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 MANCHESTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 
 
 SPECIAL MEETING OP MEMBERS, HELD ON. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21st, 1884, 
 
 IN THE LARGE ROOM OF THE TOWN HALL, 
 
 ALBERT SQUARE, MANCHESTER. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 MR. H. M. STANLEY, 
 
 ON 
 
 ENGLAND AND THE CONGO AND MANCHESTER TRADE, AND 
 
 THE WORK AND AIMS OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS, REPRINTED FROM THE MANCHESTER PAPERS. 
 
 MANCHESTER: A. IRELAND AND CO., PRINTERS, PALL MALL. 
 
 1884.
 
 CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 
 
 Meeting at Town Hall, October 21st, 1884. 
 
 MR. H. M. STANLEY, who arrived in Manchester on 
 Monday afternoon on a visit to Mr. J. F. Hutton, presi- 
 dent of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, met a large 
 gathering of members of the Chamber of Commerce in the 
 public room at the Town Hall yesterday afternoon. Mr. 
 Hutton took the chair, having Mr. Stanley in the seat of 
 honour on his right. There were upon the platform 
 Genl. Sir F. Goldsmid, Jacob Bright, M.P., John Slagg, M.P., 
 W. H. Houldsworth, M.P., B. Armitage, M.P., F. W. Grafton, 
 M.P., H. Lee, M.P., Mitchell Henry, M.P., the Dean of Man- 
 chester, the Mayor of Salford, Col. Paris, president of the 
 Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool, the Directors of the 
 Chamber, Sir J. C. Lee, the Bishop of Salford, Mr. Robert 
 Leake, M.P., Mr. W. Agnew, M.P., Mr. Heury Dunckley, 
 Mr. Alderman Hopkinson, and other gentlemen. Mr. Stanley 
 was warmly welcomed on entering the room, and when he 
 rose to deliver his address the audience rose and cheered 
 him heartilv. 
 
 The President, in introducing Mr. Stanley, said : Ten 
 years have not yet elapsed since the west half of the great 
 African continent was one of the great unsolved geographical 
 problems of the day. It was our great countryman Living- 
 stone — (cheers) — who in his efforts to discover the sources of 
 the Nile came on the banks of the Congo, and in his attempts 
 to solve that great mystery he fell a victim to science. 
 Our guest to-day, Mr. Stanley — (cheers) — felt it his duty to
 
 follow up the work of Livingstone ; and it was soon after the 
 placing of our countryman in the grave in Westminster 
 Abbey that Mr. Stanley was filled with enthusiasm and 
 inspired with determination to complete the great work 
 which Livingstone had undertaken. (Cheers.) His words to 
 the magnanimous proprietor of the Daily Telegraph were : 
 "If I survive the time required to perform all the work, 
 all shall be done." We know how well it was done, and that 
 it was not done without very anxious thought, and without 
 the very greatest peril and the direst suffering man can 
 endure. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Stanley counted what it would 
 cost him. It was on a memorable night just this day eight 
 years back when, after he had been travelling just upon two 
 years through that vast continent, he arrived on the banks 
 of the Congo at Nyangwe with the last survivor of his faithful 
 European companions. He said to Frank Pocock these words : 
 "Hunger, disease, savage hostility may crush us; perhaps 
 the difficulties may daunt us, but our hopes run high, our 
 purpose is lofty ; in the name of God let us set on. As He 
 pleases, so let Him rule our destinies." Sense of duty 
 carried Stanley on with his faithful companions. God did 
 rule over his destinies ; He not only brought him back to 
 tell us the tale of his momentous and perilous journey, but 
 He has enabled him to return and to establish peaceful 
 intercourse with those vast tribes in the interior of Africa 
 who were hostile to him when he descended that great river. 
 (Cheers.) That enlightened and noble sovereign the King of 
 the Belgians — (cheers) — knew well how to understand and to 
 appreciate the great value of that wonderful discovery of Mr. 
 Stanley on the Congo. It was his unbounded liberality, his 
 earnest devotion, which enabled Stanley to return and 
 revisit those people and to introduce civilisation, and 
 to plant commerce amongst those millions of Africans in the 
 heart of that hitherto unknown continent. Mr. Stanley is 
 here to-day to tell us what he has accomplished. He is here 
 to tell us that these millions on the banks of the Congo are 
 eager for our trade; he is here also to show us how the freedom 
 
 funjc't
 
 of these Africans may be maintained, and how the complete 
 freedom of commerce of all countries may be established, 
 and how all customs houses and all vexatious restrictions 
 and impediments to trade may be utterly abolished and 
 swept away from the banks of the Congo. (Cheers.) It 
 requires no words from me to introduce Mr. Stanley to 
 you. He will tell his own tale. We in Manchester 
 will be always grateful to him for the great benefits he 
 has conferred on the industries of this country. (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Stanley, who was loudly cheered on rising, said : I 
 have hesitated somewhat as to the nature and character of 
 this address before the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. 
 I had once thought that it would have been well to lay before 
 you a little of the past history of the Congo regions, a little 
 of the geography, and a little stimulating picture of the 
 future of the wide valley in which I have laboured for the 
 last five and a half years ; but when I reflect on certain 
 things, I am impressed with the fact that by this time you 
 are well acquainted with the past history and geography of 
 the Congo regions, and that perhaps a matter of fact address 
 on things in general relating to the Congo would be more 
 suitable for you, especially if it were pregnant with facts and 
 figures by which you might possibly divine your present 
 and future interest in it. Many of you, no doubt, have 
 subscribed to the London Chamber of Commerce Journal, 
 and have obtained a full copy of the lecture I lately delivered 
 there, and know that the Congo River was discovered 
 by a Portuguese navigator 400 years ago. You ought 
 to know, also, that nothing was ever done by the Portuguese 
 to make a public declaration of their rights, except putting 
 up a stone pillar at Shark's Point to commemorate the 
 discovery ; that the Dutch pulled it down once, and that in 
 1856 it was set upright again by the Portuguese. In 
 August, 1877, when I first sighted the Lower Congo, after 
 crossing Africa, there was a population of 19 Europeans, 
 Consisting of two English, two Dutchmen, one Belgian, one 
 German, one Frenchman, and 12 Portuguese clerks at Boma.
 
 6 
 
 There are now about 40 Europeans altogether. Between 
 Boma and Viva, in 1877, there were four Europeans, two of 
 whom were Portuguese clerks. There are now 63 Europeans. 
 Below Boma there are about 60, and the total number of 
 Europeans on the Lower Congo is now 163, apportioned 
 among the various nations nearly as follows : Twenty-four 
 Dutch, 25 English, one Italian, six Germans, twelve Swedes, 
 22 Belgians, eight French, and 67 Portuguese. Above Vivi, 
 on the Upper Congo, are 29 English, four Germans, nine 
 Swedes, 14 Belgians, 11 French, one Austrian, one American, 
 and one Pole ; total, 70 Europeans. All the Europeans on 
 the Congo, Upper and Lower, number 233, divided as follows: 
 67 Portuguese, 54 English, 36 Belgians, 24 Dutch, 21 Swedes, 
 19 French, 10 Germans, one Italian, one Austrian, one 
 American, one Pole. 
 
 The European population on the Congo has been quin- 
 tupled since 1877, and there are now 166 Europeans of all 
 nationalities as against 67 Portuguese, clerks, pilots, peanut 
 measurers, engineers, ranchmen, and bookkeepers.. Yet, as 
 you know, both banks of the Lower Congo are claimed by 
 Portugal. Between the river Loje and south latitude 5° 12, 
 is a coast line 168 miles in length, about the middle of which 
 is the mouth of the Congo, with a breadth of seven miles and 
 a depth of 1,312 feet. This is also claimed by Portugal, 
 though, excepting the first discovery of the coast, in 1484, 
 she has done nothing whatever towards establishing her 
 right to recognition. Trading establishments are found at 
 Landana, Kabinda, Mokulla, Ambrizette, Muserra, and 
 Kinsembo, which belong principally to Hatton and Cookson 
 (English), J. M'Farlane (English), Taylor, Logland, and 
 Company (English), Congo and Central African Company 
 (English), Stewart and Douglas (English), A. Conquy Aine* 
 (French), Daumas, Beraud, and Company (French), and 
 some half-dozen modest Portuguese houses. The length of 
 this coast line just mentioned is 168 miles, the navigable 
 part of the Lower Congo is 110 miles ; and whereas Portugal — 
 though incessantly and clamorously claiming it — cannot
 
