CHAPTER XIII 



PRE SI DEN T R OBER TS 

 1847— 1856 



PRESIDENT ROBERTS paid his first visit to Europe 

 in 1847/ He concluded with the British Government 

 (whom he describes as " exceedingly kind ") a treaty 

 of amity and commerce which placed the Liberian Republic 

 on the footing of the most favoured nation. This treaty was 

 ratified by the Liberian Senate on February 26th, 1849. ^^ 

 acknowledged the right of Liberians to levy duties and of the 

 British to reside where they pleased in Liberia ; but their ships 

 might not enter certain specified ports of entry to search for 

 slavers except by the permission of the Liberian authorities. 

 The treaty was signed by Viscount Palmerston and the Right 

 Hon. Henry Labouchere." 



1 He uas accompanied on this and subsequent journeys by Mrs. Roberts. This 

 lady, born in 181 8 (she was the daughter of a Baptist minister named Waring), 

 came to Liberia with her parents in 1824 Her father ministered to the colonists. 

 He and his wife were octoroons. Roberts lost bis first wife before he left America 

 He married Miss Waring at Monrovia in 1836. This wonderful old lady still lives 

 (in full possession of her faculties) in a quiet street off Battersea Park. She 

 visited most of the European courts with her husband in the middle of the nineteenth 

 century, knew Napoleon HI. as " Prince-President," saw King Edward VII. as 

 a little boy, lived in Liberia for over seventy years, and is the only survivor of the 

 early immigrants. 



^ The last named was then Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. He 

 was afterwards Lord Taunton, and was the uncle of the better-known Henry 

 Labouchere, the proprietor of Truth. 



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