There seems, however, to be some question whether this clause is likely to have any practical effect.  The clause is obviously inoperative if Belgium ultimately declines to take over the Congo territory, and there is at least the chance that this will happen.  If it does happen, King Leopold and the Belgian Parliament recognise the prior claim of France to all the Congolese territory.  The King and the Congo Ministers seem to have made use of this circumstance so as to strengthen the financial relations of France to their new State in several ways, notably in the formation of monopolist groups for the exploitation of Congoland.  For the present we may remark that by a clause of the Franco-Belgian Treaty of Feb. 5, 1895, the Government of Brussels declared that it “recognises the right of preference possessed by France over its Congolese possessions, in case of their compulsory alienation, in whole or in part[461].”

[Footnote 461:  Cattier, Droit et Administration de l’Etat independent du Congo, p. 82.]

Meanwhile King Leopold proceeded as if he were the absolute ruler of the new State.  He bestowed on it a constitution on the most autocratic basis.  M. Cattier, in his account of that constitution sums it up by stating that

The sovereign is the direct source of legislative, executive, and judiciary powers.  He can, if he chooses, delegate their exercise to certain functionaries, but this delegation has no other source than his will. . . .  He can issue rules, on which, so long as they last, is based the validity of certain acts by himself or by his delegates.  But he can cancel these rules whenever they appear to him troublesome, useless, or dangerous.  The organisation of justice, the composition of the army, financial systems, and industrial and commercial institutions—­all are established solely by him in accordance with his just or faulty conceptions as to their usefulness or efficiency[462].

[Footnote 462:  Cattier, op. cit. pp. 134-135.]

A natural outcome of such a line of policy was the gradual elimination of non-Belgian officials.  In July 1886 Sir Francis de Winton, Stanley’s successor in the administration of the Congo area, gave place to a Belgian “Governor-General,” M. Janssen; and similar changes were made in all grades of the service.

Meanwhile other events were occurring which enabled the officials of the Congo State greatly to modify the provisions laid down at the Berlin Conference.  These events were as follows.  For many years the Arab slave-traders had been extending their raids in easterly and south-easterly directions, until they began to desolate the parts of the Congo State nearest to the great lakes and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.