 demand customs, &c, for fees, nor municipal taxes, a trade 
 of the value of £2,800,000 per annum has grown up. There 
 is an elastic and healthy tone in the trade, and this will 
 continue naturally provided no Power levies customs. By 
 arrangements with the natives the traders pay already about 
 six per cent ad valorem, so that any demand made by 
 a foreign Power upon the pockets of the traders is peculiarly 
 iniquitous on the Congo. A foreign Power may be very ready 
 and willing to build custom houses, and collect customs from 
 the traders, but there is a strong doubt that they would relieve 
 the traders from the customs already collected by the native 
 chiefs. It is just possible that if the native chiefs attacked the 
 traders for withholding the usual customs, the Power estab- 
 lished might be able to protect the traders from bodily 
 destruction, but would they be willing to indemnify the traders 
 for the loss of their trade? So long as the native chiefs 
 receive regularly their customs dues, so long will trade 
 flourish ; but if another Power will establish itself, and not 
 relieve the trader from the native customs, then the trader 
 is compelled to pay double customs, and the profits of his 
 trade will not permit of this, owing to the fierce competition 
 that has been excited on the Congo. He is injured if not 
 ruined in any case. But should this European Power 
 happen to be Portugal, the traders will be first charged a 
 maximum 10 per cent ad valorem, which shall be said 
 to be inclusive of all charges. The Portuguese will then 
 declare Banana Point, Boma-Mussuko, and Nokki, munici- 
 palities ; and, as in the case of Ambriz, when they solemnly 
 promised not to increase the duties beyond 6 per cent, they 
 will probably charge 10 per cent income tax, 6 per cent 
 house duty, 10 per cent property tax, and 6 per cent transfer 
 of property. Remember they break no treaty engagements 
 if they charge the traders such duties, and if the fees to 
 custom-house officers, which traders will be most certainly 
 compelled to pay, amount to another 6 per cent ad valorem, 
 in addition to the 42 per cent just mentioned, there will be 
 no treaty engagements broken, but the elasticity and mental
 
 8 
 
 reservation of Portuguese promises will only have been 
 signally illustrated and demonstrated anew. (Cheers.) 
 
 Let us look at the list of imports which a single house on 
 the Congo received in 1879 : Value of cotton and flannel 
 goods (English), £138,000; sundries (English), £21,000; 
 gunpowder (English), £6,000; brass rods, rings (English), 
 £15,000; metal pots, pans, cutlery (English), £5,000; 
 American cotton piece goods, £52,000 ; rum, gin (Germany), 
 £36,000; tobacco (American), £14,400; total, £287,400, out 
 of which nearly three-fourths are imports from England. I 
 presume that you will not deny that this is a fair criterion 
 for the imports received by other houses, especially if they 
 are English, so that if the imports last year amounted to 
 £884,000, then nearly £660,000 worth of goods came from 
 England. In my lists of imports I do not see that anything 
 is received from Portugal except Portuguese table wine for 
 the use of the white employes on the Congo. 
 
 There may be some ardent Liberals here present this 
 evening who may be disposed to think that in criticising the 
 Anglo-Portuguese Treaty I am adverse to the Government. 
 Please abandon all such idea. I think Lord Granville has 
 written the ideas of the International Association, English, 
 European, and American merchants in his letters to the 
 Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs as clearly as though 
 they had all met for the purpose of embodying their views 
 in a report to the Government. 
 
 Mr. Stanley, after quoting from letters from the Foreign 
 Office, dated December, 1882, and January and March, 1883, 
 continued : I have read sufficiently from Lord Granville's 
 letters to prove to you that the views of Her Majesty's 
 Government coincided at the outset with such views as 
 might have been advanced by a commercial body connected 
 with the International Association. They could not have been 
 expressed better, nor could terms so applicable to extension 
 of commerce and expansion of civilisation been more happily 
 selected ; but what we have to regret is that such sentiments 
 produced such a vague, and unsatisfactory, and elastic treaty
 
 with Portugal, by which, at any time, by a stroke of the pen, 
 Portugal might utterly crush commercial enterprise, strangle 
 philanthropy, and drive the International Association 
 violently out of their chosen field of labour. (Cheers.) 
 
 That this is not an exaggerated picture let me quote the 
 explanations of the Portuguese Minister to the Portuguese 
 Parliament, March 10th, 1884 : " The limit of our occupation 
 is Nokki ; on the sea coast and on the banks of the river our 
 frontiers will be those of the tribes who own those territories; 
 but, nevertheless, no actual limitation will have the effect of 
 hindering the future extension of the Portuguese dominion 
 to any territories susceptible of annexation." Which meant, 
 of course, that, having secured the Lower Congo, Portugal 
 would soon show that as fast as the country would be developed 
 and worth taking she could annex as much territory as she 
 desired ; since it was only necessary for the river tribes at 
 Nokki to claim the country up to Stanley Pool to make it 
 rightfully Portuguese. 
 
 March 27th, 1884, Lord Granville is informed by telegraph 
 from Lisbon that a maximum of ten per cent duty for the 
 Congo on cotton and other articles, except tobacco, guns, 
 brandy, and gunpowder, is accepted by the Portuguese 
 Government. On March 31st the English Minister explains 
 to his agent at Lisbon that the Mozambique tariff is extor- 
 tionate, that cottons according to that tariff, which had been 
 represented as liberal, would be chargeable to a duty ranging 
 from 17 to 40 per cent, and that the duty of Kaffir hoes 
 ranged up to 60 per cent. 
 
 Let me put the view of a Congo merchant, as written 
 April 5th, 1884. " If I ship a lot of earthenware to Angola 
 this may cost some £50. Now everyone will think that if 
 the new treaty will get ratified I will have to pay for duty 
 £5, being 10 per cent of the costing price ; but this is not the 
 opinion of the Portuguese officials. They do not admit my 
 assurance that this £50 is the price which I had to pay for 
 the lot, but prefer to make out the value for themselves, and 
 so find that this lot is worth, besides the original price £50,
 
 10 
 
 the cost of insurance and freight and packing, say £30 more, 
 and 20 per cent profit, say in all £96, so that the duty of 10 
 per cent has become in the hands of the Portuguese an 
 impost 19J per cent, £9. 12s. on the original costing price. 
 This is the manner of Portuguese calculating in Angola, as 
 it will be on the Congo without a shadow of doubt." 
 
 The imports into Portugal from her African colonies in 
 1880 amounted to £150,964, and exports to there £390,840. 
 As manufacturers of cotton fabrics very much desired by 
 Africans, it will not be denied by any of you here I hope that 
 this new field opened, or being opened, to the world in such 
 a unique manner by the International African Association 
 deserves your sober consideration and zealous watching. It 
 depends very much upon the way you, and others like you, 
 look at the work going on. One of my objects in complying 
 with your request to speak before you was to point out what 
 interests you especially had on the Congo, and this I take to be 
 a modest and reasonable one ; and, while you are learning how 
 and wherefore you have any interests in the Congo region, 
 pray do not let your minds wander in search of divining what 
 other motives I may have, but fasten your earnest attention 
 on how the Congo interests your city and its people. (Hear, 
 hear.) 
 
 The total area of English square miles of the Portuguese 
 colonies is 697,335, and the total Portuguese trade for that 
 area in 1880 was £541,804. This area and trade includes 
 Cape Verde Islands, Bissao, Prince and St. Thomas's Island, 
 Ajuda, Angola, Benguela, Mossamedes, Mozambique, and 
 dependencies. The length of African coast line between 
 S. lat. 8° and 5° 12' claimed by Portugal is 68 miles, and the 
 depth of country inland may be estimated, say, 110 miles ; 
 and if we multiply the length by the depth we find an area 
 of 18,480 square miles. But because this is free and 
 independent it has a trade of £2,800,000. As I have shown 
 that £660,000 of the imports into this country come from 
 England, then, according to the tariff of Mozambique, British 
 traders would have to pay duties to the Portuguese as a result
 
 11 
 
 of their enterprise of £198,000 annually ; but, supposing that 
 it were possible to reduce this duty to an absolute 10 per cent, 
 it is £66,000, which is quite too large a royalty to pay for 
 ever because one of her naval captains sighted the Congo 
 first 400 years ago. (Cheers.) It must not be forgotten that 
 this sum must be in addition to the sum of £39,600 paid 
 annually to native chiefs, which must be paid, otherwise there 
 will be no trade at all. 
 
 I have proved that the claims of Portugal to the Congo 
 are not, and never have been, recognised by Her Majesty's 
 Government ; and in my address to the London Chamber of 
 Commerce I disputed by historical proofs such rights. They 
 must therefore be considered null and void; and her presumed 
 rights would never have been worthy of consideration had not 
 the Anglo -Portuguese Treaty compelled us to consider the 
 manner in which Portugal came to be connected with the 
 Congo. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 A Portuguese gentleman, writing to me from Lisbon, 
 19th September, 1884, after the delivery of my address, 
 states : " After such a shameful carelessness of centuries in 
 regard to the Congo territories, I am compelled painfully to 
 admit that Portugal is of too poor blood and too indifferent 
 to progress to have the Congo. She should be more prudent 
 in her ambition, and to save herself from shame and pitiful 
 disaster and ruin should abandon all right to it." 
 
