Prince Bismarck has summoned a Conference to meet in Berlin,
and settle once for all the position of Europe on the Niger and the Congo, and the formalities through which each nation will take possession of any riverine territory it claims. He has suggested to the French Government, which has agreed, that the best plan will be to place each river under an Interna- tional Commission, after the plan adopted on the Danube. It is believed that Great Britain will accept this proposal ; and some journalists are very angry, but without any visible reason. An internationalised river becomes for commercial purposes an arm of the sea, and we shall have as much access to the upper shores of the Congo as we have to the shores of the English Channel. What more do we want to give us seventy per cent. at least of all African trade It is alleged that we shall lose the opportunity of annexing profitable terri- tory; but we shall have as much chance as everybody else, and besides, we have more tropical marshes, more black subjects, and more white desperadoes to govern than we want. We annex in Asia and Polynesia faster than we can digest ; and had much better leave West Africa, so far as territorial dominion is concerned, to other nations. They will not like the work half so much as they think they will.
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