The Minister of Justice has just authorised Belgian magistrates who may be desirous to do so, and be accepted by the Congo Free State, to undertake, by a limited engagement, to serve as judges in the Congo,—and for that purpose, to obtain leave of absence without pay, save that their rights of seniority in the Belgian magistracy are to be reserved.... The Congo has been for us a field of heroism. It has enabled numerous Belgians, who were smothering within their frontiers, to prove their value in a much broader sphere, where territorial, political, and diplomatic conditions permitted some display of their inborn qualities, and to reveal themselves first-class pioneers, soldiers, and administrators. If considered only from an ideal point of view, this advantage is well worth something. And those of our officers who out there have put down slavery, pacified the native tribes, opened the ways of navigation, commerce, and industry, created agricultural stations, depots, railways, forest exploitations, and roads will surely from this point of view alone have rendered our little country as much service as they could have rendered it in the service of our garrisons. It has often been said that narrow frontiers mean narrow ideas. To broaden our horizon, is to broaden our ideas. It seems to us that without going beyond these considerations, this decision taken by our Department of Justice deserves to be commended. Without any burden on our Treasury on that account,—since the Belgian judges serving in the Congo will, during the term of their service, cease to draw upon our budget,—our magistracy will be losing nothing of their value, so justly appreciated, by delegating a few of their members—selected from the youngest—in those new regions where their knowledge of law, coming into more direct contact than at home with nature and practical needs, will acquire renewed strength at the very springs of equity and juridical conscience. At the same time, their authoritative participation in the colonial undertaking will contribute to do away with the very suspicion of those abuses which, after being systematically exaggerated by interested opponents, have been used as a pretence for this deplorable Congophobe campaign which has led away in England a few minds more generous than enlightened. Fortified in this manner, the Congolese magistrates, who even now worthily bear comparison with any colonial magistracy, will, by the mode of their recruitment, and their own merit, command respect from our adversaries.