... The principles of the Congolese system of internal government appear to be in entire conformity with the General Act of Berlin, wherein freedom of trade is assured to the subjects of all nations. This signifies the liberty to sell and to buy in a legitimate way, not in a way peculiar to the theories of Congo despoilers. It is repugnant to law, and disturbing to civil order and progress, to permit the product of the land to be purchased from any person but its legitimate owner. Congo law represses theft, the insidious encouragement of which would appear to be the aim of those who so grossly misinterpret the principle of Freedom of Commerce. A respect for property is essential to all governments which hope to endure, and the law of this attitude is universal in all civilised communities. Trade, whether free or restricted, could not exist on any other basis. The forces of civilisation are paralysed without it, and untamed natives are left to savage internecine strife. [Sidenote: Labour the Great Civiliser.] The principles of the Congo Government are that the soil shall maintain those who develop its resources for the betterment of the sower and the reaper. The civilisation of the native by industry and other forms of instruction in the attributes of order, civic life, and all that he may be capable of absorbing of enlightened freedom. For the privilege of residing within the sphere of a State so governed, the white man is the most taxed member of society in the world. Shall savages alone be exempt from labour and just contribution to organised government? Shall the white man’s rule teach the black that idleness, craft, animal instincts, predatory habits in gaining his irregular subsistence, are the foundations of civilisation? Or shall the white man by precept and example, and by humane but positive insistence, train the savage in the ways of law and order, industry and thrift? [Sidenote: Taxation of the Native.]