 There is not one manufacturer here present who could 
 not tell me if he had the opportunity how much he personally 
 suffered through the slackness of trade ; and I dare say that 
 you have all some vague idea that if things remain as they 
 are the future of the cotton manufacture is not very brilliant. 
 New inventions are continually cropping up, so that your 
 power of producing, if stimulated, is almost incalculable ; 
 but new markets for the sale of your products are not 
 of rapid growth, and as other nations, by prohibitive tariffs, 
 are bent upon fostering native manufactures to the exclusion 
 of your own, such markets as are now open to you are 
 likely to be taken away from you in course of time. Well,
 
 12 ' 
 
 then, I come to you with at least one market where 
 there are at present, perhaps, 6,250,000 yards of cheap 
 cottons sold every year on the Congo banks and in the 
 Congo markets. 
 
 I was interested the other day in making a curious 
 calculation, which was, supposing that all the inhabitants of 
 the Congo basin were simply to have one Sunday dress each, 
 how many yards of Manchester cloth would be required ; 
 and the amazing number was 320,000,000 yards, just for one 
 Sunday dress ! (Cheers.) Proceeding still further with 
 these figures I found that two Sunday dresses and four every- 
 day dresses would in one year amount to 3,840,000,000 yards, 
 which at 2d. per yard would be of the value of £16,000,000. 
 The more I pondered upon these things I discovered that I 
 could not limit these stores of cotton cloth to day dresses. 
 I would have to provide for night dresses also — (laughter) — 
 and these would consume 160,000,000 yards. (Cheers.) 
 Then the grave cloths came into mind, aud, as a poor lunatic, 
 who burned Bolobo Station, destroyed 30,000 yards of cloth 
 in order that he should not be cheated out of a respectable 
 burial, I really feared for a time that the millions would get 
 beyond measurable calculation. However, putting such 
 accidents aside, I estimate that, if my figures of population 
 are approximately correct, 2,000,000 die every year, and to 
 bury these decently, and according to the custom of those 
 who possess cloth, 16,000,000 yards will be required, while 
 the 40,000 chiefs will require an average of 100 yards each, 
 or 4,000,000 yards. I regarded these figures with great 
 satisfaction, and I was about to close my remarks upon the 
 millions of yards of cloth that Manchester would perhaps be 
 required to produce when I discovered that I had neglected 
 to provide for the family wardrobe or currency chest, for 
 you must know that in the Lower Congo there is scarcely a 
 family that has not a cloth fund of about a dozen pieces of 
 about 24 yards each. This is a very important institution, 
 otherwise how are the family necessities to be provided for ? 
 How are the fathers and mothers of families to go to market
 
 13 
 
 to buy greens, bread, oil, ground nuts, chickens, fish, and 
 goats, and how is the petty trade to be conducted ? How is 
 ivory to be purchased, the gums, rubber, dye powders, gun- 
 powder, copper slugs, guns, trinkets, knives, and swords to be 
 bought without a supply of cloth ? Now, 8,000,000 families 
 at 300 yards each will require 2,400,000,000. (Cheers.) 
 You all know how perishable such currency must be ; 
 but if you sum up these several millions of yards, and 
 value all of them at the average price of 2d. per yard, 
 you will find that it will be possible for Manchester to create 
 a trade — in the course of time — in cottons in the Congo 
 basin amounting in value to about £26,000,000 annually. 
 (Loud cheers.) I have said nothing about Rochdale 
 savelist, or your own superior prints, your gorgeous handker- 
 chiefs, with their variegated patterns, your checks and striped 
 cloths, your ticking and twills. I must satisfy myself with 
 suggesting them ; your own imaginations will no doubt carry 
 you to the limbo of immeasurable and incalculable millions. 
 (Laughter and cheers.) 
 
 Now, if your sympathy for yourselves and the fate of 
 Manchester has been excited sufficiently, your next natural 
 question would be as follows : We acknowledge, sir, that you 
 have contrived by an artful array of imposing millions to 
 excite our attention, at least, to this field ; but we beg to 
 ask you what Manchester is to do in order that we may begin 
 realising this sale of untold millions of yards of cotton cloth? 
 I answer that the first thing to do is for you to ask the 
 British Government to send a cruiser to the mouth of the 
 Congo to keep watch and ward over that river until the 
 European nations have agreed among themselves as to what 
 shall be done with the river, lest one of these days you will 
 hear that it is too late. (Hear, hear.) Secondly, to study 
 whether, seeing that it will never do to permit Portugal to 
 assume sovereignty over that river — and England publicly 
 disclaims any wish to possess that river for herself-— it would 
 not be as well to allow the International Association to act 
 as guardians of international right to free trade and free
 
 14 
 
 entrance and exit into and out of the river. (Hear, hear.) 
 The main point, remember, always is a guarantee that the 
 lower river shall be free, that, however, the Upper Congo 
 may be developed, no Power, inspired by cupidity, shall seize 
 upon the mouth of the river and build custom houses. (Hear, 
 hear.) The Lower Congo in the future will only be valuable 
 because down its waters will have to be floated the produce of 
 the rich basin above to the ocean steamships. It will always 
 have a fair trade of its own, but it bears no proportion to the 
 almost limitless trade that the Upper Congo could furnish. 
 If the Association could be assured that the road from 
 Europe to Vivi was for ever free, the first steps to realise 
 the sale of those countless millions of yards of cotton cloth 
 would be taken. Over six millions of yards are now used 
 annually; but we have no means of absorbing more, owing 
 to the difficulties of transport. Every man capable and 
 willing to carry a load is employed. When human power 
 was discovered to be not further available we tested animal 
 power and discovered it to be feebler and more costly than 
 the other ; and we have come to the conclusion that steam 
 power must now assist us or we remain in statu quo. But 
 before having recourse to this steam power, and building the 
 iron road along which your bales of cotton fabrics may roll 
 on to the absorbing markets of the Upper Congo unceasingly, 
 the Association pauses to ask you, and the peoples of other 
 English cities, such as London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Bir- 
 mingham, Leeds, Preston, Sheffield, who profess to under- 
 stand the importance of the work we have been doing, and 
 the absorbing power of those markets we' have reached, 
 what help you will render us, for your own sakes, to make 
 those markets accessible ? (Hear, hear.) The Association 
 will not build that railway to the Upper Congo, nor invest 
 one piece of sterling gold in it, unless they are assured they 
 will not be robbed of it, and the Lower Congo will be placed 
 under some flag that shall be a guarantee to all the world 
 that its waters and banks are absolutely free. (Cheers.) 
 You will agree with me, I am ( sure, that trade ought
 
 15 
 
 to expand and commerce grow, and if we can coax it into 
 mature growth in this Congo basin that it would be a praise- 
 worthy achievement, honoured by men and gods ; for out of 
 this trade, this intercourse caused by peaceful barter, proceed 
 all those blessings which you and I enjoy. The more trade 
 thrives, the more benefits to mankind are multipled, and 
 nearer to gods do men become. (Hear, hear.) The builders 
 of railroads through wildernesses generally require large con- 
 cessions of lands ; but the proposed builders of this railway 
 to connect the Lower with the Upper Congo do not ask for 
 any landed concessions ; but they ask for a concession of 
 authority over the Lower Congo in order that the beneficent 
 policy which directs the civilising work on the Upper Congo 
 may be extended to the Lower River, and that the mode of 
 government and action may be uniform throughout. The 
 beneficent policy referred to is explained in the treaty made 
 and concluded with the United States Government. That 
 treaty says: "That with the object of enabling civilisation 
 and commerce to penetrate into Equatorial Africa the Free 
 States of the Congo have resolved to levy no customs duties 
 whatever. The Free States also guarantee to all men who 
 establish themselves in their territories the right of purchas- 
 ing, selling, or leasing any land and buildings, of creating 
 factories and of trade on the sole condition that they conform 
 to the law. The International Association of the Congo 
 is prepared to enter into engagements with other nations 
 who desire to secure the free admission of their products 
 on the same terms as those agreed upon with the United 
 States." 
 
