When we consider the peculiar difficulties attending the political experiment going on in Liberia, some of which are referred to in the President's Message, we cannot but watch with the deepest sympathy the noble efforts of the Liberians, which must always have a peculiar interest for us and all Natives.

The political and civil polity of Liberia is modelled after the best English and American law; and its design is to develop African character, and give full scope to its action, independent of the political rivalry of Europeans. And its success so far, and its present prospects are sufficiently encouraging to augur a triumphant result.

Although, as we see from the President's Message, it is at present the day of small things with the Republic, it is clear that it embodies all the elements essential to success. The people are living and working for themselves in agriculture,in trade, and in mechanical operations, with a sense of responsibility of the importance of their privileges and the value of their hopes. The very smallness of their beginning, and the difficulties they have encountered, instead of being a discouragement, are an earnest and security of ultimate

success.

There are bright prospects of the increase of their numbers and the extension of their jurisdiction indefinitely towards the interior, by immigration from the United States and by the incorporation of the native tribes.

It is evident that the relations of Sierra Leone and Liberia are becoming closer and more intimate. A port of entry and delivery will be opened at the mouth of the Mannah river, in order to facilitate regular intercourse between the two countries.

The fertility of Liberian soil and the vast undeveloped resources of the interior countries, present a most promising field to natives of Sierra Leone for agricultural or commercial enterprise. They can become full citizens of the Republic by a very simple and inexpensive process.

The civilization of Africa is indispensable to the important political' and commercial interests of the world; and there is no doubt that the Christian world, recognizing the debt they owe to Africa for the wrongs they have done her, will not refuse sympathy and encouragement to the efforts and aspirations of this young Negro State to become an effective agent in the work of African regeneration.

From The Topeka, Kansas, Citizen.

THE COLONIZATION OF AFRICA.

There are in Kansas two movements that deeply interest me as omens of good for both Africa and America. The first is for emigration to Africa, started here by the leaders of the exodus from Missis

sippi to Kansas, and now organized as the African Emigration Association. It has a pledged following of 300, and is extending abroad and increasing here. Its leaders say that the black man here is like an upstart sapling in the midst of large, deep-rooted and overshadowing oaks, and is stunted by their superiority; that Ham, with his late start in life, can never compete, even on fair terms, with his younger but larger and far stronger brother Japhet; and that with the stain and contempt of slavery upon him, neither he nor his children can ever compete with the whites. They wish, therefore, to get away from the stain and stigma of slavery, and from the overshadowing greatness of the white man, and see what Ham can do for himself and for the land of his ancestors, in building up a United States of Africa, which, under some future Hannibal, Cleopatra or Queen of Sheba, shall compare favorably with America, and show that Ham, the black and long oppressed slave, is just about as good a man as is Japhet. And these people, whose brawn has done much to create both the wealth and power of our nation, now ask of us nothing but transportation to Africa. Will not philanthropy and Christian charity give this, if Governmental aid shall fail? And does not the Nation owe to the Negro much more than he asks for?

In this Government, now incipient and small within Kansas, I see the germ of a grand compensation to Africa, for the horrors of the lave trade and for the piratic spoliation of her people. And to gives this just and needed compensation to Africa, would both justify the ways of God and man, and also deliver our country from retribution for its share in African spoliation.

Success to this patriotic movement! I hope it will soon plant in Africa the nucleus of a nation that shall spread by confederation and voluntary annexation from the Cape of Ban to the Cape of Good Hope, giving Africa all the institutions of America, and along with them the language of America. And then will these institutions also be soon planted in Asia, and gradually cover that Continent.

M. M. CAMPBELL.

LIBERIA AND THE GRANT MONUMENT.

The Grant Memorial Monument Association, New York, has received through the Consul General of Liberia in the United States, a contribution of thirty-nine dollars from residents of Monrovia. Accompanying the remittance was the following letter:

MONROVIA, Liberia, February 15, 1886. SIR: Inclosed I beg to hand you $39 in drafts, with the humble request to forward this sum to the Committee having the matter in

charge. This amount was subscribed by different persons in this city at the proposition of the Hon. C. T. O. King, Mayor of Monrovia, while I was appointed to receive the subscriptions. By unanimous request of the subscribers I remit the money to you. hoping you will assist us in our effort to contribute to the memorial of the great hero by placing the enclosed amount in the hands of the right persons. I have the honor to be your very humble servant,

M. A. AENMEY, Consul of Sweden and Norway.

Among the contributors are Mrs. M. Barboza, missionary: Miss Mary Sharp, missionary; C. T. O. King, Mayor of Monrovia; W. M. Davis, Attorney-General; R. A. Sherman, Consul for Belgium; M. A. Aenmey, Consul for Sweden and Norway; Rev. S. S. Sevier, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church; A. B. King, Principal of the Alexander High School; I. C. Dickinson, H. A. Williams, G. D Moore, Messrs. G. Moore & Son, and H. Cooper & Son.

LETTER FROM MR. JORDAN P. NORTH.

The following letter has been sent for publication in the AFRICAN REPOSITORY by the gentlemen in New York to whom it is addressed. Mr. North emigrated from Montgomery, Ala., over a year ago, accompanied by his wife and seven children.

