of, and are now in full operation.  By this plan, the Agent is invested with sovereign power, subject only to the decision of the colonial board; municipal and judicial officers are appointed; the choice of certain offices is vested in the colonists, subject to the approval of the Agent; and standing committees of agriculture, of public works, of colonial militia, and of health are appointed, whose duties are clearly defined and rigidly enforced.

The criminal code is singularly mild:  the highest degree of punishment being expulsion from the colony, which is a very beautiful exemplification of the sense of honour and integrity that the colonists entertain, when, for the most flagrant violations of civil rights and good order, they deem it a sufficient disgrace and infliction to cast out the guilty person from all further communion, the property of the exile being given to his heir; or, in lack of an heir, reverting to the general stock.

The remarkable success which crowned the efforts of the settlers in Liberia, has subsequently led to the consideration of more extensive plans for the establishment of colonies for liberated slaves.  Of course, in proportion as the circle of manumission is enlarged, the provision for the future welfare of the emancipated blacks must he increased:—­with a double view, therefore, not only to prepare adequate settlements for their reception, but by the exercise of an active liberality to encourage the spirit of freedom which was found difficult of accomplishment at first, but which ultimately yielded to the energies of the opponents of the slave trade in America.  Many attempts had been made in the United States to abolish, or at all events diminish the practice of slavery, bat in vain; for it appears, however startling and apocryphal the statement may seem, that the English Government, during the period that they exercised sovereignty in the Union, always refused to sanction the abrogation of slavery.  Even so far back as 1698, the mother country rejected a proposition made by the assembly of Pennsylvania, to levy a duty of 10 per cent. per head on the importation of slaves; which was intended to operate as a prohibition.  Indeed, one of the proximate causes of the Declaration of Independence (July 1776) was the unrestricted introduction of slaves.  Soon after the American war had terminated, it was suggested as an appropriate measure, in fulfilment of views which had been so long defeated by the influence of English authority, to establish a colony on the coast of Africa, but the continued pursuit of the degrading traffic by almost all the powers of Europe, prevented the benevolent projectors from carrying their design into effect.  Twenty years afterwards, the plan was revived, and the most strenuous exertions were made in the different States to organize a body of opinion, which should finally triumph over the self-interests and reluctant morality of the slave-owners.  At this period, one of the difficulties which the