The New York herald., 1872-08-13

| determined men fr0m among ourselves, 6uch
as rush to the new-found mines, combining to-
gether to develop the resources of Africa, and
in their path will walk the spirit of freedom.
England may not be alone in the good work
she has SO promptly and so humanely under
taken.
From Doubt to Conviction-A Press
View OF the Herald Livingstone Ex-
pedition. srt
The varying steps of certain portion of the
| press from disbelief to doubt and from doubt
| to conviction will form an interesting episode
| in the history of the HERALD Livingstone Expe-
dtion. man. like journal. when serenely
conscious of the right, can afford to allow the
fruition of his acts to speak for itself. undis-
turbed 10y shallow sneerers, ready doubters and
make-believe wiseacres. In oil the painful
steps Of pushing onward to the relief of Living
stone our correspondent, like ourselves. little
rocked of the fippant babbling of these
prophets of the past" always ready and
more than willing to parade their 81 told you
So on the first notes of failure or breakdown
People are tired of the story Of Galileo, and
although every one To-day laughs at the
idea of the Inquisition solemnly compelling
him to retract his conviction of the
motion of the earth around the sun,
the lesson is deliberately thrown away on the
next opportunity of having something to
doubt That Christopher Columbus suffered
heart-eating annoyance for years before and
indignity and ingratitude after his discovery
| Of the New World, is not unknown, and with
certain sapient writer's nowadays the treat
ment would be repeated on every luckless
wight who dared to advance the standard Of
progress ON inch further than IL was at the
date of their birth. They belong g. the class
of men whose greatest enemies are hose who
benefit them. Pleasant is the reflection that
this amiable class Of croakers il q century or
two behind the age and that our press raven
has to change his tune occasionally before the
logic of hard facts and q public that demands
reliable news.
It is scarcely worth while in the present
instance to trace with great detail the course
of the doubling Thomases among our contem-
poraries; but few specimens will suffice to
show how the barricades of incredulity yield
to solid charge. Our first news of the expe-
dition on its way to Ujji they hailed derisively
the ouont courier who reached the coast ahead
Of Stanley was unreliable, they said, as all
dvd7n conriers should be to suit them. In spite
of all this confrmations crowded in, and it was
admitted in some of the doubling quarters that
Stanley and Livingstone had met but if SO,
geographical Solomon added, it was doubt
less Livingstone that met Stanley. This was
very wise and very funny and nice distinc-
ton. When our correspondent arrived on the
coast and headed for Alden new ground was
taken. He may have been in Africa, they
limited, but (shrug of the shoulders) his infor-
nation cannot in any case be depended on.
It was not sufficient that the HERALD
correspondent should publish his own
account of the expedition and the main
discoveries of Livingstone; they should have
il in the Doctors own handwriting Aha!
| they had cornered the HERALD now Not to
anticipate events we may here give breath to the
truism that men whose opinions are worth
nothing grasp with avidity at anything that
looks like prop to any view they may have
hazarded. So. scraps of incredulity were
clipped and passed from Thomas to Thomas at
an amusing rate. By putting all their heads
together, like Sydney Smiths church wardens,
they found wood enough to make an anti
Livingstone platform. A perfect godsend at
this period was an article in the Saturday
Revie,o, which, with the usual good taste and
courage Of that periodical, sneered at the
undertaking of ON American journal, which
had achieved what the English government
and people had failed in. AT the same time
the Reviesc cautiously left its readers in doubt
whether it believed or not in the premises Of
its own arguments. The letters from Dr. Liv-
ingstone to the HERALD were next published,
and the doubters at once moved their base
Their creed, as stated in articles, was:-
Frst-The letters were not genuine.
Second-The Doctors style had been i'm
proved by contact with the HERALD correspond
ent
Thud-The alleged Nile discoveries were un-
true.
F6wth-They amounted to nothing anyhow.
FfM-The Doctor should have written to CIV
lization earlier.
Sirth-The Doctor was an "old idiot" for
writing at all.
A cable despatch stating that the Paris
Temps, on the authority Of German geogra-
pher, named Kiepert, wagged its head doubt
ingly over the letters, buoyed the Thomases
up with renewed hope and fire was opened
along the little line. We presenta few Of the
flseless shells Says the Buffalo Erprsss:-
The numbers of those who regard the HERALD
Livingstone story as huge humbug are increasing.
1t Is thought that DR.. Livingstone could never have
written such letters those published In the
HERALD over his signature. Think OF q scientific
man. say Agassiz, giving to the world such stun az