A remarkable deputation, representing, in fact, all three of the
Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, waited on Friday week on Lord Salisbury, to protest against the Portuguese pretensions to rule over Nyassaland. That little Power, availing itself of its weakness, has been putting forward perfectly monstrous claims, and as an ally of the slave- dealers, may one day compel England and Germany to give it a rough lesson. Lord Salisbury, as Foreign Secretary, was guarded in his reply ; but he made two or three points very clear. He does not intend that Portugal should monopolise the Zambesi, or tax goods passing through its mouths too much. He held the idea of an attack by the Portuguese on British missions to be idle, as idle as an attack by them on Cape Town,—a very strong hint to Lisbon. He also held that, although her Majesty's Government was not going to Nyassa- land, that territory, the centre of mission activity, was not Portuguese, and might be occupied by individual Englishmen or Colonising Companies. That compromise will do for the present ; but if the Portuguese go on winking at the sale of arms to the slavers, and therefore at the slaughter of English- men and Germans, it will be well if Lord Salisbury occupies Goa, and Prince Bismarck Mozambique. There must be limits even to the tyranny of weakness.
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