It is rumoured that the "Zanzibar incident" may have very
serious consequences indeed. This incident is the concession by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the contract for a steam line from the Cape to Zanzibar to a Company, the Union Steamship Company, for £26,000 a year. It was maintained by Mr. Holms, in the debate of Monday, that this very Company had agreed to do the work for £15,000, which was true, but in con- sideration of other advances since withdrawn ; and that another Company had offered to do it for £16,350. Mr. Lowe said he did not know that, and asked an adjournment to ascertain the facts. He made a good defence, arguing that Government owed the Union Company a good turn for its prompt help in putting down the slave trade, and might have made a better one, for the House was not half aware of the bigness of his scheme, which evidently was to give us a second P. & O. Com- pany and an alternative route to Asia. Still, pending new facts, it cannot be denied, as we have shown elsewhere, that he was in ignorance over-liberal ; and if the House choose to say so, or if the Cabinet choose to cancel his contract, he can scarcely stay in power. It is a little hard that after being bullied for five years for his economy he should be turned out, if he is turned out, for an act of generosity done with a high imperial motive.
