352 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xvn. 



Foreign Office. On the 11th of March he called at 

 the office, at the request of Mr. Layard, who propounded 

 a scheme that he should have a commission giving 

 him authority over the chiefs, from the Portuguese boun- 

 dary to Abyssinia and Egypt ; the office to carry no 

 salary. When a formal proposal to this effect was sub- 

 mitted to him, with the additional proviso that he was 

 to be entitled to no pension, he could not conceal his 

 irritation. For himself he was just as willing as ever to 

 work as before, without hope of earthly recompence, and 

 to depend on the petition, " Give us this day our daily 

 bread ; " but he thought it ungenerous to take advantage 

 of his well-known interest in Africa to deprive him of the 

 honorarium which the most insignificant servant of Her 

 Majesty enjoyed. He did not like to be treated like a 

 charwoman. As for the pension, he had never asked it, 

 and counted it offensive to be treated as if he had shown 

 a greed which required to be repressed. It came out, 

 subsequently, that the letter had been written by an 

 underling, but when Earl Russell was appealed to, he 

 would only promise a salary when Dr. Livingstone should 

 have settled somewhere ! The whole transaction had a 

 very ungracious aspect. 



Before publishing Ins book, Dr. Livingstone had asked 

 Sir Roderick Murchison's advice as to the wisdom of 

 speaking his mind on two somewhat delicate points. In 

 reply, Sir Roderick wrote : "If you think you have been 

 too hard as to the Bishop or the Portuguese, you can 

 modify the phrases. But I think that the truth ought to 

 be known, if only in vindication of your own conduct, and to 

 account for the little success attending your last mission." 



We continue our extracts from his Journal : — 



" 2Qth April 1865. — In London. Horrified by news of President 

 Lincoln's assassination, and the attempt to murder Seward." 



" 29th April. — Went down to Crystal Palace, with Agnes, to a 

 Saturday Concert. The music very fine. Met Waller, and lost a 

 train. Came up in hot haste to the dinner of the Royal Academy. 



