52 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



monopolise the petty traffic and even the "professions" in Free- 

 town and the other colonial settlements. Although accused of 

 laziness and dishonesty, they have displayed a considerable 

 degree of industrial as well as commercial enterprise, and the 

 Sierra Leone craftsmen smiths, mechanics, carpenters, builders 

 enjoy a good reputation in all the coast towns. All are 

 Christians of various denominations, and even show a marked 

 predilection for the " ministry." Yet below the surface the old 

 paganism still slumbers, and vodoo practices, as in the West Indies 

 and some of the Southern States, are still heard of. 



Morality also is admittedly at a low ebb, and it is curious to 

 note that this has in part been attributed to the freedom enjoyed 

 under the British administration. " They have passed from the 

 sphere of native law to that of British law, which is brought to 

 this young community like an article of ready-made clothing. Is 

 it a wonder that the clothes do not fit ? Is it a wonder that kings 

 and chiefs around Sierra Leone, instead of wishing their people to 

 come and see how well we do things, dread for them to come to 

 this colony on account of the danger to their morals? In passing 

 into this colony, they pass into a liberty which to them is 

 license 1 ." 



An experiment of a somewhat different order, but with much 

 the same negative results, has been tried by the 



T^T^ 



Liberians well-meaning founders of the Republic of Liberia. 



Here also the bulk of the "civilised aristocrats" 

 are descended of emancipated plantation slaves, a first consign- 

 ment of whom was brought over by a philanthropic American 

 society in 1820-22. The idea was to start them well in life 

 under the fostering care of their white guardians, and then leave 

 them to work out their own redemption in their own way. All 

 control was accordingly withdrawn in 1848, and since then the 

 settlement has constituted an absolutely independent Negro state 

 in the enjoyment of complete self-government. Progress of a 

 certain material kind has undoubtedly been made. The original 

 "free citizens" had increased from 8000 in 1850 to about 20,000 



Right Rev. E. G. Ingham (Bishop of Sierra Leone), Sierra Leone after 

 a Hundred Years, London, 1894, p. 294. 



