Expedition, which stands next upon the
mournful list—but we must stop now to
account for this by a brief sketch of the
growth of popular opinion.

Even in the middle of the last century,
the iniquity of the principle had aroused
Christians here and there, of every sect, from
the Quaker to the Catholic, to preach or speak
against the trade in men. As for the soil of
England, Chief Justice Holt decided that a
negro coming into England becomes free.

The abolition of the Slave Trade had been
agitated, and it was in the same year, 1788,
from which we date the commencement of
African discovery by the formation of the
African Society, that the first bill was passed
putting a check upon the slave traffic. Sir
William Dolben's Bill, passed on the 10th of
July, in that year, enforced attention to the
health and comfort of the slaves on shipboard.

In 1792, the King of Denmark took the
lead, by formally prohibiting all Danes from
the purchase, sale, or transport of any slaves
whatever.

Exportation of slaves was prohibited by
the United States in 1794.

Importation of slaves into British Colonies
was prohibited in 1806, after a long ferment
of debate. In 1807, an Act was passed,
declaring the British trade in slaves, with
Africa, to be unlawful traffic, and imposing a
penalty of one hundred pounds for every
slave sold or removed from Africa by any
British subject.

Importation of slaves was prohibited by
the United States in the same year.

Between 1816 and 1833, decrees tending
to abolish slavery were passed in Mexico, and
in republics of Central and South America—
Guatemala, Columbia, Peru, Chili, &c.

In 1833 the great Act passed, emancipating
all the negro slaves in British Colonies and
decreeing payment of twenty millions in
compensation to the slave-owners. The
emancipated slaves remained under a five years'
apprenticeship, and became entirely their own
masters on the 1st of August, 1838. In 1843
many millions of slaves received liberty in
British India. In 1845 Sweden emancipated
all the slaves she had. France still more
recently, in 1848, and Denmark, have added
three hundred thousand to the sum of liberated
slaves. But we are to go back to the Act
of 1833.

England, since that date, has considered
herself pledged to active and unwearied labour
for the abolition of all trade in human beings
among civilised communities. We do not
sneer at her philanthropy, nor call her
championship Quixotic. It is a fit work for a
great country to set about—that is a truth
raised above discussion. But reason may be
shown for doubting whether we are quite
right in some portion of our tactics. Since
1833 England has sought to enter into treaties,
and has succeeded in obtaining treaties with
the whole of Europe, with a great part of
America, and also with native chiefs of Africa,
by which all pledge themselves to aid in the
extinction of the Slave Trade. She has done
no harm, at any rate, by that; at least, the
moral force of a vast vote of censure is brought
to bear against the wickedness.

So now we come back to the Niger Expedition
of the year 1841, a treaty-making enterprise.
This consisted of two large steamers,
the "Wilberforce" and "Albert," and a small
one, the "Soudan," with the "Amelia" tender.
The steamers were cumbered with a bulky
and useless ventilating apparatus, (Dr. D.
B. Reid fecit,) and with a variety of edifying
agricultural machines and implements for a
proposed Model Farm of the African
Civilisation Society. Mr. Carr went out, from the
society, as superintendent of this farm. After
many delays the expedition, on the 15th of
August, entered the Nun branch of the Niger.
The river was ascended to the confluence of
the Chadda, whence the "Soudan" and the
"Wilberforce," under Captain W. Allen, with
nearly all sick, returned, on the 19th of
September, to the coast. The "Albert," with
Captain Trotter and Commander Bird Allen,
pushed on as far as Egga, before turning
back. A dismal spectacle, a very plague-ship,
it was met and towed by Captain Becroft in the
"Ethiope," and as it reached the bar of the
Nun encountered the "Soudan" on the point
of entering in search of its disabled
companion. The "Amelia" had been left opposite
the Model Farm, from which the
superintendent, Mr. Carr, had come down to the sea
in search of health. Mr. Carr rashly returned,
with goods, in native canoes, and was
never again heard of—doubtless murdered in
the Delta. Lieutenant Webb re-ascended the
Niger, to remove the Model Farm, if necessary,
and found it in a state of miserable
disorganisation, in consequence of gross misconduct
of the settlers. It was removed, and so the
expedition ended. Several treaties had been made
with native chiefs, and fifty-three lives lost.

Captain Becroft has since ascended again as
far as Rabbah.

In addition to these explorations of the
Niger, adventurous trips have been made
across the country; among others, into the
dominions of the King of Dahomey, more
than once. Profiting, therefore, by the active
labours of our countrymen, we can sit by the
fireside and travel in their track. Brave and
high-minded men, zealous to substitute a
civilising commerce for a shameful traffic,
sleep in a hundred graves upon the field
whereon they battled for humanity. Youth,
genius and zeal, age and experience, the
practised traveller, the gifted young physician
on the threshold of a life all promise,—Park,
Clapperton, Lander, Bird Allen, and others,
alas! more than we may name,—lie buried
there among the palms. Surely they have
not died in vain.

It is but a sail of six weeks to the Bight or
Benin, to that part of the coast of Africa