The King of the Belgians has given up the attempt
to retain the Congo State as a personal possession of his family. He originally expended on the dependency a sum of £1,600,000, inherited from his father ; but the receipts have not equalled the expenditure by £40,000 a year, and he can no longer meet so great an annual loss. He would, therefore, sell the Manyema province to Colonel North, who offers a sum which would cover the deficit ; but the Belgian Ministers object, and would prefer to take over the vast territory and make of it a colony of the Belgian Kingdom. The King accedes to this proposal, which finds favour with the Clerical majority ; but it is by no means certain that Parliament will agree, many Members of all parties fearing that the agree- ment will involve taxation. The French Government, which possesses or claims right of pre-emption over the Congo State, agrees to its annexation to Belgium, and the remainder of Europe has no intention of opposing ; but the arrange- ment is not wholly satisfactory. A neutralised State has no means of easily managing Colonies, and the destiny of the Congo State, which interests Germany, France, and England, may easily prove too weighty for the strength of Belgium. Still, the experiment will probably be made, and will be watched by the civilised world with sympathetic interest, but doubt.
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