Lords Sitting of 28 May 1889

LORD ASHTOWN.
Report made from the Lord Chancellor that the right of Frederick Oliver Trench Baron Ashtown to vote at the elections of Representative Peers for Ireland has been established to the satisfaction of the Lord Chancellor; read, and ordered to lie on the Table.
LORD DUNALLEY.
Report made from the Lord Chancellor, that the right of Henry O'Callaghan Prittie Baron Dunalley to vote at the elections of Representative Peers for Ireland has been established to the satisfaction of the Lord Chancellor; read, and ordered to lie on the Table.
WALTHAM ABBEY GUNPOWDER FACTORY BILL. (No. 65.)
Reported without Amendment, and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Monday next.
ADVANCE NOTES TO SEAMEN BILL. (No. 93.)
  HERRING FISHERY (SCOTLAND) BILL. (No. 94.)
  Read 1a, and to be printed.
THE FIRE BRIGADE REVIEW.

  QUESTIONS.—OBSERVATIONS.
  EARL MANVERSMy Lords, seeing the noble Earl who represents the Home Office in his place, I beg to ask him a question of which I have given him private notice—namely,
  1222
  who is responsible for the utter breakdown of the arrangements connected with keeping the ground at the Horse Guards Parade on Saturday afternoon last, on the occasion of the presentation of prizes by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to the Members of the Fire Brigade, which resulted in a scene of disorder probably unparalleled in London?
  EARL BROWNLOWMy Lords, in reply to the question of the noble Lord, I think it is desirable to inform the House exactly what took place on that occasion. On the 11th of May a letter was received from the Chairman of the Committee of the London County Council, informing the First Commissioner of Police that a parade was about to be held of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, and stating that the Queen's Westminster Volunteers would keep the ground, and, as I believe, asking for the co-operation of the Metropolitan Police. My Lords, in consequence of this letter a meeting was arranged between the Chairman of the Committee and Captain Shaw, Colonel Roberts, and Superintendent Fisher. It was held on the 20th of May, and at that meeting it was arranged that the Queen's Westminster Volunteers should keep the ground. It was further distinctly arranged that the action of the police was to be the same as that which they had always undertaken for a number of years at the Queen's Birthday parade in the morning at the Horse Guards. That duty of the police consisted in keeping order among the crowd, and in keeping open the communication to and from the Horse Guards Parade, in the rear of the corps that is keeping the ground. The usual number of police was sent down to the ground,

  1223
  and it was sufficient for keeping order among the crowd, and for keeping open communications in the rear, but it was not sufficient naturally for keeping the ground over that very large space. My Lords, that is exactly what happened, and I can only say that I very much regret that, owing to the arrangements for keeping the ground not having been satisfactory, some inconvenience and annoyance was caused to the Prince and Princess of Wales by the pressure of the crowd. I should like, however, to read a sentence from the Report of the Chief Commissioner of Police, who says:—
  "I cannot close my remarks without paying a tribute to the loyal behaviour of the crowd which filled the Parade. The crowd was thoroughly good humoured and orderly, and their loyalty certainly showed itself in enthusiastic cheers for the Royal personages who were present."
  VISCOUNT HARDINGEWhat strikes me as the most extraordinary thing in this case is that when it was seen that the Volunteers were perfectly powerless to keep back the mob, the Life Guards or the Blues were not ordered out. I recollect an incident very much of the same character, whore a crowd broke through the Volunteers who were unable to keep the ground, and the Life Guards were ordered out to drive back the people. I only mention this that in future orders may he given to hold troops in readiness should the police or the Volunteers fail to keep back the crowd. I do not think that the Volunteers are the proper body for keeping ground, as they cannot be expected to act with the strictness which it may be necessary to use, and I hope it will be the last occasion on which Volunteers will be so employed.

HORSEFLESH (SALE FOR FOOD) BILL.(No. 88.)

  THIRD READING.
  Order for Third Reading read.
  LORD LAMINGTON: My Lords, before the Bill is read a third time, I should like to ask when the Government are going to carry out their promise to grant a Select Committee on the whole subject of the sale of food?
  EARL FORTESCUE: My Lords, I would not, during the passing of this beneficent measure, run any risk of impeding it by addressing you upon it at an earlier stage, but in this, the last stage,
  1224
  I would wish to lay before your Lordships an aspect of this Bill, which I do not think has been presented to your Lordships, or, indeed, as far as I am aware, to the English public generally. Some 25 or 30 years ago I was very much struck with the words of a French writer on the subject. I forget at the moment who he was, but the words remained vividly impressed upon my memory. He began by saying—
  "Without the recognition of horseflesh as food for man, the old or disabled horse becomes a melancholy form of capital, wasting away day by day under the pitiless lash of his driver."
  He then goes on to show how the recognition of horseflesh as food for man soon causes a point to be reached when it becomes more remunerative to feed the animal up for meat than to extract the last particle of work from him by blows while he is kept in a state of starvation, as the French author said, a living but suffering skeleton. I congratulate the authors of this measure, and those who have so earnestly pressed it on to its last stage on having rendered a far more substantial service to the cause of humanity than has been rendered by many sensational writers and eloquent orators on behalf of suffering animals.
  EARL BEAUCHAMPYour Lordships will remember that suggestions were made upon which I have to propose several verbal Amendments. You will remember that Clause 1 was retained, and the previous words with regard to registration struck out. Then I propose to insert words under which the Bill will come into operation on the 29th September next, instead of 1st January.
  Read 3a (according to order), with the Amendments; further Amendments made; Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.

