The New York herald., 1878-03-11
stanley ana the Royal Geographical
Society.

bring the most dattering accounts OF the
triumphal progress of Mr.. Stanley in Eng
land. The action Of the Royal Geograph-
ical Society, which has carried its recog-
nition of the services rendered by the dis
tinguished explorer to point which, in SO
staid and potential body, is very nearly
akin to enthusiasm, is the last laurel on Mr..
Stanley's brows, and one wherewith he may
well be content. Under the fostering care
of the British government, and extending,
as it did, its welcome to him through the
mouth of the heir to the British throne, the
Geographical Society has rendered the
highest tribute in it's power to the gallantry,
perseverance, and indomitable courage
which have carried the reporter-explorer
through his perilous enterprise in safety.
In SO doing it is pleasant to reflect that
Great Britain, through ono channel of SUI
preme authority, has covered over with its
approval the stigma which Great Britain,
through another channel of almost equal
authority, sought to attach to Stanley's
name.
1t is not so very long ago that the Anti
Slavery and Aborigines' Protection societies
of England, moved to holy horror by the
reports which reached them concerning the
efficacious use made Of certain elephant
rifle in Central Africa, memorialized the
Foreign Office, soliciting the suppression OF
the modern methods of exploration. These
good people, with that warm philanthropy
whose chief Characteristic seems to be an
inability to see more than one side Of any
object in the field of view, even went so far
as to propose the suppression OF the ex-
plorer himself ~ sought he not" they
asked, 'sto be sent back under our flag
1.-THE British -fag]to the village of Kagusi,
and there, in presence Of the people whom
he has so grossly outraged, hanged with
impartial justice, as other murderers are, his
goods and chattels put up to auction and
the proceeds OF the sale distributed among
the orphans and widows that weep on the
bloody slopes Of the once peaceful and con-
tented island Of Bambireh?"
Unfortunately, however, for the realiza-
ton Of this touching and truly dramatic
scheme, the British Premier was confronted
with the stubborn facts that Stanley was
not British subject, and that, as it did not
suit the interests of his government to claim
Jurisdiction over that particular part Of the
heathen world at that particular time, the
acts complained of were to be regarded as
committed outside of British territory.
That these facts were an unanswerable ar-
gument as against the memorialists is
- 1,,k hat <1,a,, cks
tuted sufficient warrant for officially lay
ing the complaint before the United States
government is not. to put it mildly, point
demonstrable by any known system Of
logic. Yet this was done, and the advisable
ity of suppressing something or somebody
Nwas vaguely limited at as an international
duty incumbent upon somebody. The
argument failed to convince our own Pre-
mier, who, in the genial and precise
manner which SO distinguishes his style,
and in which there have been
discovered traces Of irony by those who
thought themselves harder hit than they
really were, called attention to the circum-
stance that Mr.. Stanley's expedition was a
private enterprise, in which that distin-
guished journalist reported and interviewed
the native anthropophagi in the interest of
British journal, as well as of an American
one, and that the advance of civilization
had, even in Africa, before now, been
marked by the extinction Of native interests
on a larger and more effective scale than
Stanley's.
ho1 oko
in which dropping became expedient, did
DROP or was suffered to drop. 1t is pathetic
to think of the interesting spectacle OF
which the African world was thus deprived.
The dream OF the Aboriginal Protectionist
has not been realized. The enterprisine
journalist under two flags does not decorate
an impromptu gibbet in the presence of the
people Of Kagusi. The resident Kagusiar
auctioneer has not walled the melancholy
s'going, going gomez over the goods and
chattels of the pendant explorer There
has been no exciting competition on the
bloody slopes Of the once peaceful and con
tented island of Bambireh for the acquisi.
ton of that elephant rifle which, with its
explosive bullets and o proper contingent
of powder, would have been q cheap ex.
change for tons Of cowries, stacks of poisoned
arrows and no end of superannuated
although still edible ancestors, with, per.
haps, q toothsome Aboriginal Protectionist
or two thrown in by way of white sauce.
What might have been is not and the "man
with long red hair down to his shoulders,
white face and big red eyes," to borrow
King Kroma's excited description Of him.
| will doubtless remain for the budding
Bambirehers an effective local bugaboo
The aborigines of Kagusi and London can
not, however, cease to regard Stanley as
dangerous innovator, who has ruthlessly
broken through the traditionary mode OF ne
gotiation with well disposed anthropophagi
80 admirably initiated by Captain Cook ant