England has for a century and more taken her place in the forefront of the anti-slavery crusade. She has long since abolished slavery in all countries under her own sway. She has rejoiced over its abolition in the United States of America; her cruisers keep guard along the African coast to prevent, if possible, or at least to check, the export of slaves from thence: it is her earnest desire to penetrate into the heart of the African continent itself, and destroy the traffic in human flesh, with all its accompanying miseries.

Various circumstances have hitherto combined to defeat her designs of mercy. The conflicting interests of the European Powers and the mutual hostility of Continental nations have rendered impossible the united action which alone could produce a permanent effect. The complications of the Eastern Question have entangled the position in Northern Africa. But, above all, the fierce opposition of Mohammedanism to any European interference with its career of conquest and of crime has succeeded in frustrating the efforts of the liberator, even when nominally supported by a Mohammedan Government. One expedition after another has failed in the face of the deadly enmity of the Crescent to the Cross, and of the double-dealing, rapacity, and corruption of Egyptian officials in the Soudan and on the Upper Nile.