BRITISH MISSIONARIES IN EAST AFRICA.

  QUESTION—OBSERVATIONS.
  VISCOUNT HALIFAXMy Lords, I desire to call the attention of your Lordships' House to the serious state of affairs on the East Coast of Africa, and to the serious danger to which the British missionaries in Eastern Africa will be exposed by hostile operations on the part of the German East African Company against Pangani, or against the

  1225
  inhabitants of other places in that part of Africa; and I have to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what steps he proposes to adopt to avert that danger. I hope the noble Marquess at the head of Her Majesty's Government will be prepared to take the necessary steps for the preservation of the English missionaries on the coast from the great dangers to which they are exposed in consequence of the hostile operations against Pangani and Tanga. In bringing this matter forward, I ask that indulgence from your Lordships' House, which I believe, is always extended to anyone who addresses your Lordships for the first time. I desire to occupy your Lordships' attention for as short a time as possible, but it is necessary that I should state very briefly how the present crisis, which so seriously threatens the lives of Englishmen, has been brought about. Not everyone of your Lordships, perhaps, may be aware how much has been done to promote good government and civilization, and to develop commercial enterprize at Zanzibar by the late Sultan, who died last year, under the influence and the guidance of Sir John Kirk, till recently Her Majesty's Consul General at Zanzibar. As compared with the state of things described by Captain Burton 20 years before, a complete transformation has been effected in the social, material, and political aspect of that part of Africa. Such, at least, is the evidence of the distinguished African traveller, Mr. Joseph Thomson, in an article which appeared in the February number of the "Contemporary Review." Life and property are secure; the missionaries hardly think it necessary to close their doors at night; the whole character of the slave trade is altered, and its worst features have been put down. The Arabs are getting accustomed to the idea of free labour, and trade, which is almost entirely in the bands of British residents, has increased in a remarkable degree. From quite an insignificant amount 20 years ago, the trade has been raised to the annual value of something little short of two millions sterling. So much, my Lords for the material condition of the country. But the religious and moral prospects of the country are no less encouraging. Some of your Lordships may remember
  1226
  the first beginnings and subsequent history of the mission which, about 28 years ago, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge sent out to Zanzibar and the interior of the country. Those of your Lordships who are acquainted with the history of that mission will, I am sure, bear me out when I say that it is impossible to find a nobler record of work done for God, or with a more absolute and entire sacrifice of self, than is to be found in the history of that mission. My Lords, the Universities gave of their best; they grudged neither men nor money. These men, who were known to us at school and college, gave up everything—home, friends, and prospects—to throw themselves into this work, and some of them have sacrificed their lives to it. They have succumbed to the climate—among them two of the Bishops who headed the mission; but their places were taken by others, and the result is—the Established Church, the Free Church in Scotland, and the Church Missionary and London Mission Societies, having followed in the steps of the Universities' mission—that the east part of Africa is covered with mission stations, and an example has been set of which England has every reason to be proud. How great that work has been may be judged from the words of Mr. Joseph Thomson, who is certainly anything but a favourable witness where missionary work is concerned—
  "The missionaries," says Mr. Thomson, in his article in the Contemporary Review, "have undoubtedly raised the moral level of thousands with whom they have come in contact; they have made the name of Englishman revered and admired throughout the length and breadth of East Central Africa, and they have raised unbounded confidence in his word and good intentions."
  But that is not all. In the recent troubles arising out of the German occupation, and while the Germans themselves have been in deadly conflict with the natives, the English, by common consent of Arabs and negro tribes alike, have been suffered to go to and fro between Zanzibar and the interior, it being openly declared by an excited population up in arms that this is owing to the value attached to the presence and work of the missionaries, and to the appreciation of the pure and devoted lives of the men they have watched so long and trusted so

