The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-04 00:00:00

DR. LIVIIVGSTON.E.

The following letter has just been received by
the Bishop of Oxford from Dr. Livingstone :
" Senna, April 7.

"My Lord Bishop.—By a letter from the Bishcp
of South Africa I lately learned with great satis-
faction that a beginning had been made of a great
work for the interior of this country. I am
extremely glad and thankful to hear that the
Universities intend to send forth, as in the olden
time, missionaries to seek to win to the faith of
Christ the heathen of Africa. The Bishop's letter
was found among some fragments of a lost mail-
bag which floated some seven miles west of the
spot where they were launched, and I presume to
think that a letter from your lordship on a subject
in which you take such a special interest may be
among the things which have perished.

" By my letter respecting the opening made into
the Highland Lake region from the Shire you v. ill
have seen that simultaneously with your prayerful
movement at home our steps have been directed to
a field which presents a really glorious prospect
for the mission. By the Shire you get easily past
the unfriendly border tribes, and then the ridge
which rises on the east to a height of 8,000 feet
affords variations of climate within a few miles of
each other. The region bathed by the lakes is
preeminently a cotton-producing one, and, as far
as we can learn from Burton and Speke, the people
possess the same comparative mildness of disposi-
tion as I observed generally prevailing away .from
the seacoast. There are difficulties no doubt,—an
unreduced language, and people quite ignorant of
the motives of missionaries, with all the evils of
its being the slave market. But your University
men are believed to possess genuine English pluck
and will, no doubt, rejoice to preach Christ's
Gospel beyond other men's line of things. View-
ing the field in all its bearings, it seems worthy of
the universities and of the English Church, and
bearing in mind and heart Him who promised,
" Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world," there is not the shadow of a doubt but
that her mission will become a double blessing—
to our own over-crowded home 'population anti to
the victims of slavery and the slave trade.through-
out the world. Let the Church of Engla,Kl only
enter upon this great work with a will, and nations
and tribes will bless her to the latest generations.
The late Dr. Phillips, of the Cape, told me that
missionaries always did most good by doing things
in their own way. lam fully convinced that your
way of sending a Bishop with your mission is an
admirable one. The field is all your own. I think
that the Church is called upon to put forth her best
energies, and endeavour to repay somewhat the
wrongs we have done to Africa.

"The French have a strong desire to enter.before
us. A Senor Cruz, the great agent of the French
emigration from this coast, lately returned,from
Bourbon with a sugar-mill and ebffee_:a`i'eaning
machine, sugar canes of superior quality, coffee
seed, and two Frenchmen to work the machines.
Both, however; soon perished of fever. The Por-
tuguese hate us and our objects, partly because of
our religion, but chiefly because we suppress the
slave trade. They desire the French to come and
establish their authority over the slaves. At present
Portuguese slave rule is mild, because the slave can
so easily flee to independent tribes. If the French
slave system were established here, slave-hunting
would go on until the country was deiopulated.
Even for the incipient plantation of Cruz there is
slave•hunting among the very people we lately
visited at Sheba and Negassa. The mission will
require a steamer drawing about 8 feet to serve as
a home till preparations are made. Having lost
my despatches, I do not know whether Govern-
ment will give me another ; it would be at the ser-
vice of the mission. I send home Mr. Rae, our
engineer, to superintend a second for the lakes.
This we shall build whether we get one from the
Government or not. It is to be made capable of
being unscrewed and carried past the cataracts. It
will give security to settlers, without firing a shot,
and will promote the extinction of the slave trade
by lawful commerce more than several ships on the
ocean. My brother, Mr. Charles Livingstone, will
take charge of trade for a time.
" I rejoice that Miss Coutts has come nobly for-
ward and aided the Bishop to establish an institu-
tion for the sons of the chief—sorry it was not in
existence when I was with Sechle. lam going up
to the Makololo eountryto return my native friends
home.

" Affectionately yours,
"D. LIVINGSTONE."

FATAL G UNDO TVDER EXPLOSION.

