22 SEPTEMBER 1906, Page 2

It was announced on Tuesday that Sir Frederick Lngard had

resigned his post as High Commissioner for Northern Nigeria. The tenure of the office had been fixed at six years, a period which Sir Frederick has already exceeded, and it is natural that he should wish a rest from a labour so immense and exacting. Sir Frederick Lugard, who is still a young man with a long career, we trust, before him, has done more than any one living to reclaim on behalf of civilised govern- ment and British rule the dark places of the African Con- tinent. It is to his exertions that we owe Uganda and our East Africa Protectorate. The Colony of Northern Nigeria he may be said to have created himself. Taking up the work bequeathed by the Royal Niger Company, he conquered the predatory tribes, and extended the reign of law to the edge of the Sahara and the marshes of Lake Chad. He can lay down his present task with the full knowledge that he has built the foundations of a great Colony. His tasks have not been of a sensational character; he has never become a faniiliar name to the British public ; but few men have to their credit years of such strenuous and self-sacrificing toil.