The correspondent of the New York Herald at Brussels publishes
a statement about the Congo Free State which is supposed to emanate from King Leopold himself. If so, it is a frank defiance to the opinion of the world. The author of the statement denies that the King of the Congo State derives his rights from any European arrangemetit.. The State, be says, is the King's property, purchased with his money, and Germany has no more right to interfere with it than he would have to interfere with a German colony. All the charges made against the Government are " wild," the Government having only replaced anarchy by "order." Most of all this is rhetoric, but it has a very serious meaning for the unhappy Congolese, the King, if this state- ment is his, being evidently determined not to surrender his right to sell monopolies, which are used to extort heavy dividends for the monopolists by means of labour secured by cruelties unusual even in Africa. The fact that King Leopold is- proprietor as well as Sovereign cannot diminish his responsibility for the people who were unquestionably committed by Europe to his charge in the belief that he would introduce among them a civilised and humane system of government.