  1227
  thoroughly. It should always be remembered that in all this civilizing work, England, with the exception of a French mission, which has also done excellent service, has been the sole agent so that I think there is every reason for the stongest intervention on the part of Her Majesty's Government in the circumstances which I will proceed to lay before the House. I desire to speak with every consideration for the difficulties of the present situation, and the susceptibilities of others; but facts are facts; and if justice is to be done, they must be stated. Unfortunately for the Sultan of Zanzibar and his subjects, unfortunately for the African tribes in the interior, unfortunately for the mission, and unfortunately, as I think, for themselves, the Germans in 1888 embarked in their colonization scheme for East Africa. That scheme was part of the "scramble" for Africa which, since 1884, has, so little to their credit, been displayed by the nations of Europe. The immediate result of that scheme of colonization was the violation on the part of Germany of all the rights of the Sultan of Zanzibar, who was forced to sign concessions greatly against his own interests, and who eventually found himself deprived of great portions of territory over which he had claimed authority. Large tracts in the interior were declared to be within the sphere of German influence, while within the limited region still left to him two-thirds of the coast line nearest to Zanzibar, including the access to our missionary stations, is to be administered by the German East African Company. The remaining third, but which is quite outside the sphere occupied by the missions, is to be administered in the same way by an English company, the country behind it being declared to be under British influence. Now, my Lords, I am compelled to ask, in the first place, by what right powerful European countries should portion out in that way large tracts of country that do not belong to them? Are they entitled to do so merely because they are more civilized and powerful than those with whom they come in contact? Can the fact that the authority claimed is indefinite in its character affect in the slightest degree the justice of the transaction? And then, secondly, if limits are to be traced and boundaries fixed,
  1228
  why are all the arrangements made without the representatives of the mission being permitted to know what is going on? Why is the mission all-owed suddenly to find itself transferred from the sphere of British influence and handed over to the German East African Company, whose ideas of liberty and the rights of individuals are entirely different from those current among Englishmen, and that, too, when a slight alteration in the boundary, which would have left the Germans in possession of a road to Kilima-Njaro, might have prevented, even if nothing else had been done, the particular. sources of danger to which the mission is now exposed? Without, however, pressing these questions, what cannot be denied is that the consequences of the arrangements are agreed to have been disastrous. The Sultan, with the loss of his territory, lost also his influence; the mode in which the German East African Trading Company proceeded to carry out their settlement was aggressive in the extreme; and the Arabs and the negro tribes made common cause and rose up in arms against them. It soon became apparent that what was left of the Sultan's authority on the coast would not be recognized by either Arab or negro if he continued his arrangements with the company, and that the company, without armed intervention, could not hope to re-establish themselves in any coast town. Trade ceased altogether, security for life and property disappeared, and the present state of affairs is this, that the German Government, though it has censured the conduct of the colonists, is now engaged in a struggle for the re-occupation of a territory out of which the lawful owners have been partly cajoled and partly threatened, and of which the new owners have never at any time had more than a nominal possession. All that, as your Lordships will see, is not enough; but, bad as it is, the position of affairs becomes infinitely worse when. England, under the plea of assisting in an attempt to put down the slave trade, is. induced to join in a naval blockade against the transport of slaves and munitions of war along the whole coast, But, my Lords, whatever it may have been with us, the primary object of tha blockade was not the suppression o the slave trade with others. Those who

  1229
  know Africa best are unanimous that it could affect the evils of the slave trade only in the very slightest degree; in some respects, indeed, it has increased them. It has inflicted untold miseries on the natives. The object of the blockade was to assert the alleged rights and repair the failure of the German East African Company; and what it has done has been to inflict untold miseries, not only on the so-called insurgent towns, but on the innocent tribes of the interior, who, being deprived of their supply of firearms and gunpowder, are at the mercy of their marauding neighbours—miseries which we might have prevented, but instead have rendered possible by our co-operation with Germany. Hitherto, while the Germans have never met with any encouragement from the natives, Englishmen have been received everywhere with open arms. Now they are both being classed together as the natural enemies of the black man. I have said enough to put your Lordships in possession of the present position of affairs. The immediate peril to the mission which results from that position of affairs, if the East African Company, as they threaten to do, attack Pangani and Tanga, both of them within 30 miles of the mission stations, and by which access is obtained to them from the coast, is most grave and imminent. We may have the most serious news at any moment, for it is expected that Lieutenant Wissmann, who commands the German forces, will commence operations against those places at the close of the rainy season, and if he does, such an attack may very probably lead to a general massacre,which will sweep away the whole of the missions and missionaries together. It is to meet this peril, if indeed it be not too late, that I have brought the matter before the attention of your Lordships' House, and I would ask Her Majesty's Government, with all the earnestness of which I am capable, what steps they are preparing to take in order to avert it? The missionaries desire no interference on their behalf with either the Arabs or the negroes, but they do expect, and those who are interested in their welfare have a right to claim for them, that the Government at home shall use all the influence which diplomacy can exert to protect them and the
  1230
  people among whom they have been working for so long, from the consequences of the action of another European Power. It seems to me that prompt and vigorous action is required from all those who are interested in the welfare of the African people, and who have the safety of the missions and the honour of England at heart. I think, and I trust your Lordships will agree with me, that the time has come when a strong protest should be addressed without delay to the German Government against the threatened attack on Pangani and Tanga. My Lords, I think it might be represented to Prince Bismarck that such an attack must go far to destroy the fruits of the devoted labours of British missionaries, which, during 25 years, have cost this country most valuable lives and large sums of money, and must place the lives of the missionaries themselves in the gravest peril; that if any serious catastrophe, arising from the conduct of the German company, should occur, the feeling of indignation in England is likely to be so strong that it would make any cooperation with Germany in maintaining the blockade impossible; and that the German Government might therefore be asked to take immediate and effective action to restrain the company from undertaking military operations against Pangani and Tanga, or in any other place where they were likely to expose the missionaries to danger. My Lords, it does not appear to me that such remonstrances need be the less firm and decided because they are made in the most friendly and conciliatory spirit. We should, as it seems to me, frankly admit the very serious difficulties in which the German company have found itself placed, and we should express a most sincere desire to afford it every help in our power in endeavouring to extricate itself by peaceful means from the difficulties by which it is surrounded. What has already taken place on the African Coast, and in view of the present state of feeling of the native population, makes it impossible that peace and order can be re-established among them by force of arms without an expenditure of lives and money altogether out of proportion to any benefit that can be derived from it. My Lords, I think this state of things is also a proof of

