On February 8th, 1890, there died at Usambiro, at the south end of the Victoria Nyanza, Alexander Mackay, the simple layman whose work and early death did so much to rivet attention, not only on the Uganda Mission, but also on missionary enterprise in general. No modern example seems to have been more fruitful; but he saw nothing of the wonderful development of Uganda. The pioneer often does not live to look on the results of his own enterprise.
ALEXANDER MACKAY.
(The Pioneer Missionary of Uganda.)
THOMAS CARLYLE.
(From a Pencil Drawing by George Howard, Esq., M.P.)
There are some who tell us that people do not read Dickens now. More is the pity! Yet the flat stone over the grave of Dickens in Westminster Abbey so often has a flower upon it, while others of no less famous men are bare, that the man must still be remembered as well as his books. He was born in this month in the year 1812, and died in June, 1870. Much of his character might be summed up in the benediction he put into the mouth of Tiny Tim, "God bless us every one." In the same month of February, in the year 1881, there died an author and philosopher of another type—Thomas Carlyle, one of the most striking figures in English literature, and one of those whose reputation was world-wide. "When the devil's advocate has said his worst against Carlyle, he leaves a figure still of unblemished integrity, purity, loftiness of purpose, and inflexible resolution to do the right, as of a man living consciously under his Maker's eye, and with his thoughts fixed on the account which he would have to render of his talents."
On February 23rd, 1807, Wilberforce's Bill for the abolition of the foreign slave trade was carried by a majority of 283 to 16. Sir Samuel Romilly contrasted the feelings of Napoleon with that of the man who would that night "lay his head upon his pillow and remember that the slave trade was no more." There was still, however, much to do; but Wilberforce lived to hear the news that the nation was willing to pay twenty millions for the abolition of slavery.
