i857-5 8 '] FIRST VISIT HOME. 223 



At Blantyre, his native village, the Literary and 

 Scientific Institute gave him a reception, Mr. Hannan, 

 one of the proprietors of the works, a magistrate of 

 Glasgow, and an old acquaintance of Livingstone's, being 

 in the chair. The Doctor was labouring under a cold, the 

 first he had had for sixteen years. He talked to them of 

 his travels, and by particular request gave an account of 

 his encounter with the Mabotsa lion. He ridiculed Mrs. 

 Beecher Stowe's notion that factory-workers were slaves. 

 He counselled them strongly to put more confidence than 

 workmen generally did in the honest good intentions of 

 their employers, reminding them that some time ago, 

 when the Blantyre proprietors had wished to let every 

 workman have a garden, it was said by some that they 

 only wished to bring the ground into good order, and then 

 they would take the garden away. That was nasty and 

 suspicious. If masters were more trusted they would do 

 more good. Finally, he exhorted them cordially to accept 

 God's offers of mercy to them in Christ, and give them- 

 selves wholly to Him. To bow down before God was 

 not mean ; it was manly. His one wish for them all 

 was that they might have peace with God, and rejoice 

 in the hope of the eternal inheritance. 



His remarks to the operatives show how sound and 

 sagacious his views were on social problems ; in this 

 sphere, indeed, he was in advance of the age. The quick- 

 ness and correctness with which he took up matters of 

 public interest in Britain, mastered facts, and came to 

 clear intelligent conclusions on them, was often the as- 

 tonishment of his friends. It was as if, instead of being 

 buried in Africa, he had been attending the club and 

 reading the daily newspapers for years, — this, too, while 

 he was at work writing his book, and delivering speeches 

 almost without end. We find him at this time antici- 

 pating the temperance coffee-house movement, now so 

 popular and successful. On 11th July 1857 he wrote 



