of progress which was opened by the abolition of slavery.
One difficulty is that the industrial centres of England do not believe in the existence of this potential wealth. They have yet to be convinced that, without meddling with their neighbours' tariffs, without involving themselves in commercial wars, or other disturbances which they dread on the field of normal trade, there lie within the Empire markets almost untouched as yet which may be indefinitely enlarged
Were the resources of the tropical Crown Colonies developed, their populations would not be stationary. The first effect of British administration in tropical Africa is to put a stop to the practices of slave-raiding and intertribal war. Slave-raiding—by which large tracts of country are annually desolated and the able-bodied male population slaughtered, while women, children, and boys are carried away into captivity—is as destructive to the race of man as indiscriminate hunting is to any kind of game. Yet the populous regions of tropical Africa have been raided for centuries, and man is still relatively thick upon the soil. The race is so persistent that it has endured. Let it be preserved with even a moderate amount of care, as elephant and buffalo are in certain regions preserved, and it will increase at a rate which may be a peril or an advantage according to the manner in which it is treated by the white man. It is not difficult to foresee a period when the existing 12,000,000 or 20,000,000 of Northern Nigeria may be increased to a total approaching the present total of India; and the same may probably be said with truth of other tropical Colonies. It does not follow that in every instance the increase should be made entirely with their present inhabitants. Were the circulation of native labour within the Empire free, it would be the aim of enlightened administration to attract to the less populous but naturally fertile districts immigration of the most desirable kind.
It is, therefore, advisedly that we speak of markets