An alarming explosion of gunpowder took place
at Norwich on Saturday evening in the shop of
Mr. R. Marrison, gunsmith, Sze. Orford-place, Or-
ford. hill. It appears that on Sze.,
Mr. Mar-
rison, who has been a resident in Norwich for many
years, placed behind the counter of his shop 401 b.
of gunpowder and a quantity of fireworks and ball
cartridges. He has not been in the habit of keep-
ing such a quantity of powder in his shop, but
Saturday being market-day at Norwich brings with
it a larger demand for " villanous saltpetre" than
any other period of the week. Everything pro-
ceeded as usual during the day, and shortly before
7 p.m. Mr. Morrison went out to speak to Mr.
Franklin, the occupier of the adjoining premises,
leaving in his own shop a youth about 12 years of
age, named Harrison. He had not been absent
more than three minutes when a terrible explosion
took place, the whole 401 b. of powder having by
some means at present unexplained become ignited.
The results of the explosion were most serious, the
shop and house of Mr. Marrison being reduced to
a complete wreck, and the stock of guns, &c., to a
mass of almost useless rubbish. The shop of Mr.
Franklin, who has carried on business as a photo-
grapher, printseller, &c., was almost as seriously
injured, the windows being blown out and the stock
rendered valueless. The next shop, occupied by Mr.
Boston, a pawnbroker, did not wholly escape, the
party wall being slightly injured, and a great quail
tity of glass broken. The same remark applies to
the Napier Tavern, on the other side of Mr Marri-
son's shop, while the premises directly opposite occu-
pied by Mr. Kemp, a saddler, suffered most severely,
the shop front being blown in, and the damage
extending to a bac parlour, while singularly
enough, one of the canisters which exploded came
down one of the chimneys. The windows of the
Bell Hotel, close by, were also broken to some
extent. Of course, amid so much demolition of pro-
, party the human beings in the shattered buildings
did not remain unhurt. The house in which the
explosion took place was discovered immediately
afterwards to be on fire, but the Norwich Fire
Brigade, under the direction of Mr. Hitchman, the
flames
obtained from the
promptly on the spot, and a
were subdued in
hydrants
chiefyo
odaracnsoutnspseitnai
ybtlhoe
e, w e
of
swaterterree
t, being
the
about a quarter of an hour. As soon as this result
was obtained an active search was commenced for
the boy Harrison, who was
missing,and after about
an hour his body was found in the debris at the
rear of the shop. the poor lad was quite dead and
his clothing was burnt
off his charred and dis-
figured remains. Mr. :Harrison himself, who, as
before stated, was in the shop of Mr. Franklin at
the time the
buried with
hisaccident neighbour beneath a mass of rub-
bish, and the nervous system of both sustained, of
course, a severe shock, Mr. Franklin especially
appearing completely stupified when extricated.
A married sister of Franklin's, Mrs. Dady, was at
the moment when the accident happened in a room
over his shop, extending partly over Marrison 's pre-
mises ;the ceiling of this apaitment was blown away,
the room gutted, and the unfortunate woman much
injured, being fearfully, burnt about the arms and
upper part of her body. She was removed to Norfolk_
and Norwich Hospital, where she remained
hop u to
thou h pes
yesterday in a critical condition, alg
are entertained of her recovery. The poor women
had her two children in the house with her, an.d
one being quite an infant was in bed. Both these
b
a sailor namod
children were gallantly rescued
.y
Robert Crabtree, who with heroic courage forma
his way up to them and threw both down into ti]
street, where theyre safely caught by some iof
Morrison was in the parlotr
the bystanders. Mrs.
at the rear of her b d'
hus an s shop, with Miss
Woodward, a visitor ; but both were extricated
from the ruins without being seriously hurt,
although Miss Woodward was slightly burnt. Tb e
ruined houses were shored up under the direction
of Mr. Barry, city surveyor, so as to prevent the
walls from falling out, and they continued an obj ect
of interest to large crowds on Sunday and yester-
day. The origin. of the disaster remains an un ex- .
plamed mystery, the only petssoti-ivlib could have
thrown any light upon it having perished. The
damage done amounts to many hundreds of
but Mr. Marrison, the principal
sufferer, was
insured.