 Here you have in brief the whole policy. I might end 
 here, satisfied with having reminded you of these facts, which 
 probably you had forgotten. Obedience to the laws — that is, 
 laws drawn for protection of all — the common law of all 
 civilised communities, without which men would soon become 
 demoralised. Can anybody object to that condition ? Pro- 
 bably many of you here recollect reading those interesting 
 letters from the Congo which were written by an English
 
 16 
 
 clerk in charge of an English factory. They ended with the 
 cry of "Let us alone." In few words he meant to say, "We 
 are doing very well as we are, we do not wish to be protected, 
 and least of all taxed — therefore, let us alone. Our customers, 
 the natives, are satisfied with us. The native chiefs are 
 friendly and in accord with us ; the disturbances, if any 
 occur, are local ; they are not general, and they right them- 
 selves quickly enough, for the trader cannot exist here if he 
 is not just and kind in his dealings. The obstreperous and 
 violent white is left to himself and ruin. Therefore, let us 
 alone." Most heartily do I echo this cry ; but unfortunately 
 the European nations will not heed this cry ; they think that 
 some mode of government is necessary to curb those inclined 
 to be refractory, and if there is at present a necessity to exhibit 
 judicial power and to restrict evil-minded and ill-conditioned 
 whites, as the Congo basin becomes more and more populated 
 this necessity will be still more apparent. At the same time, 
 if power appears on the Congo with an arbitrary and unfeeling 
 front — with a disposition to tax and levy burdensome tariffs 
 just as trade begins to be established — the outlook for enter- 
 prise becomes dismal and dark indeed. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 While I sympathise with the traders' cry of " Let us alone," 
 I also agree with the European governments that the time 
 has arrived, or will shortly arrive, to put this lower river 
 under some control ; and I suggest the International Associa- 
 tion, as it is at present called, as the best and most tolerant 
 form of government for the traders, which is best to their 
 trading interests, and solves the riddle without clashing with 
 any foregone or preconceived ideas of the various European 
 Powers. In this offer of the Association the traders have 
 more freedom, exemption from customs, and less restrictions 
 from meddlesome officials and a road furnished them to the 
 interior to extend their operations freely. Here is an Associa- 
 tion with a government under whose flag every nation may 
 compete for the trade of the Congo basin without detriment 
 to its dignity or exciting envy, a government whose object is 
 to encourage trade to follow in its steps along those avenues it
 
 17 
 
 creates for its conveniences. It builds the steamers and 
 places them on the lower river; it soothes the native 
 mind, and builds the railroad to bring the trader to the 
 upper river ; it builds the stations along the course of the 
 railroad, where the trader may step down, erect his 
 shop, and begin trading without fear of beng severed 
 from civilisation, and while he prosecutes his business 
 secures his protection ; or it takes him to Stanley Pool, 
 whence he may ascend the river ; and either settle on the 
 south side or on the north side of the Upper Congo and 
 exchange his stores for the valuable products to be obtained 
 there, which may be shipped at regular intervals, via river, 
 steamboat, overland rail, and ocean steamer, to England. This 
 Associatiou offers to be the pioneer. It is a reversal of the 
 ancient order of things. Governments generally waited until 
 there was property worth annexing, until people had become 
 established, got numerous and rich ; but this Association 
 sought some long-neglected field no one ventured into, where 
 it might show what it could do. The Association found this 
 forgotten patch of Africa, whom no one then claimed > it built 
 43 stations along the proposed commercial lane into Africa; 
 it manned them with officers and men ; and by this time 
 the railway plant would have been shipped, and engineers 
 and their forces of navvies would have been at work, had it 
 not been for this unfortunate Portuguese ambition. 
 
 The spirit of this proposed government is free trade, free 
 commerce, unrestricted enterprise, self-supported arbitration 
 on all subjects likely to provoke misunderstandings between 
 man and man, impartial adjudication on all points between 
 subjects, irrespective of colour, creed, or nationality; paternal 
 care of each of its subjects' rights, whether black or white, 
 irrespective of rank or social status; encouragement of all 
 enterprise likely to promote the wellbeing of the State ; 
 abstention from interference in domestic and private matters 
 where the public welfare is unconcerned ; in short, a govern- 
 ment paternal, just, discreet, calculated to promote happiness 
 and contentment. (Cheers.)
 
 18 
 
 The proposed government has the power to do all this 
 and more, because it has already a revenue secured to it by 
 a large fund devoted specially for this philanthropic work, 
 and declares at the outset that no customs duties will be 
 collected on any article brought to the Lower Congo. The 
 new State has an endowment fund by which it is supported 
 until it is well nigh matured and becomes fixed and stable, 
 when it will be necessary, as its needs become more 
 numerous, to contribute to this endowment fund for its own 
 protection. 
 
 The new State, as soon as it is properly recognised, will 
 start into being with a full and bounteous treasury ; it 
 has already existed some three years or more. The little 
 townships are all in order with their town lots and vacant 
 farm arrears, untilled it is true, but there they are on the 
 banks of the Congo awaiting the advent of the leaseholders. 
 There they will remain, vacant, unoccupied, and untilled, 
 unfruitful, idle, and inaccessible even, if the Association does 
 not bind the Upper with the Lower Congo by iron bands. 
 All the administrators, with their police, their guardians of 
 the peace, at present uncorrupted and incorruptible, the 
 lords-lieutenant, or governors, with their viceroy, governor- 
 general, or president, are there each in his place ; in fact, the 
 soul of the State has been created, but the body that it shall 
 animate, whether for good or for evil, is wanting. The 
 materials of the body lie scattered widely apart ; there may 
 be some of its component parts in this very hall to-day — 
 perhaps in every great city in Europe. 
 
 No part of Africa, look where I might, appeared so 
 promising to me as this neglected tenth part of the continent. 
 I have often fancied myself — -when I had nothing to do better 
 than dream — gazing from some lofty height, and looking 
 down upon this square compact patch of 800,000,000 acres, 
 with its 80,000 native towns, its population of 40,000,000 
 souls, its 17,000 miles of river waters, and its 30,000 square 
 miles of lakes, all lying torpid, lifeless, inert, soaked in 
 brutishness and bestiality, and I have never yet descended
 
 19 
 
 from that airy perch in the empyrean and touched earth but 
 I have felt a purpose glow in me to strive to do something to 
 awaken it into life and movement, and I have sometimes half 
 fancied that the face of aged Livingstone, vague and indistinct 
 as it were, shone through the warm, hazy atmosphere, with a 
 benignant smile encouraging me in my purpose. 
 
 To one in this city I communicated something of the 
 spirit that filled me about six years ago. I refer to James 
 Bradshaw, whose articles about the "Second India" were 
 more than frequent about that time. Manchester said " Im- 
 possible " to all Mr. Bradshaw uttered : but I have returned 
 after five and a half years' absence, and I say to you in as 
 loud a tone that it is possible, that the market is open, and 
 that this despised market is worth untold millions to 
 European trade. (Cheers.) Those prudent, but short-sighted 
 practical men who solemnly wagged their beards in this very 
 hall, I believe six years ago, and resolutely uttered the " im- 
 possibles," would fain talk now, would like to argue about it, 
 and then a little more sleep, and a little more slumber, and 
 to-morrow — we will see about it. But, my friends, "remember 
 the words of the wise son of David, " There is a time to speak, 
 and a time when silence is best, a time to lose and a time to 
 get ;" and it appears to me that if during these six years I 
 was absent you did not get time to speak, you will not get 
 any more time : the time to lose also seems to me to have 
 gone, and now appears a time to keep silent and get — or act. 
 
 If, despite all this good advice I give you, you are still 
 inclined to waste your time, people like myself, disposed to be 
 very friendly to you, may be tempted to answer you as 
 Phocion did to Messene a long time ago, " Take your own 
 way, then. We have done with it altogether." 
 
 I have told you that there is another point of view from 
 which we might estimate the value of the Upper Congo. 
 The navigable length of the Lower Congo is 110 miles : that 
 part of the littoral contiguous to the mouth which is still 
 independent is 168 miles long — say 280 miles altogether. 
 The trading houses established along this water frontage do
 
 20 
 
 a trade worth £2,800,000 annually. Above Vivi, which is at 
 the head of navigation to Nyangwe, in the middle of Africa, 
 along the river, is a distance of 1,700 English miles, and the 
 affluents to the south and the north, with very little trouble, 
 give us a further length of 3,000, which, added to the other 
 mileage, makes 5,000 miles. Now if we apply a simple rule 
 of three and propound a question like this, for instance : If 
 278 miles can acquire a trade worth £2,800,000 annually, 
 what may 5,000 miles of as productive country be worth, 
 granting that they are equally accessible — and we find the 
 astounding quotient of £50,400,000. The imports from 
 Europe were £884,000 last year for the trade of those 
 factories established along 388 miles of River Congo banks 
 and seashore. Supposing the Upper Congo to be as rich, and 
 there is no doubt but that it is much richer, and supposing 
 it to be just as accessible, and just as much developed, what 
 would be the value of the imports required by 10,000 miles 
 of river banks ? By multiplying 388 miles by 25f , we get a 
 sum of £22,763,000, which will be the value of the imports. 
 
