On 17 June 1864 Vice Admiral Sir John Hay addressed the House of Commons, severely criticising Lord Palmerston's government and proposing that a motion of censure be passed on the Cabinet. Emotionally overwrought by his brother's recent death on the Gold Coast, Hay asserted, ‘The same men who ten years ago sent a British army to perish of cold, of hunger, of want of shelter in a Crimean winter … have now sent British troops to perish of fever, of thirst, and of want of shelter on the burning plains and fetid swamps of West Africa’ (McIntyre 1967: 80). These two engagements – the war with Russia and the colonisation of Africa – are quite different in terms of geographical locale, date and national significance. However, Hay's speech suggests they were perceived as part of a similar trajectory of Britain's involvement abroad, about which many subjects felt deep worry and ambivalence.

Historian David McIntyre argues that Hay's speech, spurred by the government's decision to allot more troops to the protection of its trading colonies, was ‘the first spark’ in ‘what became a blaze of publicity in criticism for the British West African settlements’ (1967: 81). The result of this debate was that Edward Cardwell, the Secretary of State for the Colonies and head of the Colonial Office, ‘called a halt to expansion’ (96). He used the 1865 report of the parliamentary Select Committee on Africa (Western Coast) to formulate his policy (now known as the ‘Cardwell Policy’). While discouraging expansion, the new policy also dictated that Britain encourage Africans to develop ‘those qualities which may render it possible for [Britain] more and more to transfer to them the administration of all the Governments with a view to [Britain's] ultimate withdrawal’. Instead of being under British control, the ideal was for ‘self-governing African states’ to serve as ‘agents of British influence’ (100). Enforcement of this policy was extremely uneven. By the mid-1870s there was a renewal of intervention in native disputes and more aggressive colonial expansion. However, Cardwell's early 1860s investigation and the subsequent reform of colonial policy indicate the strength and volubility of the public's doubts regarding West African exploration. As evidenced by Hay's commanding speech, certain individuals who criticised imperial expansion wielded significant clout. In order to give force to their arguments, protesters portrayed West Africa as a hopelessly fatal environment for European subjects.