Griffith's lecture, some home-truths were
told by the Hon. Mr. Grant, [Footnote: This 'eminent African,' who had
gone to England with the view of buying agricultural implements and an
ice-machine, died in London on January 28, 1881. His speech, therefore,
was delivered only a week or so before his death. Much fulsome praise of
him followed in the press, which seemed completely surprised that a black
man could talk common sense.] a full-blooded negro, of the Ibo tribe, and
a member of the Sierra Leone Legislative Council. He objected to the term
'white man's Grave.' He bravely and truly told his audience that if the
French held possession of Sa Leone they would have made it a 'different
thing.' After praising the present Governor's instruction-ordinance he
spoke these remarkable words:--
'But education from the point I allude to is that practical education
which develops the man and makes him what he is, not the education which
makes him simply the blind imitator of what he is not. Of course the
education, as originally introduced into the colony, was an experiment,
and a grand experiment it was. They said, "There are these people, and we
will educate them as ourselves.
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