 But perhaps some of you are inclined to be captious, and 
 to doubt that the Upper Congo is as productive as the 
 Lower Congo and the near seashore. Listen to the list of 
 exports sent from Banana Point in 1879 by one mercantile 
 firm : Ivory, 405 tons ; palm oil, 2,800 tons ; sesamum seed, 
 2,400 tons; ground nuts, 13,200 tons; palm kernels, 2,100 
 tons; rubber, 2,600 tons; gum copal, 400 tons; total value, 
 £948,200. Where did all this ivory come from ? Surely 
 not from the seashore and Lower Congo, where an elephant 
 has not been seen for ages. As for palm oil, please read 
 what I said about it in the chapter about Stanley Falls in 
 " The Dark Continent ;" and if the rich plains and woods of 
 the Upper Congo cannot produce more seeds, gums, rubber, 
 orchella weed, and dyestuffs than the Lower Congo, it will 
 be a new fact to me. 
 
 Let us make one more comparison, in order that we may 
 thoroughly understand our subject. From the Gambia to 
 the St. Paul de Loanda there is an African coast line of
 
 21 
 
 about 2,900 miles long, for the trade of which the British 
 and African and the old African steamship companies have 
 built about 37 steamers. There is also a Hamburg line, a 
 Dutch line, and Hatton and Cookson's steamer, besides some 
 80 sailing vessels employed in the trade — altogether about 
 45 steamers and 80 sailing vessels. The trade all along the 
 coast is uniform and similar to that which might be obtained 
 in the Upper Congo. It consists of ivory, rubber, ground 
 nuts, palm oil, palm kernels, gum copal, and orchella weed. 
 A river bank is just as rich and fertile as a seashore ; there- 
 fore, if the Upper Congo and its tributaries are about three 
 and a half times longer than the seashore, why might they 
 not, if equally accessible and equally developed, employ over 
 157 steamers and 240 sailing vessels, or a steamer a day 
 direct for Liverpool, or some one European or American 
 port ? 
 
 Yet, though examined from every point of view, a study 
 of the Upper Congo and its capabilities produces these 
 exciting arrays of figures and possibilities. I would not pay 
 a two- shilling piece for it all so long as it remains as it is. It will 
 absorb easily the revenue of the wealthiest nation in Europe 
 without any return. I would personally one hundred times 
 over prefer a snug little freehold in a suburb of Manchester 
 to being the owner of the 1,300,000 English square miles of 
 the Congo basin if it is to remain as inaccessible as it is 
 to-day, or if it is to be blocked by that fearful tariff-loving 
 nation, the Portuguese. (Hear, hear.) But if I were assured 
 that the Lower Congo would remain free, and the flag of the 
 Association guaranteed its freedom, I would if I were able 
 build that railway myself — build it solid and strong — and 
 connect the Lower Congo with the Upper Congo, perfectly 
 satisfied that I should be followed by the traders and 
 colonists of all nations. 
 
 I am told this city of Manchester contains a great many 
 Portuguese, that I should be lenient, and as they say in 
 America, " draw it mild." I have been, I consider, exceed- 
 ingly lenient. For five and a half years I have been
 
 22 
 
 absolutely silent. I received your British journals with their 
 ludicrous telegrams from Lisbon, reports from the Congo, 
 effusions from imaginative "Colonists," " Suum Cuiques," 
 Portuguese citizens dwelling and flourishing in Manchester 
 and London, and erratic and misguided contributors to the 
 Manchester Guardian, the Times, and the Morning Post 
 Stanley was this, and Stanley was that ; the expedition was 
 undergoing such astounding transition of fortune that was 
 incredible to us who knew better, and through your invitation 
 to speak in this city I have been enabled to come and tell 
 you face to face that out of the 100 and odd telegrams pur- 
 porting to reveal the truth to you there were just 100 and 
 odd telegrams which told you what their authors knew nothing 
 at all about. 
 
 You ask me through your newspapers what is the 
 difference between the Association and the Portuguese claims, 
 and what is the difference between the conduct that will be 
 adopted by the Association and that which is promised by the 
 Portuguese. I say the Association has no claims, and has no 
 request to make to Manchester or to England. I am 
 authorised to tell you that the Association does not ask for 
 any recognition from you, nor support, nor contribution, not 
 even a penny. It is only I, personally, who have come here 
 with the hope of enlightening you somewhat as to your own 
 true interests ; but I do not ask you to assist me in any way. 
 Whatever you do contrary to the Association, or adverse to its 
 aspirations, you cannot impoverish the Association. The 
 £500,000 sterling which it has given away to the Congo it 
 gave freely, the thousands of pounds which it may give 
 annually it gives without any hope of return further than a 
 sentimental satisfaction, therefore you cannot injure it 
 pecuniarily. You say you do not care about taking things 
 too cheaply. My advice is then briefly " don't." Have it as 
 dear as you please ; let them charge 20, 30, 40, or 100 per 
 cent if you prefer it. The Association is not concerned with 
 your likes or dislikes that I am aware of. The Association is 
 not speaking to you ; it is only my individual self, who have
 
 23 
 
 appeared here in response to an appeal by a few Manchester 
 gentlemen. 
 
 From what I gather you seem to think that the Association 
 is in want of money. I say no ; most decidedly not. That 
 it regrets having spent so much money ? I know that to be 
 an illusion on your part. That it proposes to ask you to 
 subscribe money for some purpose ? Nothing can be further 
 from the truth. Perhaps to ask the people of Manchester to 
 support its schemes ? Scheme we have none, further than 
 to civilise the Congo basin, discountenance the slave trade, 
 keep the road thither open and untaxed for commerce to 
 enter, improve communications in every possible way to the 
 extent of its means, keep the peace between man and man, 
 and administer what wise laws may be framed for our 
 guidance, and such as are necessary in Christian communities. 
 If you call these schemes, and you think we are doing a 
 useful work, support us morally by all means — that is if you 
 choose to do so — but I do not ask you to do so in the name 
 of the Association ; your material support in money is not 
 needed. 
 
 Portugal, on the other hand, now that a great trade has 
 grown up of £2,800,000, has been calculating and summing 
 up, and finds that such a trade will give her an additional 
 revenue of about £300,000 annually — that is if she is per- 
 mitted to proceed after the old method so cunningly 
 illustrated at Ambriz, and that even 10 per cent which she 
 has finally consented to adopt she will be richer by £86,000 
 a year than she was before, and then you see there are so 
 many ways of increasing the revenue which we can put in 
 use after things have settled down a bit, and these dreadful 
 Englishmen have ceased bawling, as we did at Ambriz. As 
 for these idiotic people of the Association, we shall soon show 
 them what uses we can make of this elastic treaty. £86,000 
 a year and prospects of fees unlimited — and the bakshish we 
 know how to exact on these impatient and terribly pushing 
 fellows is not a bad thing at all, especially when we remem- 
 ber it is net profit. It is not our place to pioneer the way
 
 24 
 
 to new markets ; we never did that, we never had enough 
 money for our own uses ; but we cannot allow a good trade 
 like this close by us without doing our best to get as much 
 of the profits of it as we can. If people will be Quixotic 
 enough to spend money on the negroes of Africa it is very 
 evident that the whites of Portugal ought to be by to reap some 
 benefit out of it. It is true that our cathedral town of Angola, 
 though three hundred years old, is fast going to decay, that her 
 streets are knee deep in sand, and that her harbour is slowly 
 filling up, owing to our indolence, and that we cannot have fresh 
 water except by sending hogsheads to the Bengo, nine miles 
 off; and that we cannot travel overland to Ambriz, 50 miles 
 away from Loanda ; and that our possessions in West Africa 
 are in a poor way altogether. But then, what's the odds ? 
 We are just like many other shaky concerns ; we issue new 
 shares, and by their sale we get proceeds to pay off the most 
 pressing debts. (Laughter.) 
 
 Thus you have briefly the difference in purpose between 
 the International Association and the Portuguese ; and the 
 duty of you Manchester people, before passing judgment upon 
 the value of each to you, is to consider in what way the cause 
 of each affects you and your city. If the length of 378 miles 
 of water frontage gives a trade of £2,800,000, because it is 
 free of all claims and demands of any sovereign state, to what 
 figure will it be reduced after allowing Portugal to exact her 
 usual 30 to 40 per cent on the trade ? The traders of Ambriz, 
 after the Portuguese disclosed their tactics, departed and 
 settled at Ambrizette. The traders of the Congo and the 
 littoral near it will also vanish in like manner, and you will 
 find that, instead of assisting the Portuguese, you have simply 
 injured your own trade, and utterly destroyed all hope of the 
 extension of it. On the other hand, if 378 miles of water 
 frontage, being free, admits a trade of £2,800,000, what may 
 a further extension of 10,000 miles in the richest portion of 
 Africa to this water frontage, on the same free terms, be 
 supposed to amount to when developed ? James Bradshaw, 
 in 1878, called Africa the " Second India;" but I say that this
 
 25 
 
 Congo basin, as great in area as India, but less populous, 
 might be made in time of greater value to Manchester than 
 ever India was or will be. (Cheers.) 
 
