-♦> Independence 



author hopes) the white star of the black man's growing 

 civilisation. 



With like presumption, he would venture to suggest when 

 a day of prosperity justifies any development of the work of 

 1847, the substitution of a different design from that which 

 is laid down as the seal or emblem of the Liberian Republic. 

 The illustration opposite p. 220 has been drawn by the author 

 from that which is usually circulated as the design of the Liberian 

 seal. (As a matter of fact, it differs slightly from the verbal 

 description given in the Constitution, which says, " A dove 

 on the wing, with an open scroll in its claws." As it is 

 apparently difficult to render the open scroll in this position, 

 the dove is usually represented as carrying a document in its 

 beak. The reason of this symbolism is not given us by the 

 founders of the Constitution, but it is apparently intended to 

 typify the dispatch from the United States of the American 

 Colonisation Societies' renunciation of their rights and consent to 

 the proclamation of Liberian independence. In most versions of 

 the Liberian seal — though it is not mentioned in the aforesaid 

 definition — the promontory of Mesurado appears with its light- 

 house.) None of the emblems in this seal are particularly ap- 

 plicable to Liberia. Ships under full sail have long been out 

 of date as a means of communication between Liberia and the 

 outer world, and the plough is nowhere employed in Liberia, 

 it being very doubtful whether much use could be made of 

 it in ground that is better tilled by the African hoe. If any 

 change is made in the flag and the colours of the Republic, 

 the writer of this book would venture to recommend a similar 

 change in the design of the seal, and he has been bold enough to 

 append a painting as a suggestion for a new design. In this 

 the real national colours of Liberia are once more embodied, 

 (black, yellow, white and green), and on the shield are depicted 



221 



