worst deeds of the Turk have been done south of the mountains. This is the minimum, the least which can be demanded in the name of outraged humanity. All those lands must be put in a position not worse than the position of Roumania now, not worse than the position of Servia before the war. It is in no way hampering or embarrassing the government to quote a favorite party cry of the moment, to give them, in answer to Lord Derby's own request, these plain instructions. The exact bonudaries of the new states to be formed, the exact form of government to be set up in each, the princes, if they are to have princes, who are to be chosen for each, these are points of detail which we leave to the assembled wisdom of Europe. We may criticise any definite proposal when

them subjects of Russia. But, if this cannot be, if the only choice lies between a civilized and a barbarous despotism, between a despotism which at least secures to its subjects the common rights of human beings and a despotism which makes no attempt to secure them, we have no doubt as to which despotism we ought to choose. And we feel that, if things come to such a choice, the fault will not be ours, but the fault of those who have allowed Russia to take the championship of right out of the hands of England. Even if it could be shown that the interest of England lay on the side of the worse choice, we should still again say, Let the interest | of England give way to her duty. But the notion that England has any interest in the matter is simply a worn-out superstition. I saw the other day an argument it is made; it is not our business to make that it was not for the interest of England to allow any strong power to hold the Bosporos. Here is the wicked old doctrine that the strength of one nation must be the weakness of another. The stronger the power that holds the Bosporos the better, provided it be a native power. But if the folly and weakness of our diplomatists have decreed that it should be held, not by a native but by a Russian power, we shall lament the result, but we shall fail to see how the interest of England is involved. The only ground on which it has ever been pretended that our interest is touched in the matter, has been because it is said that the presence of Russia on the Bosporos would block our path to India. But our path to India does not lie by the Bosporos, but by Suez; and if Egypt could be transferred from its present merciless tyrant to the rule of England or of any other civilized power, it would be the greatest of boons Events do indeed pass quickly. Befor all the inhabitants, Mahometan and tween the writing of the last paragraph Christian, of that unhappy land. and its revision, the insolence of the barWhen I am asked what is to be done, Ibarian himself has been outshone. The say again what I said in December, with such changes as have been made needful by the events of the last nine months. Bosnia, Turkish Croatia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Crete must be delivered from the immediate rule of the sultan. This is the least that outraged Europe can accept. This is the commission which Lord Derby has received in the plainest terms from his employers and educators. And the word Bulgaria must not be limited to the land north of Hamus, which alone bears that name in our maps. The Bulgarian folk and speech, the remains of the kingdom of Samuel, reach far to the south of the mountains, and a large part of the

definite proposals beforehand. Let Turkish rule cease, and though one change may be better than another, any change will be better than Turkish rule. As for Servia, no one will stop to discuss the insolent paper which was put forth by the baffled barbarian who tries to win by fraud what he has found that he cannot win by arms. The Turk has wrought his evil deeds in Servia, but he has not conquered Servia; the impudent demands which go on the assumption that he has conquered Servia must be thrust down his own barbarian throat. Let Servia be not worse off than she was before the war; let the revolted lands be not worse off than Servia; this is the programme of the people of England. Details they leave to those whose business it is to settle them; but their minds are made up as to the root of the matter. Less than I have just said they will not have.

lowest bellower in the Oxford mob could not depart farther from the truth, farther from reason, farther from decency, than Lord Beaconsfield did in his notorious speech at Aylesbury. When the new earl told the world that to speak the truth about Turkish "atrocities" was a greater "atrocity" than to do them, it was hard not to remember that there is but one living statesmen of whom it has been said that he says the first thing that comes into his head, and takes his chance of its being true. When we go on and read the monstrous misstatements which Lord Beaconsfield was not ashamed to make with regard to the affairs of Servia, it is hard not to re