  1231
  the evils resulting from conferring powers of government and administration on trading companies, as distinct from facilities for commercial enterprize. Your Lordships will remember that in 1833, when the Act for renewing the charter of the East Indian Company was passed, the company was prohibited from engaging in the future in any mercantile transaction, on the ground that it was not expedient to allow a body of traders to exercise the powers of government. The German company, if its attentions were confined to agriculture and commerce, might prove successful in deriving a profit from its operations; but the success of trade and agriculture is impossible without peace and order and the goodwill of the population, and all hope of these, for the present at least, has been lost by the harsh way in which the powers which the Sultan of Zanzibar was made to concede to them have been exercised, especially by the way in which duties on imports have been levied. This feeling of hostility to the company will certainly not be removed by further warlike proceedings, and while it lasts, neither agriculture nor commerce can be carried on with profit. Nor is it more likely that the company, after paying for the cost of maintaining its authority by force of arms, will realize a revenue by taxation which will afford the means of paying an interest on the capital of the shareholders. Considerations such as these, which are in the interests of the Germans themselves, might surely be submitted to Prince Bismarck, and might lead not only to such steps in the immediate present as are required to insure the safety of our missionaries, but to further arrangements in the future, to the great benefit of Africa and of commercial enterprize generally. Without entering, however, into these larger matters, I will only repeat that I earnestly hope, whatever else may be done or left undone, Her Majesty's Government will at once address an energetic protest to the German Government against the proposed attack on Pangani and Tanga. If that duty be not performed, and a disaster should be suffered by the British missionaries, I am convinced a very deep feeling of indignation will be aroused throughout the country. It has, indeed, been suggested that in order to avoid the dangers
  1232
  hanging over them the missionaries, should withdraw, but I do not think that any Member of this House would endorse such advice. Danger is no reason why the missionaries should withdraw. It is a reason why they should stay. It is not necessary to save one's life, but it is necessary to save it from dishonour. The missionaries cannot—they will not —abandon their converts, and leave them exposed to what is worse than death, the danger of apostasy. The Bishop writes in the most explicit terms to say:—
  "We should consider it the gravest dereliction of duty and disgraceful to us as Christians and missionaries to abandon the native Christians, and under no circumstances can we consent to do so."
  He and his clergy and the staff of the missions will remain at their posts, and, if need be, die at them. If they do they will have done their duty, and they will reap their reward; and I, for one, shall pity only those who, directly or indirectly, are responsible for a state of things which has produced such a wrong to our own country, such misfortune to Africa, and so great a disgrace to the English name.
  THE BISHOP OF LONDONI shall not take up very much of the time of your Lordships' House, but I wish to strongly emphasize the fact which has been so plainly pointed out by the noble Viscount, that it is absolutely impossible the missionaries should be withdrawn from their posts. It is not as if they had just gone there and were beginning their work. They have won a large number of converts; they have lived among those people and conciliated their affections; and it would be quite impossible for them in the hour of danger to withdraw without doing spiritual mischief such as it was impossible for ministers of the Gospel to contemplate. Any advice that might be given to the missionaries to withdraw from their posts would, I am certain, be quite useless, and, indeed, such advice ought not to be given. The circumstances are such as to make it imperative upon them to stay. My Lords, I do not venture to enter into details as to what should be done in this matter. I have the greatest confidence in the Government, and believe that they earnestly desire to see that right is done; but I think it might assist them in doing right if they were

  1233
  supported by a strong feeling in the country that every effort should be used to maintain peace in Zanzibar. If it be possible to put a stop to warlike operations, if the Government have it in their power by any means whatever to prevent or diminish bloodshed—and it is no ordinary bloodshed that is likely to result from the continuance of such warlike operations as are threatened—I would press upon the Government that the effort is a duty which they owe to both the interest and the honour of England.
  THE EARL OF SELBORNEMy Lords, I cannot help adding my voice to the appeals which have been made to the Government in this matter. I do not think there can be anything of much more importance in the interest of humanity than for us to do something now, if it be possible, towards paying the debt we owe to Africa for the wrongs we have done her for so many generations. I feel, my Lords—as indeed I am sure you must all feel—that it is a terrible reproach to European civilization, and to the Christian name, that apparently we cannot come into contact with savage tribes without doing them harm and wrong. My Lords, we have been for some time past endeavouring to repair the many wrongs we have done these people by all the means in our power. There is every ground for confidence that the efforts which are being made to carry civilization and the Gospel into the interior of Africa from the east coast will be successful in achieving a very great work if they are not interfered with. All the accounts which have reached us of the conduct of the noble band of men who have been engaged in that work, not only evoke the strongest sympathies of us all in the great work they are doing, but create the greatest confidence that, unless something is done to frustrate their work, it will bring blessing to Africa. Not much more than a year ago we had accounts of the devotion not only of the English missionaries, but of young men, their converts—Africans, negroes—who had been sent out, had stood the fire of a cruel persecution, and had suffered torture and death with a fortitude equal to that of the primitive Christian martyrs. The account of those young negro men who died by torture rather than do base and vicious acts at the command of the barbarous chieftain of
  1234
  the country in which they lived, was, I think, equal to any heroism that we can read of in history. I am sure that the work which is going on, so great and promising as it is, cannot fail to receive the respect and sympathy of all. Germans are now, by their military operations, in danger of counteracting this work in that region, in which they may be said to have first begun it; for it happens that about 50 years ago the first explorers of that region were two German missionaries, named Kraps and Isenberg. If the dangers now threatening this good cause were thoroughly understood by the German Government, I feel sure they would take means to compel their citizens to limit their warlike operations in the interest of humanity.
  THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURYMy Lords, I am unwilling to detain you by anything I can say in this matter lest I should take away from the effect which the eloquent yet cautious appeals made to your Lordships must produce. I can only add my testimony to what has been said, having been lately engaged in looking through the history of the work done by the missions. I must bear my testimony to the fact that the noble Viscount has made his statement upon the work of the missions without exaggeration, and that he has understated rather than overstated the good effected. The knowledge of this work has penetrated this whole country. I am sure I do not exaggerate when I say that a deep feeling of thankfulness has taken possession of all for the work done by these African missions. It was only last week that St. Paul's was filled with an immense congregation at a week-day morning service, and meetings equally crowded were held in the afternoon and evening to listen to addresses upon this subject from people who knew what they were saying. It is, I agree with the speakers who have already addressed your Lordships, altogether impossible that these benefactors of Africa can withdraw one foot. They have not only been doing their work as clergymen and civilizers, but they have already succeeded in planting settlements over a great tract of African Continent, and are moving onward in a new path. My Lords, if they were to withdraw, or were even advised to withdraw, this would be a thing unparalleled in the whole

