The  law-makers  of  the  republic  should  be  persuaded  that  under  cer-
tain restrictions  they  may  with  safety  and  advantage  accord  larger  priv-
ileges to  foreigners,  admitting  them  not  only  to  more  numerous  points
of  the  coast,  but  to  the  various  rivers,  where  they  may  be  permitted  to
lease  lands  for  a  term  of  years  for  carrying  on  their  operations  with
some  degree  of  responsibility  to  the  local  chiefs,  conforming  at  the  same
time  to  the  revenue  laws  of  the  republic,  and  being  solely  responsible
for  any  disorder  arising  from  their  own  conduct.
STEAM  COMMUNICATION  BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  LIBERIA.
The  question  of  steam  communication  between  the  United  States  ami
Liberia  is  one  of  the  greatest  possible  importance  to  the  two  countrte"


14  CONTINENT   OF  AFRICA:   AFRICA,

If  such  communication  were  established  it  would  revolutionize  the  en-
tire trade  of  the  west  coast,  now  mainly  in  the  hands  of  Englishmen,
through  the  three  lines  of  steamers  plying  between  the  coast  and  Liver-
pool and  London,  and  would  eventually  throw  most  of  the  trade  from
the  Soudan  into  the  United  States.
But  there  is  another  aspect  of  the  subject  of  peculiar  importance
both  to  the  United  States  and  to  Liberia,  viz,  the  impulse  which  such  a
line  of  steamers  would  give  to  the  emigration  of  negroes  from  the  United
States  to  Liberia  and  other  parts  of  West  Africa..
There  is  no  doubt,  as  you  have  been  pleased  to  remark,  that  Liberia
is  the  predestined  home  of  many  who  enjoy  citizenship  in  the  United
States,  and  this  going  out  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  of  our  citizens  of
African  descent  is  but  a  question  of  time.
