404 



LIBERIA. 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1894. 



of the capital already sunk, amounting to over 

 1,300,000,000 francs, had been actually expended 

 in the work at Panama, and that the rest had 

 been used in France to secure the support of 

 newspaper editors, financiers, and politicians, or 

 to influence the attitude and votes of members 

 of the Chamber and Senate and the action of 

 ministers. On Nov. 15, 1892, Ferdinand de Les- 

 seps and the other directors were indicted for 

 breach of trust and malversation of funds. This 

 case was eventually dismissed and the Govern- 

 ment nonsuited under the statute of limita- 

 tions. Charles de Lesseps and others who were 

 concerned in the active management of the 

 company or in its corrupt dealings were prose- 

 cuted on charges of bribery, fraudulent misrep- 

 resentation, or embezzlement, and several of 

 them were found guilty. On the charge of hav- 

 ing employed fraudulent manoeuvres to induce 

 belief in unreal schemes and raise imaginary 

 hopes of the realization of a chimerical event, 

 Ferdinand de Lesseps, who knew nothing of the 

 disreputable practices into which his son had 

 been drawn in the hope of saving the enterprise, 

 was arraigned on Jan. 10, 1893, with the other 

 directors, and he was convicted on Feb. 9 and 

 sentenced to five years' imprisonment. He was 

 not in court and was ignorant of the criminal 

 prosecution of himself and his son and fellow- 

 directors, for he had long suffered an impair- 

 ment of vitality and consciousness from para- 

 lytic strokes, and all such information was 

 sedulously kept from him. M. de Lesseps was 

 elected a member of the French Academy in 

 1884, succeeding to the chair of Henri Martin. 



LIBERIA, a republic on the west coast of 

 Africa. There is a Senate of 8 members, elected 

 for four years, a House of Representatives com- 

 posed of 13 members, elected for two years, and 

 a President, whose term is also two years. The 

 President is Joseph James Cheeseman. The 

 area, formerly estimated at 30.000 square miles, 

 has been reduced by nearly half through en- 

 croachments of the English colony of Sierra 

 Leone and the cession of territory to France by 

 the treaty ratified in February, 1894. The popu- 

 lation is perhaps 1,000,000, of whom 17,000 or 

 18,000 civilized negroes of American origin con- 

 stitute the state. The receipts of the Govern- 

 ment, mainly collected on imports and exports, 

 are about $175,000 per annum. There have been 

 no payments of interest or capital since 1874 on 

 a debt of $500,000 raised in England in 1871 

 at 7 per cent, interest and 15 per cent, discount. 

 The exports consist of palm oil, palm nuts, 

 caoutchouc, and ivory. The trade is with Great 

 Britain, the Netherlands, Hamburg, and the 

 United States. Monrovia, the capital, has about 

 3,500 inhabitants. 



Convention with France. The expansion 

 of Liberia inland was greatest in 1882, when the 

 republic assumed a protectorate over Medina, in 

 the Niger basin. The Liberians had previously 

 established colonies on the upper Cavally, and ac- 

 quired by war or purchase territorial rights in 

 the various parts of the elevated interior. By 

 the new treaty all these territories have been 

 ceded to France, and a line of demarcation has 

 been agreed upon which confines the republic to 

 the coasf valleys. Liberia has also renounced 

 her rights to the coast region in the east between 



the Cavally and the San Pedro rivers, securing 

 in return a definite recognition of her claim to 

 the Garraway country west of the Cavally. The 

 boundary line, starting at the month of the 

 Cavally, follows the Thalweg of the river up to 

 a point where the parallel 6 30' of north lati- 

 tude intersects 9 12' of longitude west of Paris, 

 and then runs west along that parallel to 10 of 

 west longitude, leaving the basin of the Grand Ses- 

 ters river to Liberia and the basin of the Fodedugu 

 Ba river to France. The tenth meridian forms the 

 boundary up to 7 of north latitude, from which 

 point it runs in a straight line to the intersection 

 of the eleventh meridian with the parallel that 

 passes through Tombicunda, but leaving the 

 towns of Bamaquillad and Mohammadu to Li- 

 beria, and Naala and Musardu to France. The 

 boundary then runs due west to the thirteenth 

 meridian, where it touches the boundary fixed 

 between the French Soudan and Sierra Leone. 

 The Liberian delimitation must in every case 

 insure to France the entire basin of the Niger 

 and its tributaries. France acquires the right to 

 construct on the Liberian bank of the Cavally 

 works necessary to render that river navigable, 

 and the river shall be free and open to traffic for 

 the inhabitants of both countries up to the con- 

 fluence of the Fodedugu Ba. France makes all 

 reservations in case the independence of Liberia 

 is impaired, or in case of the republic alienating 

 any part of the territories recognized as hers. 

 All rights on the Grain Coast conferred upon 

 France by ancient treaties and all rights hitherto 

 held by Liberia on the Ivory Coast, east of the 

 Cavally, are renounced. The Government of Li- 

 beria promises to facilitate the free engagement 

 of laborers on the Liberiau coast for the French 

 Government or its citizens, and the same facili- 

 ties are granted to Liberia on the Ivory Coast. 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1894. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that fewer books were 

 published in the United States in 1894 than in 

 any previous year since 1889, a slight increase 

 was shown in the number of works by American 

 authors, particularly in the department of fic- 

 tion, which, it was believed, the English novel- 

 ist had usurped and would maintain as his own. 

 Of the 4,484 volumes which represent the total 

 of book production during the year, 2,821 were 

 by American authors, against 2,803 in 1893, and 

 but 577 books were recorded in reprints and 

 translations, against 1,180 in the previous year. 

 Ten hundred and eighty-six books by English 

 authors were imported bound or in sheets. 

 While in 1893 but 263 novels by American writ- 

 ers were published in the United States, com- 

 pared with 834 from England and other foreign 

 sources, there were 370 by American novelists 

 in 1894, and but 297 imported. In numbers, fic- 

 tion held the lead by 244 books over all other 

 departments, though but 729 novels were pub- 

 lished in all, against 1,132 in 1893, and there 

 was a falling off also in works on theology and 

 religion, as well as in juvenile books, poetry, and 

 voyages and travels; while a decided excess 

 over last year is seen in the departments of law, 

 political and social science, history, general 

 literature, mathematics and physical science, 

 and in educational books. In point of impor- 

 tance fiction ranks first, followed in their order 

 by political and social science, theology, biog- 