  1235
  history of Christianity. Such a work, such a mission, has never been with drawn from yet by the Church for fear of danger. My Lords, I should like to point out that the danger is not merely the general danger which women, children, and missionaries are likely to suffer when a general state of warlike agitation exists in the country. All are of course placed in a position of danger. But there are distinct, definite dangers to which the very work that has been done peculiarly exposes these missions and converts. At this moment the news of the expected onset of war is travelling inland like a great wave rushing onwards among all the tribes of that part of Africa. When war does break out it is quite certain that the tribes of the interior will come pouring down, and making no distinction, will look upon all white faces as the faces of enemies. But, my Lords, there is another great danger which exists in the very excellence of the buildings which the missionaries have erected. Almost the only solid, substantial buildings in the districts are those which have been erected at these missions. The missionaries have built great granite churches, huge rectangular buildings and courts of all kinds for the purpose of carrying on their civilizing work. There is the definite certainty that those substantial buildings must be occupied by belligerents, either invaders or invaded, and they will he made the basis of operations if warfare begins at all. That, therefore, is a great danger to be avoided. There can be no doubt that the first burst of assault on either side will be delivered on the homes of the missionaries. It is not merely, therefore, protection of their persons that is wanted. If they were withdrawn, or if they removed in order to be taken care of, a great obstacle would be laid in the path of Christianity. It would be felt that these missionaries who came there with professions of love and zeal for the welfare of the African people were ready to desert their fellow Christians whom they had made believers, and to take care of themselves in the hour of danger. My Lords, I am sure there is an intense feeling throughout the country, which is deepening every day, a trust that some arrangement may be made between the German and the English Governments by which, in the
  1236
  first instance, the persons of the missionaries and their people might be protected, and, in the second, the whole cause saved from destruction.
  THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, I much wish that the notice of the noble Viscount had indicated more fully the subject matter he intended to bring before us, because he has mixed up with the matter indicated in his notice—that of immediate danger to the missionaries—many controverted questions with which it is impossible to deal unless sufficient notice has been given. There are questions of diplomacy which could not be raised in the absence of some of those who are largely responsible for what has passed. I am not prepared to give to the noble Lord's account of those transactions that testimony for accuracy which the most rev. Prelate has given to his account of the condition of the Universities mission. There are many points in respect of which I should challenge his account of the past. For instance, he spoke of German colonization having begun in 1888. I cannot follow his chronology, for it began with the German Protectorate in 1884. Negotiations went on at the end of Earl Granville's time, during the time I was at the Foreign Office, and during Lord Rosebery's time, and the line which the noble Lord alluded to, settling the limits of German and of English influence, was drawn about two months after Lord Iddesleigh came into office. No doubt this is a subject suitable for discussion; there are a great many interesting questions raised by it; but it is a subject which can only be examined by the light of the correspondence, if we had it in our hands, and which cannot be properly dealt with without any notice that it would be the subject of special consideration. We must draw a line at the time when the Germans became, by International Law, practically masters of the territory in question. The procedure by which they became masters of it is, of course, open to comment and discussion and to the examination of any responsibility that any Minister of the Crown may have had. When once we pass the time at which agreements were made and this territory had become to all intents and purposes German territory, it is then merely confusing the question to mix up the consideration as

