The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-11-17

OF the Lord Mayor, tho Bishop Of
We commend to the special attention of our
readers the interesting report which we pub
lish this morning of the speeches and proceed
ings of the recent large and influential public
meeting in the city of London with the view
to aid in the mitigation and eventually the
entire suppression of the slave trade on the
East Coast of Africa" The Lord Mayor pre-
sided on the occasion, and, after stating the
object of the meeting, he expressed his graft
fication that the government had taken up the
question and had placed it in the hands OF the
fittest man that could be found for the work
Sir Bartle Frere. He regretted, however, the
existence of that unwise treaty with the Sultan
of Zanzibar, which was disgrace to the coun-
try, from which it appears that England is by
treaty stipulations confederate in this East
African traffic and he feared that to get rid
of this unholy compact it would be necessary
to recompense the Sultan, or, in palmer terms,
to buy him off, STILL the Lord Mayor had
great hopes of the success of Sir Bartle Frere's
| mission.
The Bishop of Winchester next offered the
first resolution of the evening, to wit-"That
the same imperative duty which rested upon
Great Britain to suppress the West African
slave trade binds her to the suppression of
that on the East Coast" and in this connec-
ton the gloomy picture which he presents us
of the extent and the horrors of this abomi-
nable traffic may well be called burning shame
to England as a pioneer of Christian civiliza-
ton. The Bishop of Winchester, however,
did not confne himself to the details OF the
terrible evil, but had some remedial measures
to offer. And we concur with him in his sug-
gestion that the Sultan of Zanzibar should be
compelled to put an end to this traffic, and the
proposition of establishing the liberated slaves
in colony or colonies, under England's pro-
lection, on the Continent near Zanzibar, is a
good one In its support we may
here mention the success of the Ameri-
can colony of liberated slaves on the
West Coast, which has ripened into the pros
porous black Republic Of Liberia. When the
negro slavery system of our Southern States
was at the height Of its power, when there
appeared to be no other way Of reaching the
evil, the African Colonization Society was
formed, with Liberia as its base Of operations.
That greatest of American statesmen OF his
time, Henry Clay, was for many years the
especial guide and director Of this society, and
SO fully did he believe in its ultimate success
that he looked hopefully forward to the day
when the republic of Liberia, composed mainly
Of enlightened Christian freedmen frons the
United States, would not only furnish solu-
ton for American slavery in the increasing
removal of our blacks to Africa from year to
year, but would from it's material advantages
and moral power, be the redemption and re-
generation of the African Continent.
Mr.. Clay's ideas on this subject we can now
perceive were somewhat visionary but he
was fully up with the front rank of the philan-
thropists of his time. Indeed, so late as 1862,
and in the midst Of our Southern rebellion,
on this very question of African slavery Presi-
dent Lincoln could find nothing better to
recommend to Congress than scheme of
gradual emancipation, whereby slavery in the
United States would be abolished by the year
1900. The pressure of the war for the life of
the nation brought him to the shorter process
of his emancipation proclamation in 1863
but it was because public opinion had ripened
| to this tremendous alternative. But Mr..
Clay's African colonization scheme, as now
developed in the prosperous Independent
black Republic Of Liberia, still stands the
encouraging example to England for this pro-
posed colony or these colonies of freedmen on
the East African coast. But let us return to
this London meeting.
Mr.. II. M. Stanley, who was received with
loud and prolonged cheers, followed the
Bishop of Winchester with his text Of the
second resolution, ''that all those who desire
| to promote the abolition Of the East African
slave trade should make its enormities as
widely known as possible This was pre-
cisely the idea for Mr.. Stanley, tor he declared
that it was for this purpose he was present.
His speech upon this point is full of interest
ing facts gathered from actual observation.
Nor did he beat about the bush in reference to
England in this East African slave traffic, but
disclosed the stubborn fact, that with all its
professions of philanthropy, the English
| government had been selling slaves and
taking money for them" HE would give
the names Of persons who had taken slaves
| from ships at so much head" Of course it
would be said that this was only hiring out but
it was slavery, ''and if England wished to be
called the champion of slaves she must have
nothing to do with the accursed thing" STAN
ley, fortified by his own observations and by
the Astounding testimony of Livingstone,
''spoke as one having authority" and his
expositions Of the guilt of Her Majesty's gov
eminent in this buying and selling of the
kidnapped blacks of Central Africa made, evil
IDENTIFY, profound impression upon the men,
bers of Parliament around him.