20 DECEMBER 1856, Page 2

Since the arrival of D.Liviiigstone in Letdon . ',.. time-ta& op- portunity

have been economized to secure as large an " exploita- tion " of the African traveller as possible. A missionary under the London Missionary Society, he was obliged to give his at- tendance at a public meeting in Freemasons' Tavern ; in relation with the Royal Geographical Society, he could not but attend to accept the gold medal voted to him some years since, while he was still wandering in Africa ; bound by the scientific sympathy of Professor Owen, he could scarcely refuse his attendance at the Society of Arts, to enlighten the public on the native and com- mercial peculiarities of elephant's tusk.

Dr. Livingstone has proved that he is a man more for work than show. He has spent sixteen years in the desert, yet, with characteristic simplicity, declares that he has only begun his la- bours.' Nor is the assertion mere modesty—it is a description of the truth ; it might be almost stated as a claim on the part of Dr. Livingstone. He has, as it were, surveyed the ground upon which, as it were, the lines of railway have now to be laid. Follow- ing other travellers, he has connected their surveys, and he gives us the first consistent idea of the interior of Africa. In part it differs from, in part agrees with, the previous conceptions. The interior is more valuable for commercial intercourse than the por- tion which, from Egypt round to our own Cape colony, hedges in the continent with a belt of barbarism. If, therefore, we can penetrate that broad edge with the railways of trade we shall reach the means of bringing Africa into connexion with the civi- lized world. The part of Dr. Livingstone's report which differs from previous accounts consists in his description of an extensive plateau, far less inhospitable than any region which we have supposed to exist in the interior. This survey, therefore, should it be borne out by further observation, is a practical preliminary to more vigorous attempts at the opening of intercourse between England and Africa.

A solitary man, wandering over a continent for sixteen years, talking to natives that had not the ideas to understand him, could do little either to spread "the Word" or to enlist recruits for civilization. But if he can go out again backed with the supports of commerce, and can lay the foundation for more than one commercial line of communication between Africa and Eng- land, he provides the means for taking a corps of missionaries instead of one, and opening many entrances to the heart of Africa. This is the substance of the report which Dr. Living- stone has repeated or enlarged at the several meetings which he has attended.