  1237
  to how that territory was acquired with the events that subsequently occurred. Again, I must take exception to the terms in which the noble Lord described the blockade. He rather intimated that the two Powers which had undertaken it had done so without any intention to suppress the slave trade. I do not think there is the slightest foundation for such an insinuation. I believe that during the time the blockade has lasted the slave trade has been absolutely stopped; many hundred dhows have been searched; and in not more than one has any trace of the slave trade been discovered. The slave trade across the water has been absolutely stopped by these operations. Of course, you cannot stop a great crime of this kind without irritating the criminals. You must give up all hope of ever arresting this terrible scourge if you are to be deterred by the fear of what may be done by those who set it on foot and who get their living by it. You must brave their wrath if you are to carry your efforts to a successful conclusion. But the matter which is the subject of the noble Lord's question, and which, I think, is a proper subject for our consideration, has nothing to do with the original acquisition of the German territory. When the strip of coast was taken possession of by the German company it was terribly mismanaged. Great mistakes were made, and the result was a rising among the Mahomedans principally, aided by many natives, and this caused a vast calamity. If the noble Lord asks for our regret for that, we give it earnestly, but it is not we who caused the calamities. We had nothing to do with the conduct of the colonizing operations; we were not responsible for the mistakes that occurred or the calamities that followed them. Now, we are in the presence of this state of facts. The German Government say that for the sake of their military honour, for the sake of their colonial interests, for the sake of the rights they have acquired, it is essential to them as a nation to re-establish their supremacy upon those points of the coast where they have been defeated, and it is at their expense and under their authority that the operations are being conducted. The result of those military operations, which are just like any other military operations,
  1238
  which are as defensible or as indefensible as any other act of war, has been to cause a natural feeling of violent excitement and perturbation throughout the surrounding country—an awakening of animosities and quarrels and race hatreds, creed hatreds, and hatreds arising from prejudices. That state of things is not, of course, peculiar to those military operations; it is the same in any operations that may be conducted against any nation on any uncivilized coast—in any we may have conducted in the east or the south, just as much as in those conducted by the Germans. But most unhappily at a station not far from the coast there is established the Universities mission, which is maintained by Bishop Smythies and a devoted following from the Universities. I most freely and earnestly subscribe to all that has been said by the previous speakers in praise of the splendid self-denial of those men. It is impossible to speak of their high duties and action with too great enthusiasm. Whether they have on this occasion adopted a right course of conduct I very much doubt. They were warned by the Consul General in August last that their position was dangerous, and that they had better withdraw in time. They were warned again in November, they were warned again in April, and I believe they have just been warned once more. But to all those warnings they have turned a deaf ear. They said a higher duty than any earthly prudence impelled them to remain where they were. It is impossible to praise too highly the spirit which dictates such conduct, but the position of the secular authorities becomes embarrassing in the extreme. Every British subject has a right to appeal to the British Authorities to do all they can to protect him, to save his life and liberty, to rescue him in any difficulties. But as a corresponding duty he must conform to the advice of the secular authority to which he appeals; and this is what the missionaries decline to do. In those circumstances, they declining to move from this agitated district in the presence of great, immediate, but only temporary danger, and their friends at the same time here calling on the British Authorities to protect them, we are placed in a position which, I think, any one who will consider it calmly must acknowledge to be

  1239
  one in which we ought not to be placed. I do not believe that, if I may express my opinion on so great a question, it is an article of Christian duty to remain unnecessarily in the presence of danger which by reasonable precaution might be avoided. I do greatly honour the motives of the men doing those things, but I cannot honestly say that I think they have taken the wisest, best, and most Christian course. The noble Lord calls upon us to rescue them. How are we to do it? We cannot despatch an army. I do not suppose the noble Lord will recommend us to send the Mediterranean fleet to stop these operations. But he recommends us to try the exhortations of diplomacy. Does any one who has paid any attention to diplomatic history seriously think that the considerations on which the noble Lord dwelt with so much eloquence, passion, and evident sincerity have not been weighed by the men who are responsible for this conduct; and that coming from us, they will have the power of turning back the strong motives which are expressed in the words "military honour and Imperial necessity"? I can only say that heart and mind I am most earnestly with everything said by the noble Lords who have spoken; and whatever may be the subject matter of their recommendations the mere authority of the two right rev. Prelates and the noble Lords who spoke is enough to cause me to make earnest representations to the German Government. This I shall do, being urged to it by their representations and their high authority. But I do not for a moment say that I believe it is in the power of any diplomatic exhortation, or any exhortation of a higher kind than diplomatic, to put a stop to those military operations. The only sonnd, proper, and genuine way for the missionaries to reconcile their Christian duty with the danger in front of which they find themselves, and the only way to avert calamities, which will be heartrending to all who hear of them in this land, and which will give a terrible blow to the progress of Christian missions, is for them to withdraw for a time, for a brief time, in presence of a danger which is the necessary result of military operations, and which will disappear when those military operations are at an end. My voice is not strong enough
  1240
  to reach them. I have done my best, and I shall earnestly impress any possible precautions in this matter on the German Government. I trust that those devoted men may not suffer a fate which I cannot but feel that their own imprudent conduct has to some extent courted.

