5243. Has it not pretty much the same effect there that a very large sale, under a bankruptcy in England, has upon the trade in this country?--I think not, to the same degree there; because what you require there, in order to create a demand for goods of good quality is, to allow the people to have the use of something superior to what they would have without those sales. 5244. _Chairman._] But the goods sold at those prize sales are articles of an inferior kind, are they not?--The goods that are sold there are very much the same as those that are used by the natives in their own trade, and probably many of them are British manufacture. 5245. You think that it is an advantage to the trade ultimately, that those forced sales, at unnaturally low prices, should be made within the colony, producing a taste which will be gratified by a more regular trade?--Yes. 5246. Though they may interfere with the regular trade in the colony?--That is only for a time. 5247. Mr. _Aldam_.] Are the goods English goods?--The principal part of them are. 5248. _Chairman._] Those forced sales have had a very injurious effect upon the regular trade of the place, have they not?--Yes, upon the shops; at the same time they have raised into wealth, and brought forward still more prominently than before, the liberated African hawkers. 5249. Have they created a class of native traders who have extended commerce inland further than British trade by itself, in its natural course, would have done?--Yes, certainly; the trade between Sierra Leone and the Sherboro’, and the rivers in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, has been very much more brisk in the large canoes that are employed by the liberated African traders, since goods have come in so cheaply. 5250. Therefore you think, incidentally to the regular trade, advantage has been given by these forced sales, which have created tastes which would not have existed under other circumstances?--Yes. 5251. Mr. _Forster_.] The brisk trade which you have spoken of between Sherboro’ and Sierra Leone would be with those goods; a trade chiefly with the slave dealers in that quarter?--All are slave dealers, if they can be, beyond British jurisdiction; but what the Sierra Leone traders receive in exchange for goods are rice, and other articles of produce, which are consumed in the colony; for though rice is the principal food of all who can afford to pay for it, there is no rice raised in the colony; and therefore a trade of some kind is required to be carried on, in order to procure the means of subsistence. 5252. _Chairman._] The colony has not the means of supporting itself?--No. 5253. Mr. _Forster_.] Though those goods may be sold to slave dealers in those districts, you think that it is a legitimate and desirable trade for the English merchant?--Yes.