THE ROYAL NIGER COMPANY 36s operations of the Niger Company, has been illustrated, not only by the commercial success of that Company, but by the remarkable development in the prosperity of all the coast colonies which has followed upon the extension of their protected areas towards the interior, and the greater security which the establishment of British administration has carried with it.

In acting as the pioneer of this policy for Great Britain, Sir George Goldie was in part the originator, in part the interpreter, of the great change which had come over modern sentiment. He was not alone in desiring to reverse the policy of abandonment dictated by a sentiment of distaste and discouragement, which amounted almost to public remorse. Other nations, as we have seen, were quicker than Great Britain to perceive that the true solution of the problem of European relations with uncivilised Africa lay in accepting, not in abandoning, the responsibilities of civilised administration. Many influences were at work to foster and to direct the forward movement, which, not in West Africa alone, but on every frontier of the Empire, took the place, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, of the concentrating and restrictive tendencies of an earlier period. V/hat Sir George Goldie did was that which has been done by all original and successful workers. He gave personality to a great idea, and by the exercise of qualities which belonged to himself alone he was able to bring his interpretation of the idea to a distinguished practical success. In doing so he added to the Empire a territory of which the area is no less than half the size of British India, and for this service his name will deservedly be ranked among the unforgotten names of English history.