xxiil] POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. 465 



tion of the traffic throughout the whole of Africa. To 

 this consummation the honour of Great Britain is con- 

 spicuously pledged, and it is one to which statesmen of 

 all parties have usually been proud to contribute. 



If we pass from the slave-trade to the promotion of 

 lawful commerce, we find the influence of Livingstone 

 hardly less apparent in not a few undertakings recently 

 begun. Animated by the memory of his four months' 

 fellowship with Livingstone, Mr. Stanley has under- 

 taken the exploration of the Congo or Livingstone River, 

 because it was a work that Livingstone desired to be 

 done. With a body of Kroomen and others he is now at 

 work making a road from near Banza Noki to Stanley 

 Pool. He takes a steamer in sections to be put together 

 above the Falls, and with it he intends to explore and to 

 open to commerce the numerous great navigable tribu- 

 taries of the Livingstone River. Mr. Stanley has already 

 established steam communication between the French 

 station near the mouth of the Congo and his own station 

 near Banza Noki or Embomma. The " Livingstone 

 Central African Company, Limited," with Mr. James 

 Stevenson of Glasgow as chairman, has constructed a 

 road along the Murchison Rapids, thus making the 

 original route of Livingstone available between Quili- 

 mane and the Nyassa district, and is doing much more 

 to advance Christian civilisation. France, Belgium, Ger- 

 many, and Italy, have all been active in promoting com- 

 mercial schemes. A magnificent proposal has been made, 

 under French auspices, for a railway across the Soudan. 

 There is a proposal from Manchester to connect the great 

 lakes with the sea by a railway from the coast opposite 

 Zanzibar. Another scheme is for a railway from the 

 Zambesi to Lake Nyassa. A telegraph through Egypt has 

 been projected, to the South African colonies of Britain, 

 passing by Nyassa and Shire. An Italian colony on a large 

 scale has been projected in the dominions of Menelek, 



2 G 



