We place before the pubic this evening a (The Tier.) proposition which for magnitude, novelty, and possible, or rather imaginable consequences may rank with any scheme or suggestion of this most adventurous age. What does the reader think of extinguishing the whole question of slavery and slave traifie by getting rid of the African race altogether, and stocking that interesting but rather troublesome Continent with a new, independent, and responsible population? That, and nothing less, is the idea conceived by one whose name would of itself suffice to obtain a hearing for his proposals. Captain Francis Galton is an accom-Plshed writer and an experienced traveler.
fe knows Africa as few men know it, and he is qualified to take an accurate measure of the black man and his capacities, His conclusion is that the sooner the whole race is superseded by one more promising, the better will it be for the world; and his desigu—or, as he modestly entitles it, his speculation—consists in making the Chinaman the successor of the Negro. England is to be the chief agent in this ethnical revolution. We are to make it ''a part of our national policy" to encourage and establish Chinese settlements at "one or more suitable places on the East "Coast of Africa and it is the belief of our correspondent that from this beginning the w-comers "would not only maintain their position, but would multiply, and their desfendants would supplant the inferior Negro "race." Of course, this process would not be Tong confined to the East Coast of the Continent. Once settled on the soil, the hardy and prolific Chinese would people tract after tract of what is now vacant or half-inhabited territory, and in the end the gain would be immense to the whole civilized world, if we "were to outbreed and finally displace the "Negro as completely as the latter has displaced the aborigines of the West Indies. There!—The reader, if his breath is not taken away, may now say what he thinks of this transformation of a whole quarter of the globe.
Some steps of the argument may undoubtedly be conceded. China can spare the copie. It could part with 100,000,000 of its inhabitants and never miss thei, or miss them only to the advantage and satisfaction of the rest. In a country not half the size of Brazil—we speak of China proper—there are now packed at least 350 millions of luiman creatures; nor could anything, indeed, short of the marvellous thrift and' patience of the Chinaman resist the pressure of such a population on the soil. On the other side, Africa can find room for the invaders. Enough, at any rate, is known of its interior to convince us that it is half, or more than half, empty, and that *enornious regions"—more enormous a8 our correspondent suggests, than we imagine—are available for immigration and settlement. We must admit, too, that if the Chinaman is to be contrasted with the Negro, he shows to incontestable advantage. He is, we believe, all that he is here described as being, and there is nothing unreasonable in the assumption that his development would be stimulated and facilitated by removal to a free and open settlement. It is true, also, that the world's history is full of the' placement of populations," and that race after race has been almost everywhere supplanted by something. fitter and better than steel In India the discoveries of this kind are marvellous. We can hardly find such a thing as aboriginal or earthborn people. In the rudest hill tribes or forest claus there are remnants of a population still ruder and older, whose position and occupation indicate a conquered class. So we can well understand how wave after wave of population may have swept over Africa, and go on to persuade ourselves that the process may be repeated once more without violence to the onder of nature.
Having arrived, however, at this stage of the question, we are disposed to think the Aifficulties of the prospect more considerable than they appear to our sanguine correspondent. Certainly, there is no reason why any "national jealousy" should be excited by our proceedings, but we are not prepared to say that such sentiments would be altogether wanting. Then, on whose land are we to place these colonists? It is acknowledged that a political effort" might be necessary to secure a free right of occupancy and settlement," and, considering that the occnponey and settlement are designed to lead to the appropriation of the entire soil, we should think the effort must be rather a strong one. No doubt all outsiders ''commercial ly interested in those parts" might be benefited by the results, but how about the present occupants themselves? There are certain old friends, of, ours associated for wwe should fancy, have a word to say to this aborigines' protection " purposes who would,
scheme for extirpating outright the entire breed of their most favoured clients. But, above all, is it quite certain that the Chinaman bimsel? would be a consenting party? As a rule, the Chinese, though ready" enough to eave their homes in search of employment, are resolutely bent upon going back again. It is only for a time that they turn their backs upon their native land. They. go out, rationally enough, to make their fortunes, but when their fortunes are made they return to China. [t may be all very true that they live there in a "dark age" and under an "effete system," but for all that they. are attached to their country. If they have little religion, they have, in the old sense of the word, a good deal of piety. They cling to their ancestral sacrifices and ceremonies, and, however stiffly they may be manacled by si stition and custom, they hug their chains.
in fact, our corresponilent seems to be aware that nothing short of political disturbance at home would ever drive Uhinese communities abroad. It might, of course, be a different thing when large Uodies of these people had once fairly settled themselves with their household gods in some new region. 'They might then invite their countryuten to follow their example and come among them, but we sus pect that anything like a wholesale migration' would be out of the question for a very long while.
It is not clear that the Chinese would be persuaded to change their domicile, but there:
nothing strange in the longing eyes turned. towards that empire by people disgusted with i improvidence, incompatibility, tion of those around them. The Chinaman gives no trouble to his rulers, his neighbours, or his companions. In spite, as it appears, of a classical education, he is humble, laborious, contented and quiet. He can turn his hand to almost anything, is singular. ly inoffensive, and has an instinctive capacity for self-government, which saves those above him a world of trouble, 'The people, moreover, thus qualified amount, it is said, toa third of the man race; so that the supply is practically unlimited.' Very wisely, therefore, has our correspondent this morning lected them for the future owners of Africa, He dismisses the Hindoos as comparatively competent, and disposes of the Arabs in tons at which readers with Semitic proclivities will probably feel indignant. Indeed, we: are ready to acknowledge that if the Africans are to be gradually extruded from Africa and finally extinguished, the Chinese are the people todo the work, There would be an advantage, it cannot be denied, in getting a Continent full of industrious, ingenious, in-deponent, and self-supporting luhai instead of a territory thinly stocked fierce barbarians, inveterate man-stealers, or "lazy palavering savages." The political relief and economical profit which would follow when slavery had become impossible, can hardly be exaggerated. Captain Galton endeayours to estimate the result by means of a converse supposition, and asks us to calculate "the loss that would ensue if China were somehow to be depopulated and re-stocked "by Negroes." Undoubtedly the loss as well as the inconvenience to the world would be exceedingly great, but the depopulation " of Continent is rather a serious matter, and haps the Negro would not retire from the face of the earth without a struggle. He has certainly given his friends a great deal of trouble, and the account, we fear, is not quite closed even yet; but though we correspondent's opinion of his inferiority to the Chinaman as a specimen of humanity, we are not sure that the world is prepared for the substitution of one race for the other after the fashion proposed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.