An effort strictly to control the sale of intoxicating liquors to natives lapsed owing to the strong opposition of Germany and Holland, though a weaker motion on the same all-important matter found acceptance (December 22).  On January 7, 1885, the Conference passed a stringent declaration against the slave-trade:—­“. . . these regions shall not be used as markets or routes of transit for the trade in slaves, no matter of what race.  Each of these Powers binds itself to use all the means at its disposal to put an end to this trade, and to punish those engaged in it.”

The month of February saw the settlement of the boundary claims with France and Portugal, on bases nearly the same as those still existing.  The Congo Association gained the northern bank of the river at its mouth, but ceded to Portugal a small strip of coast line a little further north around Kabinda.  These arrangements were, on the whole, satisfactory to the three parties.  France now definitively gained by treaty right her vast Congo territory of some 257,000 square miles in area, while Portugal retained on the south of the river a coast nearly 1000 miles in length and a dominion estimated at 351,000 square miles.  The Association, though handing over to these Powers respectively 60,000 and 45,000 square miles of land which its pioneers hoped to obtain, nevertheless secured for itself an immense territory of some 870,000 square miles.

The General Act of the Berlin Conference was signed on February 26, 1885.  Its terms and those of the Protocols prove conclusively that the governing powers assigned to the Congo Association were assigned to a neutral and international State, responsible to the Powers which gave it its existence.  In particular, Articles IV. and V. of the General Act ran as follows:—­

Merchandise imported into these regions shall remain free from import and transit dues.  The Powers reserve to themselves to determine, after the lapse of twenty years, whether this freedom of import shall be retained or not.

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.  Foreigners, without distinction, shall enjoy protection of their persons and property, as well as the right of acquiring and transferring movable and immovable possessions, and national rights and treatment in the exercise of their professions.

Before describing the growth of the Congo State, it is needful to refer to two preliminary considerations.  Firstly, it should be noted that the Berlin Conference committed the mistake of failing to devise any means for securing the observance of the principles there laid down.  Its work, considered in the abstract, was excellent.  The mere fact that representatives of the Powers could meet amicably to discuss and settle the administration of a great territory which in other