Page:The slave trade of east Africa.djvu/24

20 to cover the foreign Slave-trade. The limits of this article prevent our giving at length the arguments adduced by Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Churchill for a reconsideration of the policy of our Government in this matter,—they are to be found in the pamphlet published by the Church Missionary Society; —it will be sufficient for our purpose to say, that they point out the absurdity of supposing that an export trade of 20,000 slaves annually is needed to maintain the status of domestic slavery in Zanzibar and the Sultan's African dominions; and concur in suggesting either that the Sultan be urged to surrender the protected trade entirely, or to consent to a gradual reduction of the number of slaves to be brought into Zanzibar to a minimum of 4000; at the same time granting our cruisers such a right of search as would practically blockade the whole of these waters, save a small limit over which the vessels of Zanzibar, furnished with proper clearances from Kilwa, might carry the slaves required for the island of Zanzibar. The Sultan, personally, is supposed to be anxious to check and suppress the trade; and, when urged to relinquish his treaty right of carrying slaves, has expressed his willingness to do so, provided our Government will, in return, refrain from compelling him to pay the subsidy which it was arranged should be paid to Muscat, on the partition of the dominions of the old Imaum. Apart from the question of the relinquishment of the treaty rights, the Sultan prays to be released from this payment, giving as his reason that it was contrary to all principles of right that he should continue to pay a subsidy to a parricide and usurper; his brother, with whom the compact was made, having been foully murdered by his son, who usurped his throne. So strongly does the Sultan appear to have felt this, that he sent an embassy to England to obtain from our Government a release from the hateful subsidy. The presence of these envoys afforded an opportunity, which was seized by the Church Missionary Society, of approaching the Government; and as the matter was within the purview of the India Office, a