16 
LIVINGSTONE FESTIVAL. 
which was one of the earliest seats of Missionary enterprise in our 
own country. Most of you will probably recollect the famous 
sentence in which the great moralist and philosopher of England, 
Dr. Johnson, records his visit to that celebrated spot. I think 
I can remember it with substantial accuracy. “We were now 
treading that illustrious island whence roving tribes and rude bar¬ 
barians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of 
religion. The philosophy of that man is but little to be envied 
whose patriotism would not kindle on the plains of Marathon, or 
whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.” 
If such be the feelings with which we should tread upon the spot 
which at the distance of so many centuries has been hallowed by the 
footsteps of the Christian Missionary, surely it is with something of 
the same feelings of reverence with which we should assemble here 
to-night, to bid God-speed to one whose name will be remembered in 
after ages, and perhaps by millions of the human race, as the first 
pioneer of civilization and the first harbinger of the Gospel. {Load 
and long-continued cheers.) 
Me. Baxtee, m.p,, in responding for the House of Commons, said 
that he regretted that the duty had been committed to so feeble 
hands as his. He believed that this honour had been conferred on 
him as the representative on this auspicious occasion of that Scotland 
which had given birth to, and which was so justly proud of. Dr. 
Livingstone. He only wished that his excellent friend had been 
present to hear the general and repeated cheers which in December 
last greeted the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s proposal that a sum 
of money should be advanced for the purposes of a new expedition. 
As for the Government and the House of Commons, they had only 
done what it was their duty to do, and what the country demanded 
of them, and he hoped that the 5000/. grant would prove but the 
earnest and foretaste of what this nation would yet do for the cause 
of discovery and colonization in Africa. 
SiE Benjamin Beodie. —I shall not occupy your time, .Gentlemen, 
for more than a few minutes before I name the toast which I have 
undertaken to propose. 
We recognize in Dr. Livingstone the intrepid and enterprising 
traveller, exploring regions which, in great part at least, had not 
been before explored by Europeans, contributing to the general 
stock an abundance of valuable information in geography, in 
natural history, in geology; associating with races of mankind of 
