e control or influence of an alien
race, in possession of a borrowed civilization, and of a borrowed
political system of an advanced type, dependent on popular intelligence
for its very existence. Can he maintain his position? Will he make
further progress, developing along lines peculiar to his race and
environment, and spreading a new civilization among the adjacent tribes?
Or is he to lapse helplessly back into his original condition--to be
absorbed into the dense masses of surrounding barbarism? The question is
a vital one. The solution of weighty problems in large part depends upon
the answer.

The form of government was, as has been seen, closely copied from that
of the United States. There is the same tripartite division--executive,
legislative and judicial. The President is elected every two years, on
the first Tuesday in May. He is commander-in-chief of the army and navy;
makes treaties with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate, with
whose advice he also appoints all public officers not otherwise provided
for by law.

The legislative authority consists of a Senate of two members from each
county, elected for four years, and a House of Representatives holding
office for two years; four members being apportioned to Montserado
county, three to Bassa, one to each other county, with one additional
representative for each 10,000 inhabitants. The judicial power was
vested in a Supreme Court with original jurisdiction in all cases
affecting ambassadors and consuls and where the Republic is a party, and
appellate jurisdiction in all other cases; and in subordinate courts to
be established by the Legislature.

The majority of the colonists had been long accustomed to similar
institutions in the land of their captivity, and the new machinery of
government was soon running smoothly. Within the little State peace and
prosperity prevailed; its foreign relations, on the contrary, were
involved in the greatest uncertainty. It had indeed severed the leading
strings which bound it to its natural protector, and stood forth in the
assertion of its independence. But it was wholly unsupported and
unrecognized. The dispute with England, whose protege on the north
looked with jealousy and distrust on Liberian policy, remained
unsettled. The danger was real and pressing. Clearly recognition must be
sought and an international footing obtained without delay. President
Roberts accordingly determined to go abroad, and as at once