a nominal head; a powerful vassal however paying little attention to the sovereignty of his leige lord. They can hardly be said to be controuled by any system of international law, or general policy; nor are they subjected to the jurisdiction of a legislative, or even of any regular judicial council. Their law is strength, and their strength men. Their territorial limits are ill de- fined, the rights of succession ill settled. The passions and caprices of their chiefs are uncheked by the power of privileged orders or national assemblies. The Slave Trade has nursed them for centuries in habits of violence and

Biassao is a small island at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and is the only settlement possessed by the Portugueze on the Windward Coast of Africa.

insecurity; and the acts of mutual aggression, which the temptations afforded by that traffic have occasioned, remain deeply imprinted on the memories both of chiefs and people-the seeds of eternal hostility thick sown in minds exasperated with the sense of injuries received and inflicted. A state of society more miserably dismembered, and in which the elements seem less capable of combination, can scarcely be imagined. Europe might be rebarbarized before Africa could civilize herself. On the other hand, the whole of this extensive track is washed. by the ocean, and is therefore easily accessible from every quarter; the soil is rich, and capable of furnishing all those tropical fruits which are so largely consumed in the rich empires of Europe; and a vast multitude of rivers entering almost every part of this territory, and connecting the whole of that maritime belt now described with the sea, supply great facilities, both for the production and conveyance of those commodities which may hereafter constitute the surplus wealth of this quarter of the globe. In short it would be difficult to determine, whether the physical advantages or moral impediments to the civilization of Africa be the greater.

"Happily, however, man possesses more absolute dominion over moral than over physical causes; and it remains for us to pay back to Africa some part of that enormous debt which has been accumulating against us. Great Britain possesses several establishments on the windward coast, and a considerable number of forts or factories (for in such a traffic as the Slave Trade, forts and factories are synonimous) scattered along the line of coast which lies between Cape Three Points and Benin; while no other nation at present possesses any establishment in that quarter; if we except the French fort of Senegal, at the northern extremity of the windward coast, the small Portugueze colony of Bissao, and two or three

Dutch forts now wholly at our mercy. The British forts on the Gold coast are at present in the hands of the African Company, and it is needless to say to what purposes they have been hitherto applied. The expence however incident to these settlements has long been defrayed out of the public purse; and the African Company, (which is a regulated body, founded by the act of 1,50 on the ruins of an old exclusive company), is merely the channel through which these supplies are distributed. The first step then which seems desirable is, to obtain a surrender of all those settlements; if possible also the surrender of Bassao to the crown of Great Britain. The second is to con solidate the whole under one government, and to constitute a presidency. Whether the great objects to be embraced in this establishment can conveniently be left to form part of the details of our colonial office, it is the province of others to decide. This system of consolidation is requisite in the present case for the same reasons which render it generally desirable. Unity and consistency of design cannot otherwise be secured, and these are necessary upon a principle of economy, to prevent a great waste of time, stock, and labour.

"The next question which presents itself is much more intricate and extended. What are the means to be adopted for reclaiming Africa from her present unsocial state, and preventing or diminishing the evils which must spring from a consitution of things, such as has been above described? The first and most obvious measure is, by all possible means to encourage internal industry; and, happily, there are circumstances which, even in that illsettled state of society, seem favourable to the attempt. The African chieftains are in a great degree absolute; and they are so numerous, that they bear perhaps nearly the same proportion to the general population, as the higher classes in Great Britain to the mass of the nation.