flect on that curious rule of conventional | Europe. But such a programme is not good breeding by which to call such mis- temporary in the sense in which the makestatements by their plain English name is shifts of diplomatists, the maintenance of deemed a greater offence than to make the status quo and the like, are temporary. them. But the Psalmist's phrase of "them Restore the status quo, grant anything that speak leasing," Gulliver's phrase short of practical independence, and all about saying "the thing that is not," may that has been done, all that has been sufperhaps be allowed even in those serene fered, during the last year will have to be regions where the new earl tells us that done and suffered over again. If we free he walks. And truly Lord Beaconsfield's the revolted lands, even if we leave the babble about Servia- not "coffee-house lands which are not revolted still in bondbabble," but babble doubtless over some age, we leave nothing to be done over stronger liquor was, if any human utter- again; we only leave something in front ance ever was, "the thing that, is not." of us still to be done. We make a vast Lord Beaconsfield, by his own account, step in advance; we enlarge the area of should have talked about barley; he per- freedom, even if we do not wholly wipe haps meant, instead of talking about bar- out the area of bondage. To maintain, or ley, to sow the wild oats of his new state rather to restore, the status quo is to make of being. The one thing of importance the greatest of all steps backwards ; it is to in this strange harangue is Lord Beacons- enlarge the area of bondage at the expense field's distinct assertion that the revolted of the area of freedom. The programme lands shall not be free. The people of of the status quo, the programme of Lord England have distinctly said that they Beaconsfield, points nowhere; the proshall be free. Whose voice is to be fol-gramme of the people of England points lowed? To which of the two will Lord Derby listen as his educator? To which of the two will he yield obedience as his employer?

After Lord Beaconsfield's display at Aylesbury all earlier displays, as we come back to them, seem tame. There is, for instance, the paltry cavil, the last straw at which the despairing advocates of evil clutch, the slander that the revolted lands are unworthy, incapable of freedom. Will they become more worthy, more capable, by remaining in bondage? In diplomatic circles it would seem that men learn the art of swimming without ever going into the water, that they learn the art of riding without ever mounting a horse. The lesson of freedom can be learned only in the practice of freedom. There may be risks, there may be difficulties; some men have been drowned in learning the art of swimming; still, that art cannot be learned on dry land. We appeal to reason; we appeal to experience; diplomatic cavillers shut their eyes to both. Go to Servia; go to Montenegro; see what free Servia, what freer Montenegro, has done, and be sure that free Bulgaria will do as much.

Last of all, the programme which I have just sketched, the programme which the people of England have accepted, the programme which Lord Beaconsfield scoffs at, is only a minimum. It is the least that can be taken; if more can be had, so much the better. Such a programme is in its own nature temporary; any programme must be temporary which endures the rule of the Turk in any corner of

distinctly in front. We will have New Rome some day; if Mr. Grant Duff can give it us at once, so much the better. The conversion of Mr. Grant Duff for a conversion it may surely be called -is one of the most remarkable phases of the whole business. Mr. Grant Duff has never been held to be rash or sentimental; he has never been thought likely to say or do anything windy or gusty or frothy, to quote some of the epithets to which those who set facts, past and present, before the traditions of diplomatists have got pretty well seasoned. Only a few weeks ago, some of us were tempted to look on Mr. Grant Duff as almost as cold-blooded as Lord Derby himself. All is now changed. Mr. Grant Duff undertakes to lead us to the walls of Constantinople; and, where he undertakes to lead, no one can be called foolhardy for following. There is no need even to dispute about such a detail as the particular ruler whom Mr. Grant Duff has chosen to place on the throne of the Leos and the Basils. Mr. Grant Duff has perhaps had better opportunities than most of us for judging of the Duke of Edinburgh's qualifications for government. At any rate we may be certain of one thing; his rule would be better than the rule of any sultan. The examples of Servia and Montenegro, the example of Sweden — even the example of France-might, one would have thought, done something to get rid of the queer superstition that none can reign whose fathers have not reigned before them. A man who had had some practice