PUBLIC WORKS AT CAPE TOWN.
VISCOUNT SIDMOUTHMy Lords, I rise to move for all the correspondence that has passed between the Colonial Office and the Cape of Good Hope Government since November last with reference—first, to the continuation of the Cape Town Railway to Simon's Town; secondly, to the extension of the works connected with the docks in Table Bay. Your Lordships are well aware that a railway from Cape Town to Simon's Town, affording means of access to and fro, is a work of the greatest importance to the colony, and one involving no very great expense. You are aware also that our own Imperial interests are very considerable there, because it is the only station which we have for our ships; for, although there is some harbour accommodation at Table Bay, we have really no accommodation there for men-of-war. At Simon's Bay we have already laid out considerable sums, and it is for the purpose of protecting this sole harbour which we have for our ships on the East Coast that we ask for this railway. I believe that a small railway comes down for about seven miles from Simon's Town, but for commercial purposes it is utterly insufficient, and the sole purpose for which the railway has been commenced is to place Simon's Town in communication with our important station in that part of Africa. In 1884, when Lord Hartington was Secretary of State for War, a Report was made on our Colonial Stations, and in that Report I think your Lordships will find that Simon's Bay is stated to be a most important coaling station. It is considered in the same light of importance as any station in the Indian. Seas. I may mention that with regard to Table Bay, the sum asked for was £92,000. The large docks, which did not exist a few years ago, have been constructed by the Colonial Government; and Her Majesty's Government, having no dockyard in that part, and

1241
having no means whatever of accommodation for ships except that station, have availed themselves of those docks for the purpose of repairing several of Her Majesty's ships. In view of the accommodation, it seems to me not at all unreasonable that the Colonial Government should ask for the comparatively small sum of £92,000 to enable them to complete the works. Contingencies may arise—though I hope they may never do so—in which the opportunity of using those stations for Imperial purposes would be very valuable, and I raise my humble protest against any policy which would tend to alienate us from our fellow subjects at the Cape. The Cape stations have acquired—in the eyes of military and naval men—a greater importance than they possessed in past years, because it is necessary to keep that route to India open in the event of the Suez Canal being stopped at any time. Naval and military experts all agree that the Cape station is one that must be maintained, seeing its value as a coaling station. I am informed that the Cape Government have determined, in consequence, as they state, of having had very little notice taken of the complaints which they have addressed to Her Majesty's Government, to complete the works at this station themselves, and they have recently passed a Vote providing that the work shall be completed at their own expense. I hope that the noble Lord the Secretary of State for the Colonies will lay on the Table the correspondence which has passed between the Colonial Office and the Cape Government since last November, so that we may see whether the statements to which I have referred are correct or not. I therefore move for that correspondence.
Moved—
"That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty for all correspondence that has passed between the Colonial Office and the Cape of Good Hope Government since last November with reference—first, to the continuation of the Cape Town Railway to Simon's Town; secondly, to the extension of the works connected with the docks in Table Bay."—(The Viscount Sidmouth.)
LORD KNUTSFORDMy Lords, in answer to the question put by the noble Viscount, I am told that no correspondence has passed between the Cape
1242
Government and the Colonial Office since November, and therefore I am unable to to lay any Papers on the Table. I do not know to what the noble Viscount referred when he alluded to some complaint on the part of the Cape Government that their applications have been unanswered. The last application which was made by the Agent General in 1888, and a Paper has been presented to Parliament which contains the answer of the Colonial Office to that application. That answer was given on the 23rd of March, 1888, and it shows that Her Majesty's Government are fully alive to the importance of the question of the defence of the Cape. Her Majesty's Government have already expended, or undertaken to spend, £82,000 on guns and special fittings for Table Bay; and, besides that, they have already spent in Simon's Bay, or undertaken to spend, something like £48,000. Therefore, I think it is. going outside the mark to say that the Government are not aware of, and did not fully recognize, the importance of defending Table Bay and Simon's Bay. The Government also recognize fully the good work which the Colonial Government have done in respect of Table Bay; and I think they have shown their interet in that work by proceeding on the same lines with the Cape Government as they have with all other Colonial Governments—that is to say, that the local Government shall do the work and that the Imperial Government shall provide the armaments. That has been carried out in the case of the Cape Government. But, as I have said, there is no correspondence to lay on the Table.
VISCOUNT SIDMOUTHWe have been expecting communications to arrive.
LORD KNUTSFORDI can only say that no communications have arrived.
VISCOUNT SIDMOUTHThen I withdraw my application.

CUSTOMS AND INLAND REVENUE BILL. (No. 78.)

  THIRD READING.
  Order for Third Reading read.
  LORD ADDINGTONMy Lords, I desire to make a few observations upon this measure. I regard the Probate Duty as indefensible and unstatesman-

