MR. STANLEY.
ITO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] Six, Having read in the Spectator of November 15th, I confess with astonishment, your verdict of Mr. Stanley, in the article on the sad controversy about the conduct of the officers of the Rear- Column, in which you say that Mr. Stanley displayed " relent- less but calculated and purposeful severity " towards the force under him, I feel compelled, in common fairness, to call your attention to the unbiassed opinion of one well able to judge. I refer to the late Mr. Mackay of Uganda, from whose pub- lished diaries I quote (p. 97) :—" Wherever I find myself in Stanley's track, in Uganda, Ugogo, or even Ukerewe itself, I find his treatment of the natives has invariably been such as to win from them the highest respect for the face of a white man." And again (p. 397), Mr. Mackay mentions Mr. Stanley's arrival at Usambiro with Emin Pasha and the officers of the expedition, and says of Stanley ;—" He is a man of an iron will and sound judgment, and besides, is most patient with the natives. He never allows any one of his followers to oppress or even insult a native. I much fear that those who condemn him most, know him least, nor do they probably know any- thing at all of the difficulties of African travel."
C. H. M. G.
[Our correspondent has not read our remarks through, and has therefore misread our meaning. We distinctly, and in so many words, page 670, acquitted Stanley of cruelty, and we used the phrase "purposeful severity " in praise, not dispraise, of his treatment of his negro followers.—ED. Spectator.]
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