evise any means
for securing the observance of the principles there laid down. Its work,
considered in the abstract, was excellent. The mere fact that
representatives of the Powers could meet amicably to discuss and settle
the administration of a great territory which in other ages would have
provoked them to deadly strifes, was in itself a most hopeful augury,
and possibly the success of the Conference inspired a too confident
belief in the effective watchfulness of the Powers over the welfare of
the young State to which they then stood as godfathers. In any case it
must be confessed that they have since interpreted their duties in the
easy way to which godfathers are all too prone. As in the case of the
Treaty of Berlin of 1878, so in that of the Conference of Berlin of
1885, the fault lay not in the promise but in the failure of the
executors to carry out the terms of the promise.

Another matter remains to be noted. It resulted from the demands urged
by Portugal in 1883-84. By way of retort, the plenipotentiaries now
declared any occupation of territory to be valid only when it had
effectively taken place and had been notified to all the Powers
represented at the Conference. It also defined a "sphere of influence"
as the area within which one Power is recognised as possessing priority
of claims over other States. The doctrine was to prove convenient for
expansive States in the future.

The first important event in the life of the new State was the
assumption by King Leopold II. of sovereign powers. All nations, and
Belgium not the least, were startled by his announcement to his
Ministers, on April 16, 1885, that he desired the assent of the Belgian
Parliament to this proceeding. He stated that the union between Belgium
and the Congo State would be merely personal, and that the latter would
enjoy, like the former, the benefits of neutrality. The Parliament on
April 28 gave its assent, with but one dissentient voice, on the
understanding stated above. The Powers also signified their approval. On
August 1, King Leopold informed them of the facts just stated, and
announced that the new State took the title of the Congo Free State
(_L'Etat independant du Congo_)[459].

[Footnote 459: _The Story of the Congo Free State_, by H.W. Wack (New
York, 1905), p. 101; Wauters, _L'Etat independant du Congo_, pp. 36-37.]

Questions soon arose concerning the delimitation of the boundary with
the French Congo territory; and these