The part which Queen Victoria’s Government has taken in the recognition of the flag of the Association as that of a friendly Government warrants me in expressing the satisfaction with which we regard the constitution of this new State, due to the initiative of His Majesty the King of the Belgians. During long years the King, dominated by a purely philanthropic idea, has spared nothing, neither personal effort nor pecuniary sacrifice, which could contribute to the realisation of his object. Yet the world at large regarded these efforts with an eye of almost complete indifference. Here and there his Majesty attracted some sympathy, but it was somehow rather the sympathy of condolence than that of encouragement. People said that the enterprise was beyond his resources, that it was too great for him to achieve success. We now see that the King was right, and that the idea he pursued was not utopian. He has brought it to a happy conclusion, not without difficulties, but the very difficulties have made the success all the more striking. While rendering to his Majesty this homage by recognising all the difficulties that he has surmounted, we salute the new-born State with the greatest cordiality, and we express the sincere desire to see it flourish and grow under his ægis. Baron de Courcel (France) said: “The new State owes its origin to the generous aspirations and the enlightened initiation of a prince surrounded by the respect of Europe.” Other members of the Conference were as warm as the representatives of Great Britain and France in their eulogy of the great work achieved by King Leopold, and their opinions of his Majesty’s life-work were admirably summed up by Prince Bismarck in his speech closing the Conference, in the course of which he referred to the consolidation of the Congo Free State as a “precious service to the cause of humanity.” Central Africa had now become in all essential respects a State. It had been recognised as such by the United States on April 22, 1884, seven months before the opening, and ten months before the close, of the Berlin Conference, but now its geographical limits were defined, its political status fixed, its neutrality assured. The large part played by Leopold, King of the Belgians, in its creation had received full and complete acknowledgment from the foremost geographers and statesmen of the world, who had united in lauding the King, not only for his wonderful achievement, but for the high humanitarian motive stimulating his Majesty through all the years of its difficult accomplishment. [Sidenote: Hard Work Ahead.]