“Dublin, 29th August, 1857.—­I am very sorry now that I did not bring you with me, for all inquired after you, and father’s book is better known here than anywhere else I have been.  But it could scarcely have been otherwise.  I think the visit to Dublin will be beneficial to our cause, which, I think, is the cause of Christ in Africa.  Lord Radstock is much interested in it, and seems willing and anxious to promote it.  He was converted out at the Crimea, whither he had gone as an amateur.  His lady is a beautiful woman, and I think, what is far better, a good, pious one.  The Archbishop’s daughters asked me if they could be of any use in sending out needles, thread, etc., to your school.  I, of course, said Yes.  His daughters are devotedly missionary, and work hard in ragged schools, etc.  One of them nearly remained in Jerusalem as a missionary, and is the same in spirit here.  It is well to be servants of Christ everywhere, at home or abroad, wherever He may send us or take us....  I hope I may be enabled to say a word for Him on Monday.  There is to be a grand dinner and soiree at the Lord-Lieutenant’s on Monday, and I have got an invitation in my pocket, but will have to meet Admiral Trotter on Tuesday.  I go off as soon as my lecture is over....  Sir Duncan Macgregor is the author of The Burning of the Kent East Indiaman.  His son, the only infant saved, is now a devoted Christian, a barrister[52].”

[Footnote 52:  Dr. Livingstone always liked that style of earnest Christianity which he notices in this letter.  In November of the same year, after he had resigned his connection with the London Missionary Society, and was preparing to return to Africa as H.M.  Consul and head of the Zambesi Expedition, he writes thus to his friend Mr. James Young:  “I read the life of Hedley Vicars for the first time through, when down at Rugby.  It is really excellent, and makes me ashamed of the coldness of my services in comparison.  That was his sister you saw me walking with in Dublin at the Gardens (Lady Rayleigh).  If you have not read it, the sooner you dip into it the better.  You will thank me for it.”]

In September we find him in Manchester, where the Chamber of Commerce gave him a hearty welcome, and entered cordially into his schemes for the commercial development of Africa.  He was subjected to a close cross-examination regarding the products of the country, and the materials it contained for commerce; but here, too, the missionary was equal to the occasion.  He had brought home five or six and twenty different kinds of fruit; he told them of oils they had never heard of—­dyes that were kept secret by the natives—­fibres that might be used for the manufacture of paper—­sheep that had hair instead of wool—­honey, sugar-cane, wheat, millet, cotton, and iron, all abounding in the country.  That all these should abound in what used to be deemed a sandy desert appeared very strange.  A very cordial resolution was unanimously agreed to, and a strong desire expressed that Her Majesty’s Government would unite with that of Portugal in giving Dr. Livingstone facilities for further exploration in the interior of Africa, and especially in the district around the river Zambesi and its tributaries, which promised to be the most suitable as a basis both for commercial and missionary settlements.