The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-08 00:00:00

platform were the Dean of Ely, Archdeacon Wordsworth,
the Rev. Canon Cook, Colonel Playfair (her Majesty's
Consul at Zanzibar), the Rev. J. Festing, the Rev. T. P.
Woodcock, and various other clergymen and gentlemen.
The Bishop of Oxford, who was to have presided, arrived
shortly after the proceedings commenced, having been do.
tained by a late train. The body of the largo room, in
which the meeting was held, was crowded.
The proceedings having been opened by prayer,
The Bishop of famous' said that he might relieve the
anxiety of the meeting by stating that the Bishop of
Oxford would arrive shortly, and he had to apologise
for taking the place of one who not only had the interests
of the mission deeply at heart, but who woe so well able
to explain the present position and future hopes of the
mission. If any one had any doubts of the deep interest
felt in the min ion to Central Africa, he had only to look
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he saw that the mission would, under protection of
Divine Providence, yet prosper, The mission had not
failed, as some loofa° seemed to think ; and although it
was true that the site of the mission had, in consequence
of many difficulties and obstacles, been obliged to be
changed, yet there had been no abandonment of the ob-
jests which' mese sought to be effected the wiabliab-
ment of a Central African mission. When the sub-
ject of eta establishment was brought before the
church of • England, she had no choice but
to accept the site which was offered, but it was her
bounden duty to send maths mission to the place which
had been *elected. It was not possible to spook too highly
of the honoured names of the, devoted men who went out
in connexion with the first mission, and who bad sealed
their labours by their death in this good cause. The esta-
blishment of the mission was an exception to the usual
mode • it was sent out as .a complete Elision, with a
bishop and presbyters at its head. At the same time,
there were many obstacles to be encountered. It was situ-
ated 300 miles from the sea, from whence the supplies
were to be drawn, with a bar at the mouth of the river
and fever on its banks; and the river itself was scarcely
navigable for some months in the year. At the rune
time, Dr. Livingstone found a considerable popula-
tion in the valley of the Shire, a people
disposed to accept the gospel, and who appeared
to be peculiarly subject to the influences of Christian
civilisation. Moreover it seemed to be a site which would
be eminently fitted for aiming a blow at the slave trade
by introducing legitimate commerce. That was the state
of things when the mission was formed, but by the time
Bishop Mackenzie got out he found the tribes to a great
extent scattered in consequence of famine, and from
the decimating effect of the slave trade. It was well
known how nobly he laboured with the zealous and ener-
getic men who accompanied him, until at length he, with
Mr. Scudamore end two other of the missionaries, fell
victims under the deadly effects of the climate and their
unceasing seertions. Bishop Tozer was sent out as a suc-
cessor to Bishop Mackenzie, but at that time the pro-
moters of the mission at home were not *ware of the death
.beerintohrvourne its
4overr
of Mr. Scuslartiore, but even then it was suggested that it
wasexpedient that the site of thernission should be changed,
and Bishop Tozer was invested with fall power to trans-
fer it to another site. On his arrival he found that
the difficulties and obstacles had increased rather than
diminished, and that not only had the missionary party
become considerably diminished in number, but that the
population of the district had, from the causes named, be-
come very scanty ; and, actuated by these and various other
reasons, he thought it expedient to remove the site of the
mission to Zanzibar. The same ship that took out Bilhop
Tozer took out the recall of Dr. Liviugstone as consul for
the Zambesi, and that was followed, ns was apprehended at
the time, by the withdrawal of the British squadron from
the mouth of the river, which involved the probability of
its not being visited by British vessels more than once or
twice in the course of two years. lie quite agreed that if
other circumstanc,2s pointed to the banks of the Zambesi
as a suitable site, the fact that life had been sacrificed
would not in itself have been a sufficient reason for chang-
ing the site ; but it wasnot so, no converts had been made,
and the prospect of planting Christianity there was very
small. It had been said that the change involved
a breach of faith to those who had promoted
the mission in Edgland, and also towards those
natives who had placed themselves under its pro-
tection, and that having planted a miesion on one spot the
church of England was bound not to withdraw from it ;
but, as he had pointed out, there was no real withdrawal
from the great work of disseminating Christianity in
Central Africa. The question that caused the greatest
anxiety was that with reference to the withdrawal of their
protection from the natives gathered round the mission.
