The Commonwealth. — 1867-03-16 (London, England)

TUE REPORTED DEATH OF D.R. LIVINGSTONE.  A large number of ladies and gentlemen attended the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday evening, at Burlington-house, expecting to bear some further tidings of the fate of Dr. Livingstone. Sir Roderick Murchison, the president, was prevented from occupying his aerial post by an attack of bronchitis, and the chair was accordingly filled by Sir C. H. Rawlineon, one of the vice-presidents. This gentleman explained the cause of the president's absence, and stated that Sir Roderick had particularly wished to preside at tbe meeting to make some remarks as to the news from Africa respecting Dr. Livingstone. After statieg that the letters that had been referred to in the published communications as coming via St. Helena had not yet arrived, the chairman read the following communication from Sir R. Murchison : " Regretting particularly that, owing to indisposition, I am unable to atteed the meeting this day, I beg the fellows of the society to recollect that in announcing the reported death of ray dear and valued friend, Dr. Liviugstone, I spoke of it as an event which required to be substantiated by better evidence than that of the nine men of Johanna, in the Comoro Islands, who brought the sad intelligenee. lam informed by travellers who know these people well that they are Mahommedana, who, if they became disgusted with, or intimidated by the ferocious pagan natives on the borders of the Lake Nyassa, may have abandoned their chief, and having agreed upon the story they were to tell, would hold together firmly in maintaining its truth. There are also severel parts of their narrative which seem to me to be difficult to understand—for instance, their being hidden in a wood, and yat their observation of the attack on Livingstone being so accurately described. Again, if, as the Johanna men stated, they buried their leader, is it likely that they would in such case not have brought away with them some relies to vouch for the truth of their story ? Presuming that if hostile natives had killed Livingstone, they would have cared little for his note-book; one of these alone, or even a lock of his hair, would have been good auxiliary evidence. Further, when I recollect that many an African traveller who has returned safely to England has been reported to have been killed (usually by runaway natives who bad deserted him), I shall not abandon all hope until Dr. Kirk, the former devoted companion of Livingstone, and who has gone towards the scene of the alleged disaster, shall have satisfied himself that the calamity really occurred, and that philanthropists and geographers have lost the great traveller who had already won for himself imperishable renown. I have osly to add that the more detailed account which Dr. Kirk had sent to me before the letter which appeared was written, will, I apprehend, throw little new light upon the alleged murder, as it oan be nothing more than a detailed account of the story as related by the Johanna men. The search into the truthfulness or otherwise of the account received must occupy some time" (cheers.) Sir H. Rawlinson said he agreed fully with Sir Roderiek's views upon this anxious eubjeot. The account of Dr. Livingstone's fate certainly did seem a very lame story as it stood at present, and ought not to be accepted without farther verification. At the same time the worst part of the case was that eight or nine months had now passed since the disaster was said to have occurred. It it had been untrue he could not help thinking that some telegraphic message by the way of Egypt contradicting the original narrative ought to have been reeeived by this time. This might be said to be the dark side of the picture to be placed against the bright side revealed in the president's letter. In the meantime all that could be done was to wait the result with patience. If poor Livingatone bad perished, all present would feel that not cnly had science sustained an irreparable disaster, but that each fellow of the Geographical Society had lost a personal friend (cheers.) The ordinary transactions of the society were then proceeded with.  The late Accident near Bradford.—Another Death.—Mr. 0. Caygill, one of the sufferers by the accident in a tunnel ;Ai the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, near Bradford, expired on Monday.  EXTRACTS FROM "PUNCH" az "