'All hail, Liberia! hail! In truth and righteousness, 'At the loud call we rise, All redolent of fame, The land to which we came, And onward press. 'Here Liberty shall dwell, To this, fair virtue's dome, And know no fear.' HILARY TEAGUE OF LIBERIA. THE LONE-STAR OF LIBERIA; Being the Outcome of Reflections on our BY FREDERICK ALEXANDER DURHAM, AN AFRICAN, OF LINCOLN'S INN (STUDENT-AT-LAW). WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MADAME LA COMTESSE C. HUGO. LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1892. 1179844-190 INTRODUCTION. I WAS quite a child when I read Uncle Tom's Cabin,' by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and became enthusiastic for the abolition of slavery. My heart was full of anxious thought on this subject. Later in life the tragedy of 'Toussaint L'Ouverture,' by Lamartine, opened my mind to fresh considerations. After reading it I apprehended that the sons of Ham have precisely the same human, as well as civil, rights as have the sons of Shem and of Japheth. The passionate interest which my uncle, Victor Hugo, took in the fate of the generous but unfortunate John Brown further fixed my attention on this question, which has humanitarian as well as social aspects. And when recently reading books and articles relating to the subject of the emancipation of Africa's sons, I have added indignation to compassion. It is not right to reduce the ethics of that important question to the proportions of a mere work of mercy. It ought to be regarded as one of the gravest questions of our time-the final blow struck at an old tree, which mould has long invaded and rotted. This great question of the emancipation of the African race has more than one interesting aspect. Perhaps its most striking feature is its connection with human progress |