[Footnote 464:  Stanley, In Darkest Africa, vol. i. pp. 60-70.]

[Footnote 465:  The Fall of the Congo Arabs, by Capt.  S.L.  Hinde (London, 1897).]

Such, however, was not the view taken at the time.  Not long before, the Continent had rung with the sermons and speeches of Cardinal Lavigerie, Bishop of Algiers, who, like a second Peter the Hermit, called all Christians to unite in a great crusade for the extirpation of slavery.  The outcome of it all was the meeting of an Anti-Slavery Conference at Brussels, at the close of 1889, in which the Powers that had framed the Berlin Act again took part.  The second article passed at Brussels asserted among other things the duties of the Powers “in giving aid to commercial enterprises to watch over their legality, controlling especially the contracts for service entered into with natives.”  The abuses in the trade in firearms were to be carefully checked and controlled.

Towards the close of the Conference a proposal was brought forward (May 10, 1890) to the effect that, as the suppression of the slave-trade and the work of upraising the natives would entail great expense, it was desirable to annul the clause in the Berlin Act prohibiting the imposition of import duties for, at least, twenty years from that date (that is, up to the year 1905).  The proposal seemed so plausible as to disarm the opposition of all the Powers, except Holland, which strongly protested against the change.  Lord Salisbury’s Government neglected to safeguard British interests in this matter; and, despite the unremitting opposition of the Dutch Government, the obnoxious change was finally registered on January 2, 1892, it being understood that the duties were not to exceed 10 per cent ad valorem except in the case of spirituous liquors, and that no differential treatment would be accorded to the imports of any nation or nations.

Thus the European Powers, yielding to the specious plea that they must grant the Congo Free State the power of levying customs dues in order to further its philanthropic aims, gave up one of the fundamentals agreed on at the Berlin Conference.  The raison d’etre of the Congo Free State was, that it stood for freedom of trade in that great area; and to sign away one of the birthrights of modern civilisation, owing to the plea of a temporary want of cash in Congoland, can only be described as the act of a political Esau.  The General Act of the Brussels Conference received a provisional sanction (the clause respecting customs dues not yet being definitively settled) on July 2, 1890[466].

[Footnote 466:  On August 1, 1890, the Sultan of Zanzibar declared that no sale of slaves should thenceforth take place in his dominions.  He also granted to slaves the right of appeal to him in case they were cruelly treated.  See Parl.  Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1890-91).]