Dr. Livingstone was asked at this time to attend a public meeting on behalf of American freedom. It was not in his power to go, but, in apologizing, he was at pains to express his opinion on the capacity of the negro, in connection with what was going on in the United States:
"Our kinsmen across the Atlantic deserve our warmest sympathy. They have passed, and are passing, through trials, and are encompassed with difficulties which completely dwarf those of our Irish famine, and not the least of them is the question, what to do with those freedmen for whose existence as slaves in America our own forefathers have so much to answer. The introduction of a degraded race from a barbarous country was a gigantic evil, and if the race cannot be elevated, an evil beyond remedy. Millions can neither be amalgamated nor transported, and the presence of degradation is a contagion which propagates itself among the more civilized. But I have no fears as to the mental and moral capacity of the Africans for civilization and upward progress. We who suppose ourselves to have vaulted at one bound to the extreme of civilization, and smack our lips so loudly over our high elevation, may find it difficult to realize the debasement to which slavery has sunk those men, or to appreciate what, in the discipline of the sad school of bondage, is in a state of freedom real and substantial progress. But I, who have been intimate with Africans who have never been defiled by the slave-trade, believe them to be capable of holding an honorable rank in the family of man."
Wherever slavery prevailed, or the effects of slavery were found, Dr. Livingstone's testimony against it was clear and emphatic. Neither personal friendship nor any other consideration under the sun could repress it. When his friends Sir Roderick and Mr. Webb afterward expressed their sympathy with Governor Eyre, of Jamaica, he did not scruple to tell them how different an estimate he had formed of the Governor's conduct.
We continue our extracts from his Journal and letters:
24th May.--Came down to Scotland by last night's train; found mother very poorly; and, being now eighty-two, I fear she may not have long to live among us."
27th May (to Mr. Webb)--"I have been reading Tom Brown's School Days--a capital book. Dr. Arnold was a man worth his weight in something better than gold. You know Oswell" [his early friend] "was one of his Rugby boys. One could see his training in always doing what was brave and true and right."
"2d June.--Tom better, but kept back in his education by his complaint. Oswell getting on well at school at Hamilton. Anna Mary well. Mother gradually becoming weaker. Robert we shall never hear of again in this world, I fear; but the Lord is merciful and just and right in all his ways. He would hear the cry for mercy in the hospital at Salisbury. I have lost my part in that gigantic struggle which the Highest guided to a consummation never contemplated by the Southerners when they began; and many other have borne more numerous losses."
"5th June.--Went about a tombstone for my dear Mary. Got a good one of cast-iron to be sent out to the Cape.
"Mother very low.... Has been a good affectionate mother to us all. The Lord be with her.... Whatever is good for me and mine the Lord will give.
"To-morrow, Communion in kirk. The Lord strip off all imperfections, wash away all guilt, breathe love and goodness through all my nature, and make his image shine out from my soul.
"Mother continued very low, and her mind ran on poor Robert. Thought I was his brother, and asked me frequently, 'Where is your brother? where is that puir laddie?'... Sisters most attentive.... Contrary to expectation she revived, and I went to Oxford. The Vice-Chancellor offered me the theatre to lecture in, but I expected a telegram if any change took place on mother. Gave an address to a number of friends in Dr. Daubeny's chemical class-room."
"Monday, 19th June.--A telegram came, saying that mother had died the day before. I started at once for Scotland. No change was observed till within an hour and a half of her departure.... Seeing the end was near, sister Agnes said, 'The Saviour has come for you, mother. You can "lippen" yourself to him?' She replied, 'Oh yes.' Little Anna Mary was help up to her. She gave her the last look, and said 'Bonnie wee lassie,' gave a few long inspirations, and all was still, with a look of reverence on her countenance. She had wished William Logan, a good Christian man, to lay her head in the grave, if I were not there. When going away in 1858, she said to me that she would have liked one of her laddies to lay her head in the grave. It so happened that I was there to pay the last tribute to a dear good mother."
The last thing we find him doing in Scotland is attending the examination of Oswell's school, with Anna Mary, and seeing him receive prizes. Dr. London, of Hamilton, the medical attendant and much-valued friend of the Livingstones, furnishes us with a reminiscence of this occasion. He had great difficulty in persuading Livingstone to go. The awful bugbear was that he would be asked to make a speech. Being assured that it would be thought strange if, in a gathering of the children's parents, he were absent, he agreed to go. And of course he had to speak. What he said was pointed and practical, and in winding up, he said he had just two things to say to them--"FEAR GOD, AND WORK HARD." These appear to have been Livingstone's last public words in his native Scotland.
His Journal is continued in London:
"8th August.--Went to Zoological Gardens with Mr. Webb and Dr. Kirk; then to lunch with Miss Coutts" [Baroness Burdett Coutts]. "Queen Emma of Honolulu is to be there. It is not fair for High Church people to ignore the labors of the Americans, for [the present state of Christianity] is the fruit of their labors, and not of the present Bishop. Dined at Lady Franklin's with Queen Emma; a nice, sensible person the Queen seems to be.
"9th August.--Parted with my friends Mr. and Mrs. Webb at King's Cross station to-day. He gracefully said that he wished I had been coming rather than going away, and she shook me very cordially with both hands, and said, 'You will come back again to us, won't you?' and shed a womanly tear. The good Lord bless and save them both, and have mercy on their whole household!"
"11th August.--Went down to say good-bye to the Duchess-Dowager of Sutherland, at Maidenhead. Garibaldi's rooms are shown; a good man he was, but followed by a crowd of harpies who tried to use him for their own purposes.... He was so utterly worn out by shaking hands, that a detective policeman who was with him in the carriage, put his hand under his cloak, and did the ceremony for him.
"Took leave at Foreign Office. Mr. Layard very kind in his expressions at parting, and so was Mr. Wylde.
"12th August.--"Went down to Wimbledon to dine with Mr. Murray, and take leave. Mr. and Mrs. Oswell came up to say farewell. He offers to go over to Paris at any time to bring Agnes" [who was going to school there] "home, or do anything that a father would. ["I love him," Livingstone writes to Mr. Webb, "with true affection, and I believe he does the same to me; and yet we never show it.">[
"We have been with Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton for some time--good, gracious people. The Lord bless them and their household! Dr. Kirk and Mr. Waller go down to Folkestone to-morrow, and take leave of us there. This is very kind. The Lord puts it into their hearts to show kindness, and blessed be his name."
Dr. Livingstone's last weeks in England were passed under the roof of the late Rev. Dr. Hamilton, author of Life in Earnest, and could hardly have been passed in a more congenial home. Natives of the same part of Scotland, nearly of an age, and resembling each other much in taste and character, the two men drew greatly to each other. The same Puritan faith lay at the basis of their religious character, with all its stability and firmness. But above all, they had put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. In Natural History, too, they had an equal enthusiasm. In Dr. Hamilton, Livingstone found what he missed in many orthodox men. On the evening of his last Sunday, he was prevailed on to give an address in Dr. Hamilton's church, after having in the morning received the Communion with the congregation. In his address he vindicated his character as a missionary, and declared that it was as much as ever his great object to proclaim the love of Christ, which they had been commemorating that day. His prayers made a deep impression; they were like the communings of a child with his father. At the railway station, the last Scotch hands grasped by him were those of Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton. The news of Dr. Hamilton's death was received by Livingstone a few years after, in the heart of Africa, with no small emotion. Their next meeting was in the better land.