started in Sierra Leone. The Gold Coast poll-tax having been a failure, a liquor license was in this year (1865) attempted. Trade was not promising, though there was a 'certain amount' of legitimate commerce which was fostered to counteract the slave trade. The success of the. scheme for the education of liberated slaves is reported as very doubtful, while the checking of barbarous customs was quite ineffectual 'Countless treaties' had been made with the native tribes for the suppression of the slave (oversea) trade, commerce, amity, and territorial cession, some also for protection, but they were vague and not properly understood.
The Select Committee reported that in their opinion the assumption of governmental functions had been wrong, (a) because the West Coast was not adapted to colonization by British settlers; (b) because British law was inapplicable to native customs, and our assumption of responsibility brought no adequate advantage to the natives, whom it enervated and disunited by teaching them to lean on the Government England was pledged to vague responsibilities, and 'to administer a country which we cannot even tax as subject' The forces required involved a dangerous scattering of our officers, who might be required for a war nearer home, and a great loss of life and destruction of health, both bodily and mental. To govern properly, said the Committee, needs a much larger expenditure, a more thorough occupation of the country, and larger public works. Meanwhile, for the suppression of the slave trade it would be a wiser policy to maintain forts and treaties only, while commercial agents must keep on good terms with the natives without the assistance of Government force. Basing their conclusions on premises such as these, in which the great extension of tirade which has taken place in the last forty years had not been foreseen, and the white man's civilizing mission towards the inferior races was not recognised, it is not surprising to find that the Committee recommended immediate reduction, though not complete abandon-
