GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—There are probably a million and a half of church members among the colored population of the Southern States.
—Ex-Governor Brown, of Georgia, expresses himself as follows in regard to the position and claims of the Freedmen: “I think I speak the sentiments of a vast majority of our people, that it is our interest to make of the colored race the very best citizens we can. To do this it is necessary to educate them as far as our means will allow, and to lift them from the ignorance in which they were found at the time of their freedom to a much higher grade of intelligence. They can never be good citizens and exercise intelligently the rights of freemen till they have these advantages.”
—We regret to see that the Young Men’s Christian Association, of Washington, D. C., by the Rev. O. C. Morse, its secretary, feared to have a few colored Sunday-school teachers mingle with white persons engaged in similar work, withdrew invitations given, and at first refused admission to the three or four who came with cards of invitation, though they were afterwards allowed to enter. Meanwhile Senator Bruce was occupying with dignity the chair of the Senate of the United States.
Africa.
—The Khedive of Egypt, at the close of 1877, appointed Captain George Malcolm (Pasha) for the suppression of the slave trade in the Red Sea. As late as June 1878, he reported that he could accomplish nothing, as the trade was effectually protected by the Turkish flag.
—Mr. Maples, of the Universities Mission, writes from Masasi, East Africa, that, owing to the energy of Dr. Kirk and Seyid Borghash, the wholesale slave trade at Zanzibar, and up and down the coast for hundreds of miles, is almost entirely stopped; but that they are still smuggled into dhows by twos and threes so clothed and disguised as not to awaken suspicion; that in the interior, slave caravans make their way from the Nyassa region to the coast as far north as Somali, and south to and beyond Lindi. He says: “I should scarcely be believed were I to tell you how great is the deterrent effect upon the slave trade in these parts of a solitary mannered Englishman dwelling among the people.”