The Government of the Congo Free State is trying, through
the journals of Brussels, to put' forward a' defend() of the monopolies it has sold, which are the grand cause of the oppressions in the State. Its defence is substantially that the right to create monopolies is inherent in sovereignty, which is a mere evasion, the contention being that the right was surrendered when, by the arrangements at Berlin, all nations alike were allowed to trade in the new State, which exists only by virtue of those arrangements. We must add that the real question at issue is not the grant of monopolies to traders, but the tacit permission which accompanies them to oppress the people in ways inconsistent either with humanity or civilisation for the sake of gain. If the monopolists will earn their profits without oppressing the natives, the oppo- sition of Europe will be reduced from a cry of horror to a mere complaint that there is not sufficient freedom of trade. It is not by desire of profit, but by listening to accounts like those of Captain Burrows and Mr. Morrison, that the British mind has been stirred.
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