n of good-will.

Such were the circumstances under which Aden became part of the
colonial empire of Great Britain--and the details of which we have
taken, almost entirely, from the official accounts published by
order of Government. In whatever point of view we consider the
transaction, we think it can scarcely be denied that it reflects
little credit on the national character for even-handed justice and
fair dealing. Even if the tact and _savoir faire_, which Captain
Haines must be admitted to have displayed in an eminent degree in
the execution of his instructions, had succeeded in intimidating the
Arabs into surrendering the place without resistance, such a
proceeding would have amounted to nothing more or less than the
appropriation of the territory of a tribe not strong enough to defend
themselves, simply because it was situated conveniently for the
purposes of our own navigation: and the open force by which the
scheme was ultimately carried into effect, imparts to this act of
usurpation a character of violence still more to be regretted. The
originally-alleged provocation, the affair of the Derya-Dowlut, is
not for a moment tenable as warranting such extreme measures:--since
not only was the participation of the parties on whom the whole
responsibility was thrown, at all events extremely venial; but
satisfaction had been given, and had been admitted to have been given,
before the subject of the cession of the place was broached:--and
the Sultan constantly denied that his alleged consent to the transfer,
on which the subsequent hostilities were grounded, had ever been
intended to be so construed. It is evident, moreover, that the Arabs
would gladly have yielded to any amicable arrangement short of the
absolute cession of the town, which they regarded as disgraceful:
--the erection of a factory, which might have been fortified so as
to give us the virtual command of the place and the harbour, would
probably have met with no opposition:--and even if Aden had fallen,
as it seemed on the point of doing, into the hands of the Pasha of
Egypt, there can be little doubt that the Viceroy would have shown
himself equally ready to facilitate our intercourse with India, in
his Arabian as in his Egyptian harbours. At all events, it is
evident that the desired object of obtaining a station and coal
depot for the Indian steamers, might easily have been secured in
various ways, without running even the risk of bringing on the
Br