 India's imports of cotton manufactures last year were 
 £21,500,000 ; but I have proved to you that if every 
 inhabitant of the Congo basin had only six dresses of cheap 
 cottons each every year your *fcrade would be worth 
 £25,000,000 per annum. It is the easiest matter to teach 
 Africans to wear cotton dresses, but centuries must elapse 
 before they can make their own cottons. India is learning 
 to make her own cottons fast, for last year she exported over 
 £16,000,000 of home-made manufactures. You are closed 
 from the United States, from France, Germany, Spain, 
 Portugal, through differential duties. But here I am 
 endeavouring to excite your attention to a market absolutely 
 free. As you produce the cheap class of cottons required by 
 the Africans at a cheaper rate than any other country, no 
 other nation can possibly compete with you in this market, 
 provided it be kept free and open. In 1879 there were 2,579 
 cotton factories in England and Wales, and nearly half a 
 million of people employed in them, and the total value of 
 the goods made by them and exported was about £75,500,000, 
 and, though six years have passed away, I doubt very much 
 that your exports of cotton fabrics have reached £76,000,000. 
 What have you done to extend it ? Nothing. You have wailed 
 through your Guardians and Examiners about the slackness 
 of trade— (laughter) ; you perceive that more machinery has 
 been made, more factories erected, a few more millions of 
 spindles added to your creative power, but you have done 
 nothing towards creating a new market. And if any friends 
 of yours dare rise in your midst to show you a market, you 
 say he is a dreamer of dreams, he is an unpractical man. 
 You smile blandly on your " Suvum Cuiques" who are 
 Portuguese agents in disguise, and for a few cheap phrases 
 about expansion of civilisation, ancient allies, friendly power, 
 and so forth, you proceed to sign away a future market of 
 £25,000,000 a year to the Portuguese. How many years ago
 
 26 
 
 is it since Livingstone explored and made known the 
 Zambesi Valley to the world ? Yet, since Portugal owned 
 the mouth of the Zambesi, tell me what progress has been 
 made in 25 years ; and now you wish, after I have explored 
 and made known the Congo Valley, to seal the mouth of 
 the Congo in the same manner, and by the same people, 
 simply because you were ancient allies. (Cheers.) 
 
 To make good and real those pictures of industrial inter- 
 change between Europe and the natives of Central Africa, 
 there is only required the settlement of the status of the 
 Association by the European Powers and the construction of 
 147 miles of railway. Then all that I have depicted will 
 begin — putting into active circulation some millions of capital, 
 and into movement much valuable machinery now lying idle, 
 perhaps, in Manchester and elsewhere in England. I am 
 aware that the Chamber of Commerce of Manchester has 
 been very zealous in keeping the mouth of the Congo free 
 up to this moment ; but its duty is by no means ended here. 
 There is much zealous, earnest work to do yet, and if you 
 have at all grasped the magnitude of the commerce, of which 
 Manchester may secure a very large portion, or lose altogether, 
 I do not doubt you will be assiduous in preventing any such 
 suicidal act as to surrender all hope of the prize, to any 
 protectionist nation like Portugal. (Cheers.) 
 
 At the same time, when I reflect upon the state of parties 
 in England, and especially in Manchester, I feel a strong 
 desire to say a few words more before closing this address. 
 Commerce knows no party nor clique — in this country, at 
 least — and however disposed you may be here to support 
 this or that party, you all believe that the divergent line 
 between parties must be drawn somewhere, especially where 
 it concerns the common good of all. Let us draw the line at 
 commerce. (Hear, hear.) No man can demonstrate to you, 
 however eloquent, noble, benevolent, lofty-minded he may be, 
 that you would do wisely to vote that such a commercial 
 field as this Congo basin promises to be ought to be given to 
 a country like Portugal, because one of her sea captains
 
 27 
 
 first sighted the mouth of the Congo 400 years ago. 
 Why, the most generous patent laws that have ever 
 been devised have never gone to the extreme of sanction- 
 ing royalties to inventors for ever and to all time. 
 The Portuguese have had nearly 400 years given them 
 to demonstrate to the world what they could do with 
 the river whose mouth they discovered, and they have been 
 proved to be incapable to do any good with it, and now 
 civilisation is inclined to say to them, " Stand off from this 
 broad highway into the regions beyond — (cheers) ; let others 
 who are not paralytic strive to do what they can with it to 
 bring it within the number of accessible markets. There are 
 40,000,000 of naked people beyond that gateway, and the 
 cotton spinners of Manchester are waiting to clothe them. 
 Rochdale and Preston women are waiting for the word to 
 weave them warm blue and crimson savelist. Birmingham 
 foundries are glowing with the red metal that shall presently 
 be made into ironwork in every fashion and shape for them, 
 and the trinkets that shall adorn those dusky bosoms ; and 
 the ministers of Christ are zealous to bring them,- the poor 
 benighted heathen, into the Christian fold. (Cheers.) 
 You drove the traders away from Ambriz in 1856 by 
 your extortionate tariff; you have intrigued against the 
 Baptist missionaries of San Salvador for the last three years ; 
 you have driven the American missionaries from Bailundo 
 after four years' earnest work ; you have plundered and 
 expelled them from the country ; and now that other people 
 have explored these regions, and attracted the attention of 
 the nations to them, and inspired a hope in the minds of 
 good men that the dark days are past, you come with your 
 liens, your tolls, your imposts, and trade-destroying tariffs to 
 mar all this with your traditions of 400 years ago. (Hear, 
 hear.) By that gateway ye have stood by stolidly enough 
 for centuries, inhospitable and sullen in demeanour. Civilisa- 
 tion has thousands of stalwart farmers, who, with improved 
 means and steam ploughs, will presently tear up that rank and 
 aged grass, and make those sere-faced plains teem with plenty ;
 
 28 
 
 and as many miners, who will delve and dig for the precious 
 minerals, and make those jagged hills echo to the stirring 
 sounds of industry." (Cheers.) 
 
 And you, O men of Manchester ! have done with these 
 doubts and surmises and oblique distorted view of this work. 
 Search into it as deep as you may, explore around and probe 
 through it with clear eyes. Be not over anxious to rob your- 
 selves and your children of this expansive field for their 
 effort. Be not so intolerably inconsistent as to say, " We 
 want only freedom of commerce," and when it is offered to 
 you say, " We do not want it so cheaply." In this city I 
 exhorted you six years ago. James Bradshaw, a Manchester 
 citizen, exhorted you not to be so blindly ignorant of your 
 duties to yourselves and children. A royal prince took up 
 my subject and theme, examined it patiently, and at last 
 bade me go and try what could be done. He called good 
 and Christian men to him ; they subscribed money and gave 
 their advice to him, and bit by bit a fund was built up on 
 the proceeds of which we have existed and been supported. 
 Now, that fund is large and valuable. King Leopold, 
 as a private gentleman, is the soul of the Association. 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 This society has as little to do with Belgium as a State 
 as any society in Manchester. It is simply a private 
 society, with a rich prince at the head, whose home is in 
 Belgium, and, therefore, it has its head quarters in Brussels. 
 A sentiment animates it — viz., goodwill to all men, white or 
 black, the spirit of free trade, and unrestricted intercourse. 
 (Hear, hear.) It is not a commercial company, it is an 
 administrative company, self-supported by means of an 
 endowment fund for the benefit of the peoples in the Congo 
 Valley. It does not seek the assistance of any Power; but 
 in order that its civilising work in the Upper Congo may not 
 be checked it suggests to your consideration, as well as to 
 others, that the Lower Congo question should be settled 
 agreeably with its self-imposed mission, because it foresees 
 that if traders are prevented by a burdensome tariff from
 
 29 
 
 following in its steps, that its usefulness will be retarded, if 
 not actually destroyed. 
 
 Thus, then, I have spoken fairly, freely, and frankly, after 
 a silence of five and a half years, imperfectly, perhaps, but 
 honestly. The purport of my speech ought not to be doubtful 
 to you ; the effect and issue of it time onty can tell. (Loud 
 cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Stanley subsequently stated that he held in his hand 
 the declaration of the International Association, and he 
 would ask the President of the Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce to read it in order that those present might know 
 what the Association really declared. 
 
 The President said he thought it unnecessary for him to 
 read the document. It was an official one which he had received 
 from the President of the International Association in order 
 that it might be published for the benefit of the citizens of 
 Manchester. (Cheers.) He would hand the manifesto to 
 the members of the press present, and the public would then 
 have the opportunity of reading it and of studying it for 
 themselves. 
 
 Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P., who was received with loud 
 cheers, said : I have listened with extreme interest to one of 
 the ablest, one of the most eloquent addresses which have 
 ever been delivered in this city — (cheers); and I have heard 
 with uncommon pleasure the views of aman whose ability, whose 
 splendid force of character, whose remarkable heroism, have 
 given him a world-wide reputation. (Cheers.) We ought 
 not to separate without formally expressing our views and 
 feelings with regard to the great object of Mr. Stanley's visit 
 to-day — (hear, hear) — and therefore, in the name of the 
 Manchester Chamber of Commerce, I beg to submit to you 
 this resolution : — 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce of Manchester hereby expresses its warm 
 sympathy with the earnest efforts of His Majesty the King of the 
 Belgians — (hear, hear) — to establish civilisation and free trade on the 
 Upper Congo. It also trusts that the independent state or states 
 proposed to be founded there may be recognised by all nations, and that
 
 30 
 
 the beneficent work thus inaugurated may be ultimately extended 
 throughout the whole of that river, from its sources to its mouth. 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce, as a matter of course, deals 
 mainly, if not only, with commerce. There are other aspects 
 of this question in my mind even more important than those 
 of our commercial interests — I mean the interests and the 
 claims of the native population when brought in contact with 
 superior races. (Hear, hear.) What do we as a great in- 
 dustrial community desire with regard to the Congo and the 
 Congo Valley? We want freedom, the freedom which we 
 now enjoy; and secondly, we want internal communication; 
 we want means of communication between the Lower 
 Congo and those vast waterways in the upper regions. The 
 International Association is prepared to give us both these, 
 and I undertake to say that if that Association is not supported, 
 if it does not see a secure future, one of these, at least, you 
 will not obtain — I mean communication between the Upper 
 and the Lower Congo. I had the pleasure of a long talk 
 last night with Mr. Stanley on this subject, and he said, 
 and I believe he said truly, " Without us, you will get no 
 railway through that cataract region, without us the work 
 will fail, and the great interior Congo, that vast populous 
 region abounding with so many productions, will be as 
 though it had no existence." Suppose the Association is not 
 supported, and some other arrangements are made, who is to 
 make a railway in that district ? There is no Government of 
 Europe which will find the means to do it, there is no 
 association which can be formed half so powerful as this 
 International Association — (hear, hear) — and none with its 
 abounding funds. I believe that the question of supporting 
 this Association and of guarding the mouth of the Congo is 
 of immense importance to us of Manchester and Lancashire. 
 
 The picture drawn by Mr. Stanley is an extraordinary 
 one. His figures may be pronounced perfectly romantic. A 
 great many people will say that they are figures that it is 
 impossible to realise, but supposing you could realise one- 
 tenth part of the future which he has pointed out, it would be
 
 31 
 
 a great thing, and that you could realise one-tenth part if the 
 International Association were in possession of the whole of 
 the Congo I have not the very slightest doubt. (Cheers.) 
 
 The United States has been the first to recognise the 
 authority of the International Association on the Upper 
 Congo. (Cheers.) I am glad to think there is a young and 
 powerful republic in the family of nations which has dared to 
 take a step of this kind without consulting precedents. It 
 has set an example to the old and red-tape governments of 
 the old world. I hope it will not be long before England and 
 Germany follow the example of the United States and of 
 France. It would not be the first time England had 
 recognised a State that had an unorthodox beginning. 
 England recognised the negro republic of Liberia on the 
 western coast of Africa. That State was founded in the year 
 1821. It was not annexed, it was not conquered by any 
 powerful country. It was founded by the American Coloni- 
 sation Society, a society less influential, less wealthy, less 
 powerfully backed, than the International Association, and, 
 therefore, even those who seek for precedents have a precedent 
 at hand. 
 
 I trust that this resolution which I have moved may be 
 passed unanimously. 
 
 There is a conference just now at Berlin. We do not 
 know what may emanate from that conference. We shall 
 look with great anxiety upon what is proposed. An immense 
 deal will depend upon how they settle that question of the 
 Lower Congo, but whilst that conference is sitting I trust 
 that, wherever Mr. Stanley may appear, in any of our great 
 cities, resolutions in his support will be passed in order that 
 those who are assembled round the table of that conference 
 may know that the foremost commercial country in the 
 world is watching their proceedings and giving its support in 
 favour of freedom and of civilisation. (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Houldsworth, M.P., in seconding the resolution, 
 said it was a source of considerable satisfaction to him, and 
 he hoped it was to his honourable colleague and to those who
 
 32 
 
 did not belong to the same political party as he did, that they 
 could meet on a common platform as they did that day — (hear, 
 hear) — and lay aside for the moment questions of party poli- 
 tics, and could join heartily together in what it was their duty 
 on all occasions to promote — the commercial prosperity of this 
 great district, and that which was indissolubly bound up with 
 it, the civilisation and, he believed, the christianisation of the 
 world. (Hear, hear.) He would only venture to say that 
 although he had no doubt they had listened with the greatest 
 pleasure and interest to the very important address which 
 had been given them, he believed that there was a yet more 
 important and interesting document for them to study when 
 that to which the President referred was laid before them, 
 and they saw in detail and understood more perfectly 
 than they were able to do at the present moment exactly 
 what this International Association was, and what the King 
 of the Belgians had done, and the novel and astounding offer 
 made to the countries of the world to come and enter into 
 labours which they have not taken part in in their inception. 
 What was it that commerce wanted, in order that it might 
 develop itself in the new markets of the world ? He would not 
 stay to say anything with regard to the necessity which 
 existed at the present moment for England doing all she 
 could for the sake of her teeming and toiling population in 
 developing new markets. Our old markets were dead, and 
 he had no hesitation in saying our position was very perilous 
 indeed as a nation if we could not open new markets. 
 (Hear, hear.) Our merchants wanted three things in order 
 to extend our commerce. They wanted in the first place 
 perfect freedom from all dues and customs if they could get 
 it, and certainly freedom from all vexatious interference with 
 trade. Secondly, they wanted what they generally could 
 not get in going to uncivilised nations, a certain amount of 
 law and order, and an authoritative justice that would 
 protect them in their intercourse with these barbarous 
 nations; and they also wanted, if they could get it, as 
 much protection against any other Power entering on the
 
 33 
 
 fruits of their labours after they had got a certain amount 
 of success. 
 
 The peculiarity of the position the Association had gained 
 in the Upper Congo and offered to their merchants gave 
 them every one of these conditions which merchants desired. 
 As he understood, there were two things they had to do. 
 One was that England should recognise this International 
 Association, and, by recognising it, give it that position in 
 the eyes of our own English merchants and the other nations 
 of the world to enable it to fulfil the mission set before it; 
 and the other, referred to by Mr. Bright, was that they should 
 urge upon the Government, whether Liberal or Conservative, 
 that they must do everything they could so that no European 
 power should take possession of the mouth of the Congo, 
 which it was essential should be kept open. With regard to 
 Mr. Stanley's reference to their not having heeded what he 
 said six years ago, Mr. Houldsworth said that much had 
 happened during those six years, and this town and district 
 were in a position with regard to commercial matters which 
 made them much more ready to listen to proposals of this 
 sort than they perhaps were then, while perhaps the proposi- 
 tion that came from Mr. Stanley on this occasion was a 
 little more practicable than that he laid before them six 
 years ago. (Hear.) 
 
 The resolution, on being put, was carried. 
 
 Mr. Grafton, M.P., moved : — 
 
 That the best thanks of this meeting be and are hereby given 
 to Mr. H. M. Stanley for his address to the members of the Chamber, 
 and for the interesting information conveyed by him respecting 
 the Congo and prospects of international trade on the West Coast and 
 interior of Africa. 
 
 He remarked that Mr. Stanley's name was already enrolled 
 in the pages of history, and would be handed down to 
 posterity with the names of the greatest benefactors of our 
 species, such as Columbus, who had opened out the pathways 
 of the world. Long might Mr. Stanley be spared to witness 
 the benefit of his arduous and beneficent labours. (Cheers.)
 
 34 
 
 Mr. H. Lee, M.P., in seconding the motion, which was 
 carried by acclamation, said Mr. Stanley had told them some 
 truths for which they had great reason to thank him. (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Bright, M.P., having taken the chair, 
 
 Mr. Geo. Lord moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Hutton for 
 his able conduct of the meeting. He was quite sure the 
 commercial community of Manchester owed Mr. Hutton a 
 deep debt of gratitude for the part he had taken throughout 
 in the advocacy of the cause which had now been so ably put 
 before them by Mr. Stanley and the other speakers. 
 
