Mr. Jephson, the African explorer, delivered a lecture in Birmingham
on Wednesday, pleading for the proposal which was made on Thursday in Parliament to grant £20,000 for the survey of a railway from Mombassa to the north-west, shore of the Victoria Nyanza. This railway would open up a. large and fertile region, give us the control of the great lake, enable us to arrest the slave-raids, and ultimately secure the sovereignty of Uganda, the most valuable Kingdom in East Africa, where the Court shows a strong disposition towards Christianity. The railway, it is said, cannot be built without a guarantee, and a survey is indispensable to ascertain its feasibility and its cost. It was, however, strongly opposed by Mr. Gladstone, and the debate stood adjourned to Friday night, so that we cannot record its result. We dislike these guarantees exceedingly, more especially when they are really given to- benefit Companies half-sovereign, half-trading. There is no- limit to their possible number or amount, nor can there be any effective check upon the cost of construction, the dislike to waste a million because another half-million is wanted, being excessive. We do not see why the British East Africa Company, if it believes in the project, cannot find the money for it on its own credit—the sum will be only £2,000,000—or why its managers hesitate about making the survey. The ex- perts, however, are all against us, and if the survey is regarded. as an exploring expedition, £20,000 is not much to pay for information which will, at all events, enable the House of Commons to act or refuse to act upon full and accurate data
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