in ruling, an experienced colonial governor | The emancipation in the British, French, for instance, might perhaps seem better Danish, and Dutch colonies was able, it fitted for the post than one who is a prince, seems, to effect little towards improving and, as far as we know, only a prince. the standing of the negro. He was bound But here again it would be foolish to dis- to a servile position until the supremacy pute about details. Any civilized ruler of the cotton empire of the West was overwould be better than any barbarian. And thrown. The proclamation of freedom in Mr. Grant Duff's proposal for the employ- the United States gave to the negro at once ment of Indian officials is at all events a position which he had never before occuwise and practical. Our platform then is pied; and though he is in America numersimple. The more impetuous fervor of ically weak, and, in a measure, personally Mr. Gladstone leads us to a certain point, insignificant, still the barriers in the way which is the least with which we can put of his progress and growth are rapidly disup. The colder reason of Mr. Grant Duff appearing. leads us to a further point, to which we shall be delighted to follow him thither if we can, and, if he assures us that we can, no one can have any reason to doubt his assurance. Lord Derby then has his lesson; he has his commission. His teachers, his employers, have spoken their mind. The least we ask is the freedom of the revolted lands; but we take this only as a step to the day when the New Rome shall be cleansed from barbarian rule. There may be risks, there may be difficulties; but the Turk would hardly be so mad as to stand up against six great powers. Three such powers have in past times been enough to bring him to reason. If the trembling despot dares to dispute the will of his masters, he must again be taught a yet more vigorous form of the same lesson which was taught him when France cleansed Peloponnesus of the destroying Egyptian, when England, France, and Russia joined to crush the power of the Turk in the harbor of Pylos. The blinded ministers of that day could see in the good work nothing but an "untoward event." England now is wiser. Her people will have quite another name in their mouths, if the obstinacy of the barbarian should again draw upon him such another stroke of righteous vengeance.

EDWARD A. FREEMAN.

From Fraser's Magazine.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN WEST AFRICA.

BY A NEGRO.'

IT is little more than half a generation since four millions of Africans were held in apparently hopeless bondage in the United States-a condition which determined their status as one of social subordination and inferiority in all Christian lands.

But it is not easy to efface impressions which have been busily taught and cheerfully imbibed during centuries. The Christian world, trained for the last three hundred years to look upon the negro as made for the service of superior races, finds it difficult to shake off the notion of his absolute and permanent inferiority. Distrust, coldness, or indifference are the feelings with which, generally speaking, any efforts on his part to advance are regarded by the enlightened races. The influence of the representations disparaging to his mental and moral character, which, during the days of his bondage, were persistently put forward without contradiction, is still strong in many minds. The full effect of the new status of the negro race will not be sufficiently felt during the present generation to relieve even his best friends of the pity or contempt for him which they may be said to have inherited, and which, we will grant, has been fostered from the civilized world coming in contact, for the most part, only with the degraded tribes of the African continent.

One of the most important of the results which have occurred from the labors and sufferings of Livingstone has been the light which he has been able to throw upon the subject of the African races at home, awakening at least doubts in the minds of the most apathetic as to the truthfulness or fairness of the representations disparaging to the negro's character which have been for so long a time in unimpeded circulation. The whole Christian world has been aroused by that humble missionary to the importance of “healing the open sore of the world" and penetrating the "dark continent" with the light of Christianity and civilization. Catholics and Protestants Christians of every name and nationality are vying with each other in endeavors to promote the work of African regeneration."

One sanguine or sensational letter from Principal of the Presbyterian High School, Liberia. | Mr. Stanley calling attention to a favorable

opening for missionary operations in East | far attained, and the hindrances in the way Africa fell upon the British public like of more satisfactory achievements. seed into prepared soil, and in a short time, a bountiful harvest was reaped in the shape of thousands of pounds in response to the more urgent than "Macedonian cry." This prompt liberality shows that there are Christian men and women in England who are deeply in earnest in the work of disseminating the truths of the gospel in Africa.

lians, Presbyterians, Lutherans are represented on the coast-in Liberia, at Lagos, the island of Coresco, and Gaboon. The first American mission was established on the coast in 1822.

of influence among any of the leading tribes. Bishop Crowther's last report of the "Mission among the Natives of the Bight of Biafra, at Bonny, Brass, and New Calabar Rivers," after ten years' labor, is not particularly encouraging.

