garden, it was said by some that they only wished to bring the ground into good order, and then they would take the garden away.  That was nasty and suspicious.  If masters were more trusted, they would do more good.  Finally, he exhorted them cordially to accept God’s offers of mercy to them in Christ, and give themselves wholly to Him.  To bow down before God was not mean; it was manly.  His one wish for them all was that they might have peace with God, and rejoice in the hope of the eternal inheritance.

His remarks to the operatives show how sound and sagacious his views were on social problems; in this sphere, indeed, he was in advance of the age.  The quickness and correctness with which he took up matters of public interest in Britain, mastered facts, and came to clear, intelligent conclusions on them, was often the astonishment of his friends.  It was as if, instead of being buried in Africa, he had been attending the club and reading the daily newspapers for years,—­this, too, while he was at work writing his book, and delivering speeches almost without end.  We find him at this time anticipating the temperance coffee-house movement, now so popular and successful.  On 11th July, 1857, he wrote on this subject to a friend, in reference to a proposal to deliver a lecture in Glasgow.  It should be noticed that he never lectured for money, though he might have done so with great pecuniary benefit: 

“I am thinking of giving, or trying to give, a lecture by invitation at the Athenaeum.  I am offered thirty guineas, and as my old friends the cotton-spinners have invited me to meet them, I think of handing the sum, whatever it may be, to them, or rather letting them take it and fit up a room as a coffee-room on the plan of the French cafes, where men, women, and children may go, instead of to whisky-shops.  There are coffee-houses already, but I don’t think there are any where they can laugh and talk and read papers just as they please.  The sort I contemplate would suit poor young fellows who cannot have a comfortable fire at home.  I have seen men dragged into drinking ways from having no comfort at home, and women also drawn to the dram-shop from the same cause.  Don’t you think something could be done by setting the persons I mention to do something for themselves?”

Edinburgh conferred on Livingstone the freedom of the city, besides entertaining him at a public breakfast and hearing him at another meeting.  We are not surprised to find him writing to Sir Roderick Murchison from Rossie Priory, on the 27th September, that he was about to proceed to Leeds, Liverpool, and Birmingham, “and then farewell to public spouting for ever.  I am dead tired of it.  The third meeting at Edinburgh quite knocked me up.”  It was generally believed that his appearances at Edinburgh were not equal to some others; and probably there was truth in the impression, for he must have come to it exhausted; and besides, at a public breakfast, he was put out by a proposal of the chairman, that they should try to get him a pension.  Yet some who heard him in Edinburgh received impressions that were never effaced, and it is probable that seed was silently sown which led afterward to the Scotch Livingstonia Mission—­one of the most hopeful schemes for carrying out Livingstone’s plans that have yet been organized.