 Mr. H. M. Steinthal, who seconded the proposition, 
 said no one but the directors of the Chamber of Commerce 
 knew the time, the attention, and the labour which Mr. 
 Hutton had given to this question in the last few years, and 
 it must be a great reward to him to note the unanimous vote 
 just taken on the resolution submitted by Mr. Bright, M.P. 
 
 The resolution was carried unanimously, and the meeting 
 ended.
 
 35 
 
 MANIFESTO OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The Association have declared to the Government of the 
 United States that the Congo States have resolved to levy 
 no customs duties whatever upon goods imported into their 
 territories, whether by land or water, the sole object being to 
 enable commerce to follow the Association's advance into 
 inner equatorial Africa ; that a guarantee is given to 
 foreigners settling in their territories of the right to purchase, 
 sell, or lease lands and buildings situated therein, to establish 
 commercial houses, and trade upon the sole condition of 
 obedience to the laws of the State. The Association pledge 
 themselves also not to grant to the citizens of one nation any 
 advantages without extending the same to the citizens of all 
 other nations, and to do all in their power to prevent the 
 slave trade. 
 
 The Secretary of State of the Government of the United 
 States acknowledged the receipt of the foregoing notification, 
 and declared that the Government of the United States 
 announced its sympathy with, and approval of, the humane 
 and benevolent purposes of the Association, administering, as 
 it does, the interests of the Free States there established, 
 and will order the officers of the United States both on land 
 and sea to recognise the flag of the Association as the flag of 
 a friendly Government. 
 
 From the date of these reciprocal declarations the Congo 
 territory became open to free commerce, and the forces at 
 the disposal of the Association were able to ensure order and 
 tranquillity in the country. 
 
 The head-quarters of the Association are established in 
 Brussels, because from thence flow the financial resources 
 which have sustained the enterprise for the last six years. 
 Liberia was upheld financially for 39 years by the American 
 Colonisation Society. When the new State shall have been 
 recognised by Europe the fountain head will continue to
 
 36 
 
 furnish supplies which are a substitute for the customs 
 dues which have been publicly renounced. It is reason- 
 ably hoped that commerce will be attracted by the 
 exceptional advantages to be found in the new State, 
 and that a considerable impulse will be given to trade, 
 thus enhancing the hitherto undeveloped natural re- 
 sources of the country and creating public wealth. The 
 European traders on the Congo are unanimous in their 
 desire that the present condition of things shall not be 
 disturbed, by which all can freely enter into commercial 
 negotiations with the natives. Full satisfaction to this 
 desire is given by the Association ; absolute freedom of trade 
 is ensured, with the advantage of a civilised Power to assist 
 them in case of necessity. However it may be, the Associa- 
 tion does not press England to recognise their sovereignty. 
 They simply say, " Examine this work impartially, and judge 
 of its merits, and until you are satisfied make no engage- 
 ments which shall close for ever the commercial liberty in 
 the Congo valley for which we are striving." 
 
 With regard to the question how it is proposed to 
 govern the Congo States, the legislation of the Congo 
 territory, subject to the supervision and control of the Associa- 
 tion, shall be based upon the principles of law recognised by 
 civilised nations, and upon the philanthropic principles set 
 forth in the well-known plan of the Association, whose aim is 
 to civilise Africa by encouragement given to legitimate trade. 
 At first, account will be taken of the actual state of the native 
 population ; administration and judicial organisation will 
 march in a parallel line with the progress of these populations. 
 Meanwhile the country will be governed as it is at present by 
 an Administrator-General, who will have at his disposal the 
 necessary means for the maintenance of public order. It may 
 be asked, How do you propose to support the Government 
 without customs duties ? Far from constituting the only 
 resources of a State, the customs duties only represent a 
 part of its revenue, and the least important portion of it* 
 Eminent economists condemn customs from a fiscal point of
 
 87 
 
 view. They admit their usefulness only as a temporary 
 means for the protection of some new-born trade with a 
 future before it. In any other case they regard customs 
 in the light of a tax that is more costly than productive, 
 because by thwarting commercial liberty it burdens the 
 production of wealth. This doctrine is also that of Richard 
 Cobden and John Bright, and has been adopted by the 
 Association. They consider, like these two illustrious 
 representatives of the Manchester school, that when two 
 nations freely exchange the produce of their countries they 
 both increase respectively their capital and derive benefit 
 from the transaction. The exchange of produce between 
 two nations is generally followed by interchange of ideas, and 
 it will then be seen how judicious was the decision taken by 
 the Association not to establish customs on their frontiers, 
 and it will then be understood how deserving is the 
 Association of the congratulations of those who take an 
 interest in the moral and material progress of the African 
 races. By granting entire freedom to trade, and by abolishing 
 custom-house vexations, the Association wish to attract to 
 their territories commerce and capital. The Congo region 
 abounds in produce of various kinds now lost to the world, 
 although industry might turn it to such marvellous account. 
 Thanks to trade, all this produce will enter into circulation ; 
 the counterpart of its value will return to Africa, for 
 which it will prove a source of prosperity. The Congo State 
 will then be in the same circumstances as all civilised 
 countries we know, and will then be able to bear the 
 expenses of its public services by and through the wealth 
 obtained by its natural resources. 
 
 The Association possess a capital at their disposal of which 
 the interest has sufficed hitherto to cover the expenses of 
 their work. As soon as the State shall have been recognised 
 by the civilised nations, and its political existence assured, 
 this capital will be employed to endow the new State which 
 will then have been founded. The interest derived from 
 this endowment fund will be equal to the revenue which
 
 38 
 
 might be obtained by a system of custom-house duties. It 
 will suffice to defray all expenses of the new State until such 
 time as the increase of public wealth, the natural increase in 
 the white population, will allow of its fulfilling all its engage- 
 ments, as has just been explained. 
 
 Thus, the future of the new State has been secured, and 
 the death of its founders would no more imperil its existence 
 than that of King Leopold I. imperilled the existence of 
 Belgium, or the death of George Peabody imperilled the 
 endowment fund that bears his name. 
 
 When a large number of white men shall have per- 
 manently settled in the country, will they, it may also be 
 asked, have any part in the government ? The legislation 
 given to the new State will decide after what manner the 
 divers interests are to be represented in the government. 
 It is impossible to give more precise information as to 
 what will be the legislation of the future, just as it is 
 impossible to predict the changes that will be introduced 
 into the constitution of the different nations of the world. 
 The first laws given will be nearly similar to those adopted 
 for the colonies of the British Crown. The central power 
 will reside in Belgium so long as the revenues emanate 
 from the head quarters of the Association. By that power 
 shall be chosen the functionaries for the different posts 
 in Europe or in Africa. The selection will be made with- 
 out reference to nationality, competency being the prin- 
 cipal requirement. 
 
 When the new State is definitely established, the direction 
 in Africa shall consist of a Governor-general, assisted by a 
 legislative council and an executive committee. The judicial 
 organisation is to comprise commercial courts of justice, inferior 
 courts for civil causes, a superior court, and a court of appeal. 
 The cases which may be referred to the central power are fully 
 determined by law. The natives are admitted on an equality 
 with the Europeans before the law, provided they fulfil the 
 obligations prescribed by law. Every sensible and practical 
 man will understand that the authorities will have to show
 
 39 
 
 some consideration for the habits and the ideas of the natives 
 in matters of administration and justice. Before laying down 
 new laws and regulations applicable to them, a period of 
 transition must be allowed to pass, during which they may 
 continue to follow their own customs as long as these are not 
 atrocious and inhuman. 
 
 The new State has formally declared that there shall be no 
 customs duties established. The revenue derived from the 
 endowment fund will be in lieu of the funds which the 
 customs dues would have furnished. To obtain the compli- 
 mentary resources which will be necessary to ensure the 
 regular working of the public services, the new State will 
 have recourse to the same expedients, when necessary, as 
 those employed by other civilised Governments, though for 
 the present such considerations are altogether premature. 
 The right to settle, purchase, or sell or lease lands and build- 
 ings, establish houses, and trade freely has been formally 
 granted in the declaration to the United States Government. 
 Provisionally, differences between natives will be settled 
 according to existing local customs. Quarrels and dis- 
 putes between Europeans and natives are to belong to the 
 jurisdiction of the law courts that will be established. 
 
 The despatch addressed on the 29th of September last by 
 the French Ambassador, M. de Courcel, to Prince Bismarck, 
 states that in case of any cession of territory to France by 
 the Association, the French Government promises to maintain 
 in that territory the absolute freedom of commerce established 
 by the Association. The Association will never part with any 
 of its possessions without stipulating that the buyer shall 
 maintain the absolute freedom of trade and the complete 
 individual liberty which it has established. So much for 
 • the principle, for, in practice, far from seeking to sell its 
 possessions, the Association is engrossed by the wish to 
 develop their prosperity. 
 
 A. Ireland & Co., Printers, Manchester.
 
 
 
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