The futility of all the exertions hitherto made for the general abolition of slavery in Africa has now become plainly apparent, and is recognised by the public opinion of England. Despite the praiseworthy efforts of the British Government, the expenditure of vast sums, and the loss of many valuable lives in the attempt to suppress it, the evil, far from abating, has in late years, we are told, increased alarmingly. The presence of an English squadron has, it is true, virtually put an end to the export of slaves from the West Coast, but the trade in that portion of the continent is not done away with, it is merely driven further inland, where the slave-hunter carries on his raids with redoubled energy. At least half a million black men are bought and sold in the markets of the interior every year. In Eastern and Central Africa the slave-trade not only holds its own, but increases year by year, and whole provinces are half-depopulated. The German and English cruisers blockade the coast, but the Arab dhows, with their freight of human merchandise, contrive for the most part to elude their vigilance. This is due, probably, to the short distance they have to run, and the facility wherewith the transport can be made under cover of night.