Lagos has been chastised for daring to resist English dictation,
and has been destroyed. In the fulness of philanthropy, the mis- sionaries and the officers of the British Government had called upon the potentate of that African town to discontinue slave- trading : perhaps on account of his compliance, he was dethroned, and his brother reigned in his stead. The unseated majesty of Lagos took refuge with the British, and they resolved to restore him. Repulsed in November, they returned with greater force in 3)ecember, defeated King Kosoko with great slaughter, and reinstated Atikoye. It was bloody work on both sides ; though the Africans suffered most from the British compassion for the Negro. Conscience obliged Commodore Bruce to suspend the Christian labour on Christmas Day. However, it is done : Anti- slavery is enthroned at Lagos, British honour is rehabilitated, and we are pledged to keep on propping Atikoye upon his precarious seat of power. at if Kosoko were to invoke foreign aid, and were to reappear with a French contingent ? That appeal to the lex talionas might transfer the quarrel to London and Paris. Louis Napoleon might not covet that transfer—at present. If our squad- ron does not meet with some check of that sort, it will probably be engaged to prop up pretenders all along the coast ; and in that case it would need considerable reinforcements. Of course, we could spare them, as we have just withdrawn part of the fleet that we engaged to watch over the peace of Portugal; and while our brave men are employed on those distant enterprises of philanthropy and love, we, with Mr. Cobden, can rely for our own protection on the wisdom which is enthroned in Paris, and on the honour of French generals.
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