Not only has geographical acquaintance with the Congo Basin revealed the wealth of the vast regions it comprises, but European commerce, which was blocked at a short distance from the coast, has penetrated the heart of Africa, in countries hitherto utterly unknown. Civilisation, in divers forms, has made no less progress, and has been permanently established in the very centre of Africa. The rapidity with which this transformation has been accomplished would seem to make it a duty to hasten the revision of the free-trade rule temporarily laid down by the Berlin General Act. The protection due to commerce and missions, the establishment of systematic justice, the opening up of easier means of communication with the interior of the continent, the organisation of public services as auxiliaries to private enterprises, require financial resources which it is reasonable to obtain, by means of imposts, from those who profit by the new order of things. While in most of the African colonies tariffs are among the principal sources of revenue, the countries situated in the Conventional Basin of the Congo alone are deprived of the right of levying customs duties; and yet these are the countries that find themselves at the front in the crusade against the slave trade! The resolutions of the Brussels Conference, in imposing on them new tasks, will also increase the expenses necessary for the carrying out of their civilising mission. The legitimacy of import duties destined to meet these expenses cannot be denied. In the debate which naturally ensued upon such an important measure, Baron Gericke d’Herwijnen, representing Holland, which has a large spirit trade along the West Coast of Africa, opposed views for a time unfavourable to the adoption of this supplementary Declaration[14] to the General Act. Notwithstanding his views, the Dutch representative gracefully alluded to “the well-merited homage it [Holland] had rendered to the work of the King of the Belgians from its very commencement.” On the part of Great Britain, Lord Vivian supported the proposition in words which should sear the few unkindly, astigmatic eyes of those who regard King Leopold’s rule in Africa with splenetic gaze and caterwauling. His lordship spoke aptly when he said: As to the question whether this modification is opportune, the fact must not be lost sight of that the Berlin Conference never intended to fix unalterably the economic system of the Free State, which, as was already then foreseen, would undergo radical modifications under the influence of progress, nor to establish for an indefinite period regulations which may hinder, check, and even arrest its development. Provision was wisely made for the probability of future changes, which would require a certain latitude in economic matters in order to secure their easy realisation....