London, 31st March, 1819.
The above plan is ingenuously, liberally, and disinterestedly
254 submitted to the consideration of British capitalists and merchants
of respectability. The advantages to be derived from such an
establishment as is here contemplated, if not evident to Great
Britain, is clearly visible to Holland, to France, and to America.
The projector, therefore, without mentioning the offers that have
been made to him by a foreign maritime power, and _without
courting_ the suffrages of British merchants in support of this
plan, has it in contemplation, (_provided no attention is paid to
it in England_,) to lay this eligible scheme open to a foreign
power. If, therefore, the projector should accept employment in
this undertaking from a foreign power, it will be in the
conviction, that _it is more to the interest of mankind in general,
and to Europe in particular_, that this plan for opening an
_extensive, lucrative, and beneficial commerce with Africa_, (which
would necessarily lead to its civilisation,) should be known to,
and adopted by, _a foreign power_, than that this vast and
little-known continent should, (to the indelible disgrace of
civilised Europe,) _still continue to remain_ an useless and an
undiscovered country to the present generation!