1858-59-] FIRST EXPLORATIONS OF THE SHIRE. 261 



occupation thoroughly effective, he thought much of the 

 desirableness of a British colony, and was prepared to 

 expend a great part of the remainder of his private means 

 to carry it into effect. On August 4th, he says in his 

 Journal : — 



" I have a very strong desire to commence a system of colonisation 

 of the honest poor; I would give £2000 or £3000 for the purpose. 

 Intend to write my friend Young about it, and authorise him to draw 

 if the project seems feasible. The Lord remember my desire, sanctify 

 my motives, and purify all my desires. Wrote him. 



" Colonisation from a country such as ours ought to be one of hope, 

 and not of despair. It ought not to be looked upon as the last and 

 worst shift that a family can come to, but the performance of an 

 imperative duty to our blood, our country, our religion, and to human- 

 kind. As soon as children begin to be felt an incumbrance, and what 

 was properly in ancient times Old Testament blessings are no longer 

 welcomed, parents ought to provide for removal to parts of this wide 

 world where every accession is an addition of strength, and every 

 member of the household feels in his inmost heart, ' the more the 

 merrier.' It is a monstrous evil that all our healthy, handy, blooming 

 daughters of England have not a fair chance at least to become the 

 centres of domestic affections. The state of society, which precludes so 

 many of them from occupying the position which Englishwomen are so 

 well calculated to adorn, gives rise to enormous evils in the opposite sex 

 — evils and wrongs which we dare not even name, — and national 

 colonisation is almost the only remedy. Englishwomen are, in general, 

 the most beautiful in the world, and yet our national emigration has 

 often, by selecting the female emigrants from workhouses, sent forth 

 the ugliest huzzies in creation to be the mothers — the model mothers 

 — of new empires. Here, as in other cases, State necessities have led 

 to the ill-formed and ill-informed being preferred to the well-formed 

 and well-inclined honest poor, as if the worst as well as better qualities 

 of mankind did not often run in the blood." 



The idea of the colony quite fascinated Livingstone, 

 and we find him writing on it fully to three of his most 

 confidential business friends — Mr. Maclear, Mr. Young, 

 and Sir Roderick Murchison. In all Living-stone's cor- 

 respondence we find the tone of his letters modified by 

 the character of his correspondents. While to Mr. Young 

 and Sir Roderick he is somewhat cautious on the subject 

 of the colony, knowing the keen practical eye they would 



