8 
LIVINGSTONE FESTIVAL. 
that I would take the Chair, it might well have been supposed that 
in so brief a space of time it would be difficult to obtain an attend¬ 
ance worthy of the great occasion ; but I felt assured that the name 
of Livingstone alone would attract an assembly larger than any room 
in London could contain. {Cheers.') My anticipation, Gentlemen, 
was correct; and it truly gratifies me to see that this impromptu 
“ coup de voyageur ” has brought together men of real distinction in 
all the great classes of the British public. {Cheers.) The only weak 
part of the programme, I said to my friends, would be that of your 
Chairman {cries No, no ”) ; but at all events, you know, Gentlemen, 
that my geographical friends and myself have done our best to honour 
the great traveller and good missionary. {Cheers.) 
At any public meeting held a year and a half ago, it would have 
been necessary to dwell upon the merits of Livingstone ; but now 
his name has become a household word among my countrymen, 
and no efforts of mine can raise him higher in that esteem which 
he has won for himself, and specially I rejoice to say by the sale of 
30,000 copies of the work issued by the flourishing firm of Murray, 
Livingstone, and Co. {laughter), and by which he has secured inde¬ 
pendence for himself, and a provision for his wife and family. 
{Cheers.) 
My eminent friend has not only made us thoroughly well ac¬ 
quainted with the character and disposition of the inhabitants and 
the nature of the animals and plants of the interior of Africa, but 
has realized that which no missionary has ever accomplished before ; 
since with consummate talent, perseverance, and labour he has laid 
down the longitude as well as latitude of places hitherto unknown 
to us, and has enriched every department of knowledge by his 
valuable and original discoveries. These are great claims upon 
the admiration of men of science ; but, great as they are, they fall 
far short of others which attach to the name of the missionary 
who, by his fidelity to his word, by his conscientious regard for his 
engagements, won the affections of the natives of Africa by the 
example which he set before them in his treatment of the poor 
people who followed him in his arduous researches through that great 
continent. (Loud cheers.) 
Sitting by my side (laying his hand on Dr. Livingstone’s shoulder) 
is the man who, knowing what he had to encounter—who having 
twenty or thirty times struggled with the fever of Africa—who, 
knowing when he reached the western coast, at St. Paul de Laonda, 
that a ship was ready to carry him to his native land, where his wife 
and children were anxiously awaiting his arrival, true to his plighted 
word, threw these considerations, which would have influenced an 
