contrary, from maintaining their lying charges with a persistency which could not fail to create an impression. It is to be regretted that Mr. Casement[19] was not put on his guard against the statements of the blacks, and especially by this incident, of which he could not have been ignorant, since the missionary concerned accompanied him during the inquiry into the case of Epondo, whom the natives also represented to have been the victim of a criminal act. I will, by another example revealed during a recent inquiry, show how much the charges brought against the Administration of the State are wanting in prudence. Some correspondence from a missionary published in England has given rise to violent comments in the press of that country upon the Congo Free State. When invited by the State Prosecutor to formulate and present his charges, this missionary did not allege anything against the State agent, whom, in his writings he had charged with responsibility for odious crimes. He had invoked, as corroborating his own statement, the affirmations that other European agents had made to him; he declared by what follows that these affirmations were to be kept strictly confidential. “It is true,” he adds, “that these facts have been published, but as the publication was made in England I thought that the confidence placed in my discretion was not betrayed.” He also declares that “before accepting the responsibility of revealing and specifying in a precise manner the facts, he desires to consult, and take the opinion of, if not a barrister, at least some one knowing Congolese law, and that the extracts published of his letter have not perhaps been made with strict precision of language.” In short, the want of clearness, the subterfuges of the examination, attracted the attention of the State Prosecutor, and left on his mind the most unfavourable impression as to the good faith of this missionary, and as to his highly blameworthy manner of recognising the hospitality that he has hitherto enjoyed in the Congo. [Illustration: Children of the Settlement School, Boma.] I have entered into these few details in order to show the occasionally inconsiderate character of the attacks directed against our Administration. [Sidenote: Intrigues against the State.]