s or his actions?" If we wish to
command respect, and to impress upon the savage the real advantages of
civilization, we should send out only such persons as would be likely
to secure a complete influence and ascendancy over the uninstructed
people, and so demonstrate to them, by the force of actions, the purity
and stability of the Christian faith, the importance of education, and
the practical benefits of social organization. If it be necessary, as
no doubt it is, to send out Europeans to serve in the African Corps,
they should be sent in the capacity of officers, or non-commissioned
officers: privates of good character might be selected, who would
volunteer to go out on certain conditions, perhaps on some such terms
as these: to serve as corporal for a limited period, after which time,
if their conduct had been unimpeachable, to be advanced to the rank of
serjeant, when, having served in that rank for a prescribed period,
they might be permitted to return home on a pension. Two years might be
assigned as the first period of service, and three as the second,
making altogether a service of five years in Africa, which, considering
the opinion that is popularly entertained respecting the climate, might
be deemed of sufficient duration. I am aware that this suggestion is
liable to one objection arising from the prejudice that is generally
entertained against the climate, namely, the difficulty that would
arise, in the first instance, in obtaining volunteers; nor am I
entirely prepared to say, that the objection is without force. But the
plan might be tried, and the temptation which would be held out, by the
certainty of promotion, might, probably, be considered an adequate
compensation to the risk: and, in case any individual should have
conducted himself throughout the whole period of his service, to the
entire satisfaction of his officers, and should subsequently wish to
remain at the colony, it might be adviseable to offer him a small
government appointment, or, in some cases, the reward might be extended
to a commission in the Colonial Corps. If this could be carried into
effect, it would certainly be attended with considerable advantages; it
would procure respect for the British name, recall the savage from his
life of recklessness, and put a final stop to those disgraceful scenes
of profligacy which are so frequently witnessed in the streets of
Sierra Leone.

Having requested my friend Dr. Barry, who was at the head