BREWERVILLE, Liberia, January 29, 1886. DEAR SIRS: I completed my house and moved into it about the middle of July and am now clearing up my land to farm. I am very well pleased with my new home. All I see needed here is industry and management, and it will make a good country. I am satisfied here. Tell me what a saw mill to cut plank will cost. That is one of the useful things needed at this place. A man with the right materials can make money in this country. I came to take Liberia as I found it and have no fault to find with it. My family, except the baby, are well. Please order some religious books for me as I have been made an elder in the Presbyterian church at Brewerville.

JORDAN P. NORTH.

LIBERIAN COMMERCE ON THE INCREASE.

For the first time an English steamer,-the "Cameroon"-called at Cape Mount, December 11th, and took off 90 casks of palm oil and other valuable products. Cape Mount has not hitherto had commercial importance enough to attract the steamers. That port, one of the most picturesque and healthy in the Republic, will now be made a port of call for the outward and homeward steamers -the fifth in Liberia. Sierra Leone, with all its advantages, has only

three ports-Freetown, Sherbro, and Solymah-the last recently taken from Liberia.

Liberia has more of the elements of progress than any other country in West Africa. God sanctioned the principle and method of the American Colonization Society and having, in the first instance, put obstacles in the way of their occupying the physical and moral swamps of Sherbro, forced them to the occupation of a region of country possessing the finest soil, the most salubrious climate and the most valuable aboriginal population.

One of the most important elements in Liberia is the KROO tribe, extending from Bassa to the Cavalla river, including the Greboes. They are all freemen. They do not tolerate domestic slavery. They never have been known to enslave each other. They preferred, in the days of the slave-trade, to kill the criminals of their own tribe to selling them into slavery. No commercial operations can be carried on in West Africa from Sierra Leone to Loando without the Kroomen, and they are all taken from Liberian territory. Thousands of them have been away as sailors in merchant and naval ships, and having visited all the points in West, South and East Africa-traveling even to India and China-have returned to their homes anxious to see their country improved, and proud of a flag representing a Negro natlonality.

Then Liberia has in her interior the great Mandingo tribe, extending from the St. Paul's river to Lake Chad. Samudu, "the new Mahdi," a Mandingo, is by birth almost a Liberian, having been born near the eastern borders of Liberian territory. Besides these are the intermediate trioes-Pessahs, Golahs, Bassas, etc., etc., agriculturists and traders.

Now what does Providence mean by giving to Liberia these elements, if it be not to aid in the great work to be done for Africa by the method of the American Colonization Society, which has a unique place among the philanthropic organizations of the world?

AN ILLIMITABLE FIELD.

Hon. Judson A. Lewis, United States Consul at Sierra Leone, in despatches to the Department of State, has been giving graphic descriptions of the great Mohammedan movement in Western Sɔudan, and brings before the American public the importance of the work of Liberia in its relation to the vast multitudes in the interior accessible to it, and the obligation which rests upon the American nation, to furnish that Repubiic with the means of social, intellectual and religious progress, in order to prove, in a practical manner, against the

doubts implied by Consul Lewis, that it is both possible and desir-, able to convert that country to the faith imported from America by the emigrants. Mr. Lewis says:

"It is said that Samudu's army is divided into three portions. One is operating near the head-waters of the Niger. Another portion is operating in the regions east of Liberia, and by suppressing the disturbing elements, unfettering trade and introducing a knowledge of religion and letters, is in a sense opening the way for Negro immigrants of intelligence and energy from America to push out from the Africo-American Republic to the healthy and fertile regions of the interior. In another sense it is forestalling the whole region for Mohammedanism and making it difficult, if not impossible—if indeed it is desirable-to convert that country to the faith imported from America by the immigrants."

There is evidently before the American Negro of intelligence and energy a grand field for high endeavor and noble achievements in the region of intellectual, religious and material progress in the land that God gave to his forefathers and stil! preserves for him.

NEW YORK STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

The advancement of the College at Monrovia has been specially sought. The Boston and New York Boards have co-operated in providing material to put an iron roof on the College building, and to provide other repairs. The sum of $375.50, furnished by the Boston Board, was expended for galvanized iron roofing in England, and the sum of $1,151,12, of which $624.50 was provided by the Boston Board, and $726.62 by the New York Board, has been paid for the purchase and shipping of lumber, sent out through Yates & Porterfield, to Monrovia. To provide adequate instruction, Prof. A. B. King, the successful principal of Alexander High School at Clay-Ashland, on the St. Paul's river, has been appointed Professor of Mental and Moral Science and of allied branches in Liberia College; his specific duties and payment from the Fulton Fund being still under adviseThe bequest of $10,000 by Miss Sarah Burr, of New York, to "the Protestant College at Monrovia," long contested, has been secured. The expressed wish of Joseph Fulton, that out of surplus income from his bequest "premiums" should be given to proficient, students, has been provided by action of the Board, the sum of $50 being annually devoted for first and second prizes in the two main departments—those of Natural and Mental Science. Annual Report, May 3, 1886.

ment.