  1243
  like. The rule laid down by Adam Smith was that taxation should be levied according to a man's means and in the mode that is most convenient to
  him; but what can be more inconvenient than to tax the children of a deceased father with 4 per cent, which is to be provided out of the corpus? When the Probate Duty was introduced it was considered in its right character as simply giving to the person in charge of the probate the right to administer the property. But successive Ministers have turned it into a method of extortion, and the original 10s. stamp for probates of any value has grown up to its present proportions of 4 per cent ad valorem. I earnestly refer your Lordships to the
  practice of that great authority upon taxation. Mr. Pitt? The probate then charged was simply the stamps upon certificates granting to the person making probate the right to administer the property. Pitt carefully abstained from taxing wives or -children, because a wife is entitled to provision and the children are the natural heirs who have a right to their father's patrimony. The national income ought to be derived from individual incomes, according to the means of the individuals. Through the probate you tax at the most inconvenient time, and in the most inconvenient manner. This increase in the Death Duties is open to many objections. The Death Duties have been described as a charge upon accumulation; they act also upon property depressed by low rents and diminished prices. This increased taxation will fall upon landed property at a time, when, owing to agricultural depression its real value has been very greatly depreciated. There are hundreds of properties throughout the country which, owing to the extreme depression, have been so diminished in their productive value; that they hardly yield enough to pay the interest on mortgages, and yet those properties are to be still further diminished by this tar, Is not that a cruelty? With his property probably mortgaged up to the hilt what is a man to do? I Say that it is difficult to conceive any thing more monstrous in the present state of the agricultural interest, than the imposition of this tax in the case of properties which have either come down in value by inherited burthens or grown
  1244
  up by accumulation. I hold that this is a tax which is wholly indefensible, and I enter my most solemn protest against this kind of legislation, which is entirely antagonistic to the best teachings of political economy. Those who are responsible for it do not follow the principles of Adam Smith, and their legislation is at variance with the views alike of the greatest writers on political economy, and of the ablest financiers.
  THE EARL OF FEVERSHAMMy Lords, I hope the time will never come when this House will give merely a formal assent to measures of this description. In the financial arrangements of the Government the Chancellor of the Exchequer has, on the whole, been very successful in his general policy; but at the same time, I cannot but regret that he has not been more successful in relation to those taxes which press more or less upon the agricultural interest. I agree with much that has fallen from the noble Lord who has just spoken. I think this tax will fall with undue heaviness on the agricultural interest, and will practically result in an increase of taxation on land. The landed interest is, on the contrary, entitled to relief from taxation, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted last year by his proposed van and horse tax. I hope the van and horse tax will be re-introduced, or that Her Majesty's Government will find some other substitute to relieve the taxation falling on land. I also regret the proposed increase in the duty on beer. The increase is not great, but small matters of this kind are very irritating. The right hon. Gentleman has invited the County Councils throughout the country to express their opinions upon the matter. Some of them have expressed their opinions, and others have not. At the same time, I think they all more or less unite in the hope that some substitute may be found for the taxation falling on land. It is always with reluctance that I differ from proposals put forward by the head of Her Majesty's Government; but I cannot help asserting that, instead of increasing the taxation on the landed interest, as is now proposed, what is wanted is some scheme that will carry out the promise of the Government made last year with regard to relieving that taxation.
  THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, I fully agree with my noble Friends that the Death Duties are a bad tax, but every tax may be so described. Money has, however to be got, and the question that has to be solved by Her Majesty's Government is not as to finding an ideal tax, but as to what tax is the least undesirable under the circumstances which surround us. My noble Friend, Lord Addington, referred to high authorities, but I am afraid he must admit that the current of authority is against any large increase of indirect taxation. I cannot agree with the noble Lord's views as to income tax. It is not wise on every exigency to resort to an increase of the income tax. The foundation of that tax was that its imposition was to be a great financial resource in cases of national emergency. If any great trouble was to come upon us, as long as the income tax is kept low in ordinary times, we shall have in it enormous resources at our command. On the general ground of policy, therefore, I think it would be unwise to force that tax too high. It has been urged that this Budget will press very heavily on land. But it is difficult to see why Death Duties should press unduly on the agricultural interest. The accumulations to be dealt with at death far oftener take the form of personalty than of land, and it is calculated that this tax will bring in far more from personalty than from land. With regard to the horse and van tax of last year, to which reference has been made, it is to be regretted that that tax did not commend itself to public opinion, but it must be borne in mind that it met with severe criticism from many of those who represented the agricultural interest. If the County Councils express themselves in favour of these taxes, they will not find the Chancellor of the Exchequer disinclined to push them forward; but if both the County Councils and the agricultural interest are opposed to them, I am afraid they would not have friends enough to secure their acceptance by the Legislature. My Lords, my only apology for this tax is that money was required for a great purpose, and there was no other way of obtaining it without causing greater inconvenience than this Budget will create by the imposition of this temporary tax; and, without in the least denying the objectionable
  1246
  character of this tax in several particulars, Her Majesty's Government feel that they had no other choice before them but to make the proposal or to forego the expenditure required by the necessities of the country.
  Bill read 3a (according to order), and passed.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACT (1855) AMENDMENT BILL. (No. 50.)
Read 3a. (according to order), and passed.
INDECENT ADVERTISEMENTS BILL.(No. 77.)
Read 3a (according to order), and passed, and sent to the Commons.
NAVAL DEFENCE BILL. (No. 80.)
  PALATINE COURT OF DURHAM BILL. (No. 71.)
  House in Committee (according to order); Bills reported without Amendment; and to be read 3a on Friday next.
NATIONAL DEBT BILL. (No. 79.)
Read 3a (according to order), and passed.
ASSIZES RELIEF BILL. (No. 96.)

  ARBITRATION BILL. (No. 97.)
  Reported from the Standing Committee for Bills relating to Law, &c., with Amendments: The Report thereof received; and Bills re-committed to a Committee of the whole House on Friday next; and to be printed as amended.
  Standing Committees for General Bills and for Bills relating to Law, &c.
  Ordered, That the Standing Committees have leave to print and circulate the Bills as amended by them.
  House adjourned at Six o'clock, to Friday next, a Quarter past Ten o'clock.