Although the number was not great, it was clear lie could
not take them all with him, because the missionary-establish-
ment at Zanzibar was comprised only of males. Ile took
some of the boys, who subsequently returned. The men
refused to go, but an offer was made to tbem and the
women to send them to Natal, or some other place under
British protection, and although it was at first refused, it
was subsequently repeated from another quarter ; the in-
vitation was accepted by many • none were drafted, but
' they went voluntarily, and the hisliop himself privately con-
tributed towardsthe expense. Hecontended at considerable
length that, under th e en eu in
of the case, Bishop Tozer
I was perfectly justified in the course he had taken, and that
with reference tohissubsequengproceedings lie hail adopted
the best possible coarse for evangelising Central Africa.
by establishing a college at Zanzibar for native teachers,
and preparing the youth of the country to go and
spread the religion of Christ throughout the length
and breadth of that benighted land. He observed
that if ever Central Africa was to be evangelised, it must
be by native teachers, acting under European supervision,
and not Europeans alone. If ever the slave trade was to
be extingu•hed in Africa, it must Le by substituting a
more profitable legitimate traffic, which he was sure would
follow the footsteps of the missionaries ; and with respect
to Bishop Tozer himself, no man was more fitted, not only
by tie most earnest self-devotion to the work, but by the
lIOARCHIIOII of rare gifts, • strong will, fearlessness of re-
sponsibility, aid, at the same time, tenderness and sym-
pathy for others, which enabled him to attach the natives
to him ; while, at the same time, lie was animated by the
strongest determination to devote himself to the great and
holy work of civilising Central Africa. (Applause.)
The Bishop of OxFolin then came forward, and was very
cordially received. He said that he hail first to put him-
self right with respect to being late, and he explained that,
in order to catch a quick train, he went to a station
eight miles off, instead of going to one a mile and
a half away to catch a slow one, but that on
arriving at Didcot he had the mortification of finding the
quick train he had gone so far to catch was shunted, and
he had actually to wait 20 minutes to allow • slow train to
go by. (Laughter.) He was not sorry, however, that Le bad
arrived late for it had given his right reverend brother the
Bishop of Lincoln an opportunity to give a most conlcusive
justification of Bishop Tozer for the removal of the site of
the mission • he should not, therefore, otter that conclu-
sive and exhaustive statement, say anything further on
that point but they were bound to take it fur granted that
Bishop Tozer bad exercised a wise discretion in the way in
which he had employed the latitude given to him by the
council at home, which was not in any way an sbandon-
ment of the great enterprise which those at home bad
undertaken.
wonm to Lim that the abandonment of
that emprize ld consist in leaving that which they ho.I
talked of effecting unattempted, and consequently unful-
filled ; but whether rightly or wrongly, even if the Bishop
of Lincoln was not correct in his statement, and Bishop
Tozer had committed an error of judgment, the principle
on which the mission was founded had not in any sense
been abandoned. There had not been any leaving of the
great emprise they bad undertaken, It seemed as
if at the commencement of all great undertakings of this
kind difficulties were tbrown in the way. Those who be-
lieved in the evil agency of evil spirits and the beneficial
aid of gi.od angels, those who believed in the mystery of
God dealing with this world, who believed that He per-
mitted the great rebel to counter-work the work of the
this fallen, but redeemed world, all such would see plain
reasons why they should expect all efforts made to extend
Almighty among the free agents with whom he has peopled
His kingdom upon earth,to be met in the outset with great
opposition from the powers of evil, and, consequently,
they would find no great work of this kind which did not
pass in its initial stages through phases of great difficulty,
in order, it would seem, to try the resolution of those en-
gaged in its promotion. No doubt that was one of the
great purposes for which in God's providence it was per-
mitted that cities were not to be taken by numbers which
were to be reduced by the most artificial means ; thus it
was thatOod granted deliverance to his people through the
least of his agents, lest people should think that that deli-
verance came from the might of their own arm •, thus it was
that the beginning of great works was surrounded by diffi-
culties, that the faith of those engaged in them might be
tested by grappling with those difficulties in order to see
whether they could bear the first test of disappointment
but weft that result which it was the duty of Ood's faithful
servants to wait and watch for. Not that such observations
were intendedto imply that they were not in any way to
change theircouraeof action,butwere to gooosimply repeat-
ing the same endeavour without considering whether they
were adopting the proper machinery by which the pro-
work was sought to be accomplished. Sachs course
he held not to be faith, but obstinacy. To keep the mid
constantly in view, and to consider and re -consider every
particular of the means, that was submission to the will of
God, sad it seemed to be exactly parallel to what took
place in the early planting of the Gospel, as recorded is