The work done at Serra Leone and in Liberia cannot be regarded as done upon the indigenous elements of those localities. The native populations of Serra Leone and Liberia-the Timnehs, Soosoos, Mendis, Veys, Solahs, Bassas, Kroos, etc.

Now what has been the outcome of these missionary operations? The results thus far achieved are in many respects highly interesting and important. At the European settlements established at various points along the coast from Senegal to Loanda, and at the purely native stations, occupied by the Niger (native) missionaries, the Scotch missionaries, and the American missionaries, some thousands of natives, having been brought under the immediate influence of Christian teaching, have professed Christianity, and, at the European settlements, have adopted Euro-ilization have been imported in the case pean dress and habits. Numerous churches have been organized and are under a native ministry, and thousands of children are gathered into schools under Christian teachers.

The West African Reporter, a weekly newspaper owned and published at Sierra Leone exclusively by natives, and itself an interesting evidence of the progress of civilization on the coast, gives, in its issue for January 4, 1876, the following:

The Niger Mission and the native pastorate -which latter has received the encomiums of friends and foes are standing monuments of the (Church Missionary) Society's labors, and proofs of the permanence of results thus far achieved. Bishop Crowther, the first negro bishop, the Rev. James Johnson of Lagos, Dr. Africanus Horton, the distinguished physician and author, and numerous others, less widely known but not less useful, sat under the instructions which have been imparted in the Church Missionary College at Fourah Bay in

Sierra Leone.

But other useful men besides preachers have been raised up under the instruction of the missionaries: many able and useful government officials, skilful mechanics especially at the Basle Mission-and merchants, who by their intelligence, industry, and enterprise have risen to an equality in wealth and influence with the European merchants on the coast.

Still these results, in their largest measure, are confined almost exclusively to the European settlements along the coast and to their immediate neighborhood. No mission station of any importance has been established among any of the powerful tribes in the interior, or on the coast at a distance from European settlements. In the evangelistic operations of the Niger mission, we can hear of no central station

are still untouched by evangelical influence. The visitor at Sierra Leone and at Monrovia is at once struck by the exotic appearance of everything. The whole black population of those settlements who have made any progress in Christian civ

of Sierra Leone from other parts of Africa, and in that of Liberia from America. If everything extraneous or imported were taken away from the settlements to-morrow, the regions they now occupy would wear an aspect similar to that which they presented to Sir John Hawkins three hundred years ago, without, however, the pleasing moral characteristics attributed to the population of that un-Europeanized period by that great pioneer of English African slave-traders. But even, the civilizing work done in the settlements is not without its drawbacks.

In the African Times for January 1, 1876, the editor, after the labor of half a generation in the cause of west-African progress, opens the year with the following lament:

Lagos has grievously disappointed our hopes and expectations. She is not what she ought to be after years of annexation to the British crown. It is no cause for wonder, therefore, that she has not exercised that influence on

the heathen within her and in the neighboring
countries which we looked for from her....
The professed Christians of Lagos ought to be
a mighty phalanx against the surrounding
made any successful attack upon it.
heathenism; but we do not see that they have

Governor Berkeley, in his "Blue Book Report of the Settlement of Lagos for 1872," estimates the population of the entire settlement at 60,221, out of which there

were only 92 whites; and he adds:

This settlement contributes nothing towards the promotion of religion or education. The Society, and the Roman Catholics are all Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan represented in the shape of ministers, churches, and schools.†

Church Missionary Intelligencer, August 1875. † Papers Relating to her Majesty's Colonial Possessions. Part I. 1874, p. 138.