“The President continues to hope that the Government of the U. S., which was the first to recognize the Congo Free State, will not be one of the last to give it the assistance of which it may stand in need.”—_Remarks of Belgian President of Brussels Conference, session May 14, 1890._ [Illustration: A WITNESS BEFORE THE COMMISSION REV. JOHN H. HARRIS MISSIONARY AT BARINGA, CONGO STATE ] [Illustration: A WITNESS BEFORE THE COMMISSION LOMBOTO A NATIVE OF BARINGA, CONGO STATE ] “There, great chiefs from Europe, stands the man who has murdered our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters for rubber. Why, why I say, has he done this?”—_The witness Lomboto, confronting the Director of the A. B. I. R. Society at the hearing at Baringa._ OUGHT KING LEOPOLD TO BE HANGED?[4] INTERVIEW BY MR. W. T. STEAD WITH THE REV. JOHN H. HARRIS, BARINGA, CONGO STATE, IN THE ENGLISH REVIEW OF REVIEWS FOR SEPTEMBER, 1905. For the somewhat startling suggestion in the heading of this interview, the missionary interviewed is in no way responsible. The credit of it, or, if you like, the discredit, belongs entirely to the editor of the _Review_, who, without dogmatism, wishes to pose the question as a matter for serious discussion. Since Charles I’s head was cut off, opposite Whitehall, nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the sanctity which doth hedge about a king has been held in slight and scant regard by the Puritans and their descendants. Hence there is nothing antecedently shocking or outrageous in the discussion of the question whether the acts of any Sovereign are such as to justify the calling in of the services of the public executioner. It is not, of course, for a journalist to pronounce judgment, but no function of the public writer is so imperative as that of calling attention to great wrongs, and no duty is more imperious than that of insisting that no rank or station should be allowed to shield from justice the real criminal when he is once discovered. Footnote 4: The above article which came to hand as the foregoing was in press is commended to the king and to readers of his Soliloquy.—M. T.