The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-02 00:00:00

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1876.
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ENGLAND AND AFRICA.

The writings of Livingstone, the discoveries
of Cameron and the researches of Stanley
have done much of late years to bring the
characteristics of the African continent pro-
minently into view. The public have been
brought acquainted with a land of immense re-
sources which require only capital.for their
development, possessing vast lakes with the
proportions of inland seas, majestic rivers,
fertile plains, smiling valleys, hill sides clothed
with verdure and mineral treasures which if
brought to the surface would rival the riches of
India or of Peru. Yet a land with all these
advantages is practically lost to the rest of the
world, being in the hands of a few savage
tribes, who as long as they can fish and shoot,
and make war upon each other, are content to
pass through life's journey without contributing,
in any sense to the universal weal. In com-
paratively few portions of it has civilization ex-
tended, although one part .of it may be well called
the cradle of civilization. Far back into remote
ages we learn of the deeds of the Eyptians, and
the enormous structures known as the Pyramids
which cast their shadows-over the laud even
unto this day, testify to the perseverance with
which the people ruled by the Pharaohs and the
Ptolemies were endowed. The Pyramids are at
least 3,000 years old, a fad which shows that,
although the African of our own time is the
most backward of all the four continents in the
march of progress, a time existed when it led
. the van and when its temples and its mOnnments
surpassed anything which Could be produced in
Europe.. There is, of .course, the Egypt of The
present time, but it is the feudatory state of the
decrepit Turkish empire, and this, as the recent
stories from Bulgaria have shown is one of the
cruellest despotisms which the history of the
world furnishes. The Egypt of to-day is not
the Egypt of thirty centuries ego. There was
another empire in Africa a long time since, an
empire which disputed the sovereignty of the
world both by land and sea, with proud and
powerful Rome, and which was at length con-
quered and destroyed by the vanquisher._ .Car-
thage was a great country long before the land-
ing of Julius Cwsar upon our shores in the sight
of the astonished Britons, long before the de-
struction of Jerusalem by Titus. Two thousand
years ago it was the seat of learning, and of
laws; one of its commanders, the famous
Hannibal, led a great army across the Alps,
twenty centuries before a similar feat was
accomplished by the great Napoleon ; and the
tone of its public life was one of rectitude and
morality. But when tho misfortunes of war
overtook it, and it could no longer contend suc-
cessfully against the Roman legions, it was
burned to the ground by order of the Senate,
which sat in the eternal city—a piece of vin-
dictiveness which recoiled upon the heals of the
Romans centuries later, when a wildly fierce
horde of rude barbarians swept down upon the
place from the North of Europe; and mankind,
as though by general consent, rose up to claim
that liberty of which it had been so long and so
unjustly deprived.
But there is another sense in which Africa
has taken a prominent position in the attention
of the public. Many will remember that thirty
or forty years ago we were accustomed to
receive intelligence more or less disquieting
from Asia. A massacre in Afrghanistan, a
rising of the Sikhs, a conflict with China, and
a mutiny in India, successively compelled us to
increase our military measures and to spend our
money. It seemed as though an ill wind were
continually blowing towards us from Asia.
Now the direction of that wind has changed,
and it has come from Africa instead. Not long
after our disputes with the Kaffirs, we were
compelled to send an army into the wilds of
Abyssinia, for the purpose of rescuing the
prisoners whom the Emperor Theodorus had
had kept so long in an unjust and cruel bondage.
Then came our lade trouble with the King of
the Ashantees, and again we were obliged to
despatch a force for the-purposes of punishing
the misdeeds of an ignorant and barbarous
potentate. One would have supposed that the
destruction of Coomassie would have taught
even African kings a lesson ; but it would
appear very much at though we were now about
to engage in one of those struggles which can
bring neither honour nor glory to a Great Power
like England. The news from the West coast
of Africa is ouin o usly like that which came
from Abyssinia nine or ten years ago. The
King of Dahomey seems to be a savage of even,
-greater ferocity than Theodore. After all, the
latter did not lay violent hands upon his cap-
tives even when Sir Robert Napier went up to
the walls of Magdala, at the head of the Brit,sh
forces; hut his Majesty of Dahomey has
threatened to massacre every white man under
, his control directly the first hostile shot is fired,
and there is every reason to fear that lie will
carry his threat into execution. The dispute
between our Government and the dusky
Soveriegn of Dahomey has resulted in a
blockade of the coast by the British naval
officer in command-, who had failed to obtain
satisfaction for the nfonareh's shortcomings.
Thereat the King seized a number of Europeans.
aud vows that he will austroy them should
hostilities begin.. The position is therefore one
of great embarrassment. Great Britain cannot
afford to lo]li as though she were afraid of the
King of Dahomey; while on the other hand
the country might well shrink from being.an
accomplice in the murder of the unhappy cap-
tives. It is likely enough that with all hi 3
blester the King of Dahomey will be overawed
by a strong demonstration of force, and that he
will count the cost of slaughtering a number of
defenceless Europeans in cold blood. e