The Latest Thing in International Burglary(12 February 1887) |
International Burglary, Commonweal, 12th Feb. 1887, p.51.
Transcribed by Ted Crawford
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
So the harbinger of the gospel and shoddy goods, Stanley, of swash-bucklering memory, is again on the rampage, in the interest of his imperial extension and market-lusting clients. A neat little excuse is once more found (they are never wanting). A brother marauder, or philanthropist like the rest of them, with the single minded desire of extirpating that dreadful curse of slavery – the very mention of which makes the modern capitalist’s heart burn with righteous indignation, and long to take to himself the victims if possible, but at all events the natural produce of their lands, – this “worthy pioneer;” then, has been for some time past keeping a corner of equatorial Africa warm for the establishment of a British protectorate. At length, after the necessary rôle has been played of giving out that he is surrounded and his valuable life in danger, his confederate Stanley is sent by the British Government on a marauding or relief expedition, amid the plaudits of the Bourgeois world, to comfort this heroic soul, and with a mitrailleuse of newest construction to correct the refractory African. If Continental complications do not arise meanwhile, we may expect, by the autumn, to see the comic papers resplendent with the well-known figures of their typical whore Britannia and her “fancy man” John Bull, both with holy indignation thirsting for the blood and lands of their barbaric victim. For it is quite possible the Central African may venture to remonstrate with Mr. Stanley before surrendering themselves “body, soul and estate,” to him and the vampires whose agent he is. Meanwhile every true Socialist may “drink damnation” to Stanley, Emin Pacha, and all their fellow brigands.
Last updated on 26.3.2004