The Express.
London, England, 1856-12-18 00:00:00

LONDON, 711URSDAY,

SINCE the delivery of WILLIAM DEVER'S mama
to the boys of the Lambeth Refuge, we hare not
read a speech more to our mind than that in
which Dr. LIVINGSTON returned thanks for the
suppliant paid him at Freels:mote' Hall. Dr.
LIVINGSTON is one of the few men whom words
are realities. There is a quiet curt energy about
his statements which irresistibly impugns the bearer
with a conviction that ha has done what he says, aid
that he will do it again when messioa offers.
There is a tronsparency in the simplicity of
his diction which lets as see the workings
of his mind, as if by some process of
ia-
tailloo. There were many puesges in Dr. LIYIKO-
WOWS addrers which reminded us of the thrill-
ing effect of Sergeant-Major EDIVAZDS'ii question at
the banquet of the Guards-0 Do you remember when
the French came over the bill ?• This is the Una
English school of skeletons:* 1 words supple-
mentary to acts— brief exclamations, conveying
a whole history of tranquil, persistent, indo-
mitable daring. The sayings and doings ct
men like Dr. Ltriooorote, and DRIVER, and
EDWARDS are demonstrations that the old Beek&

spirit is is our day and generation as fall of vitality
as ever. In all ranks, in all pursuits of life, we
have men who unartentationsly and eliesdeely
carry out what they have undertakes—what
duty commands them to do. How thenoghly
Dr. LIVINGSTON is inspired with this spirit
is obvious from many passages in his speech. Ha
plainly and truthfully laid before his audience the
apathy on the part of the oration that will have
to be encountered in our attempts to evangelise
Akin. Ile warned them against undue reliance
at that gregarious enthusiasm which is commu-
nicated by the contagion of crowded meetings
and evaporates in speeches. "He knew there
was to be hard work in the future, as then bad
boar in the pest. It was not by grand meetings, fine
speechifying, and much excitement that anything
gnat was to be dote ; no, it was by bard workieg,
working in quiet, working under a earn of GOD'S
presses everywhere, working without an ex-
pectation of easing the fruits." Then is
true sublimity in Dr. LIVINGSTON'S allusion
to the immediate resumption of the arduous
task which he has been prosecuting far an.
teen years, and is about to return to after an interval
of only a few mouths. "He raw it to be his duty to
go, and ha wee determined to do his duty, whatever
others might say shoot the matter."
The LIVINGSTON reception has vividly impressed
upon our imaginations the part which Great Britain
has taken daring the last half century in bringing
into more intimate relations ■ll peoples and regions
of the earth. To welcome back to his natal
soil the truly good and modest explorer of
Africa, there wen gathered together men who have
distinguished themselves as enterprising mer-
chants, as warriors and statesmen, as scientific
travellers, as missionaries. There wen men
honourably associated with Arctic and Antarctic
discovery, with the exploration of the high table-land
of Tibet, with the investigations which have restored
to the eye of day the long-buried wonders of the
Assyrian and Egyptian Empires. It was impossible
to look round upon those assemblies without feeling
a thri I of exaltation at the thought that, literally, the
whole earth is full of our labours—that then is no
region in which our industrial enterprise, our skill in
arms, oar benevolent eagernen to diffuse the Meetings
of civilisation and pure and true religion have not
been displayed.

The special object of these meetings naturally
rivets attention most closely on what haa been me-
complibhed in Africa. Rance was the Brat to intro-
duce to the knowledge of Europe the modern
inhabitants of the region. of that continent mat of
the Nile. Bnowht extended oar acquaiotanos with the
portion of the same district which is intermediate be-
tween Egypt and Abyssinia. BURCICHARDT. though
the chief scree of his labours was the Asiatic °anti-
nent, contributed musethieg also to our knowledge of
Africa. ilon.siMArf erased from the Nile to the roots
which leads front Tripoli to the interior. PARR
explored the regions in which the Niger has its
source. DENHAM aid CLAPPERTON crowed the
route of HORNLMAN, penetrated to the great inked
lake, and connected it with Caps Coast. The
LANDERS t.aced the Niger to the Bight of Basin.
When the Cape of (k 1 Hope earns into one pos-
session, in the beginning of the century, the Dutch,
after centuries of tettlomeat, wets unacquainted with

all but the south-eastern angle of the eelltialat•
Since that time our d'seoverisi have been rapidly
extendicg to the east and to the math; and .ow Dr.
LIVINGSTON has penetrated into the very OMITS of
the continent. Waite our land explorers have bass
thus hasp, oar navilatots have surveyed and mapped
the entire coast of Mires, from Pilules round to
Sus. Englishmen have not merely seen a great
part of Atrica—they have studied it. Before the
LANDSIS sailed down the Niger, It'lanium had
proved that it must find its way to the Bight
of Benin. The studies of our countrymen
have thrown light on the remotest antiquities
of Attics, as well es upon its actual condition.
THOMAS Yonne was the first who gave to themeholars
of Europe the key which has enabled them to decipher
the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians. And
lastly, these di.rovetles have been achieved less at
the instigation of enlightened curiosity or mercantile
adventure than from a noble and disinterested desire
to benefit the inhabitants of Africa, and elevate them
in the scale of existence. Avidity to open cep new
channels of commute hes no doubt done a good deal.
The progress of colonisation has led to not a few
accidental diametric& But the systematic ex-
ploration of Africa was first undertaken by the
benevolent and energetic men who devoted
their lives to the task of suppressing the
African slave trade, and many of our most secorssful
explorers have been, like Dr. Limos':cat, mis.
'Minna, sent out art supported by our rnissiemeY
amosiatious. We claim for our countrymen no'
'neuritic from the weaknesses and vices of human
nature; Moue relaticeswithAfrioNas a nation,webave
doubtless committed many errors. and have at times
been asimated by vanity and self-will, if by nothing

worse; but, viewed comprehensively, our interooww
with that continent hos been characterised by a eel&
aseridoe and devotion to the great mum of humanity
for a parallel with which the page of history may be
.arched in vain. Nor are we without our reward.,
Rival nations may impute unworthy motives to
as, bat the African rams do no jostles. As soon
es Dr. LIVINGSTON succeeded in nuking known his
country to the inhabitants of the regions which had
never before been trodden by t►e foot of a white
man, they exclaimed, " Oh, we know who you arm.
You belong to that tribe which loves the black

Facts like these teach as that England has the
power to aid and benefit other peoples, and that to
shriek from the exercise of it woald ta wantonly to
neglect a mission to which the Anger of Providence
points. If, indeed, in a vainiglorions straggle for
influence abroad we should leave unfulfilled oar home
duties, we shoald be highly culpable. But the moo
who ars most ardent in promoting the program of
light and liberty among other nations are the very
men who are most indefatigable in their labours to
extend education to all classes of their countrymen,
sad to improve the moral and physical condition of
oar own poor. The philanthropists of Ragland
practise at home what they preach abroad. If other
mations are ►amiliar with the weekiseseseasid close of
English society it is beeline our own Nadel sad poli-
tical reformers bare with a fearless candour revealed
them to all as the indispensable first step towards
amendment. An era of great changes is opening
apon the world, sad the energy with which Egghead
is extending her relations over the whole globe, and
still more the fearless self-investigation with which
she is probing her own faults, convince as that
her part in it will be an honourable one.