Ji 
Views of Members of the Executive Council. 
I have placed the whole question, as summarised in the fore- 
going paragraphs of this despatch, before the Executive Council. 
The questions that I put to the Executive Council were two :— 
(1) Whether any action should be taken? 
©) If so, of what character? 
The members unanimously advise that early steps should be 
saken to accelerate the total abolition of slavery in Sierra lL.eone 
and, what is more significant, they are also practically unanimous 
in advising that the Gambia precedent should be followed, i.e., 
that an ordinance should be introduced to enact that all persons 
born in Sierra Leone after its commencement shall be free from 
birth, and that any persons held in any manner of servitude shall 
oe, and become, free for all intents and purposes on the death of 
their masters. 
This is exactly the course which my study of the problem had 
commended to my own mind, but I purposely refrained from 
recording this conclusion before I remitted the question to the 
members of the Executive Council, as I wished to elicit their inde- 
pendent opinions. It will be observed that the Executive Council 
advise the adoption of the course favoured by Captain Stanley 
rather than either of the more drastic courses recommended by 
Mr. Bowden, Mr. Ross, and Mr. Hooker. On the other hand, 
it should be noted that the course followed in the Gambia was 
distinctly more drastic than that followed in Northern Nigeria, and 
[ submit that it provides for a comparatively rapid total extinction 
of slavery without exposing Government to the charge of injustice 
to owners of property, or of precipitate suppression of a cherished 
native custom which, however opposed to British traditions. is 
comparatively innocuous in actual practice. 
The Executive Council also unanimously advise that the new 
legislation should make it clear that slaves introduced into the 
Protectorate from Liberia or elsewhere will, ipso facto, become 
free. As Mr. Luke pertinently remarks, ‘‘ legislation on these 
lines would form a fitting corollary to Chief Justice Mansfield’s 
historical judgment of 1772, a judgment to which the Colony of 
Sierra Leone traces its foundation.” 
In considering the advice of the members of the Executive 
Council I would ask you to remember that Colonel Faunce (the 
Officer Commanding the Troops) first came to West Africa thirty- 
two years ago, and that he has served in Sierra I.eone for over 
seventeen years; that Mr. Luke (the Colonial Secretary) served 
here under Sir Leslie Probyn fourteen "years ago; that Mr. 
McDonnell (the Attorney-General) has seen service in the Gold 
Coast, the Gambia, and Sierra Leone; and that each of the other 
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