"Briefly to note the defects of the seven Articles. No. I makes all public trading in slaves, negroes, and Abyssinians, illegal, vaguely punishable by law. Good; but also Article II., which condemns slavers guilty of _vol avec meutre_, and would punish the Jellábs as murderers, is so severe that it defeats its own object. Article III. promises well in favour of released slaves, who, it gratuitously assumes, cannot be returned to their homes; but does not specify the measures. Article IV. pursues as murderers all 'mutilators' of, and 'traffickers' in, children; the former would be justly punished; but the latter would escape. Article V. refers to a special ordinance concerning slave traffic in the Egyptian dominions. Article VI. concedes the right of search, but allows an open door of escape for slaving vessels; and, finally, Article VII. fixes the date when the Convention shall become operative. Annex A. establishes a special slave department at Alexandria and Cairo to carry out the Convention. Of this mere 'blind' sufficient has already been said. A supplement of four articles prohibits private sale and transfer of black slaves from family to family, after seven years (1884) in Egypt proper and twelve years (1889) in the Soudan. This measure should have been made immediate under pain of fine and imprisonment; the custom has long been the favourite excuse and subterfuge for the import trade; and now, while _wholesale_ is forbidden, _retail_ is permitted. Lastly, the supplementary article, No. III., abolishes the traffic in white slaves (_i.e._ Circassians), male and female, after the expiration of seven years (1884). Here again is another undoubted error of judgment; the white 'chattel,' a mere article of luxury and _luxure_, should have been made at once contraband. "Nor was Colonel Gordon's scheme for the suppression of slavery less criticized. That energetic officer again proposed (_Anti-Slavery Reporter_, p. 120, November, 1880) a permanent Consul at Suakin, the great outlet of North-eastern Africa; a Vice-Consulate at Masáwwah, and a Consul-General for the Soudan, with a roving commission, and head-quarters at malarious Khartum. He would also--(1) register existing slaves; (2) proclaim that non-registered slaves are free; and (2) forbid Arabs passing into the Bahr el-Ghazal basin without passport or guarantee that the travellers will not buy slaves. The same precaution was to be taken for Dar-Fur, 'of whose population at least two-thirds has been carried away into slavery.' But Consuls are not dictators--they may be useful in reporting, but they cannot put down the scandal. In fact, all these measures are mere palliatives when humanity calls aloud for a cure. We must strike at the _fons et origo mali_.