Chapter XLIII · (continued 2)

Livingstone’s labours in Africa fall naturally into three periods. The first, extending from 1841 to 1857, in which he worked in Southern Africa as a missionary, and made various expeditions into the interior of the country. Having returned home, his Researches in South Africa were published in 1857, and is a deeply interesting volume. It describes his long and often perilous journeys, and contains much original information touching the natives, the geography, botany, and natural products of Africa.

The second period extends from 1858 to 1864: early in the former year he set out on his second important mission. In May he had reached the mouth of the Zambesi. In January the following year he explored the river and valley of the Shire, where a white man had never before been seen. He proceeded up the Shire some two hundred miles, till stopped by the Murchison Falls. He found the Shire valley fertile and cultivated. By an overland march of twenty days from Shire, in September, 1860, he discovered the great lake of Nyassa. He afterwards revisited it, and concluded that the lake was about two hundred miles long and forty broad. The country was studded with villages, and the natives of the Shire and Nyassa valleys had good iron, and were manufacturers as well as agriculturists. Livingstone returned to England in 1864, and recorded his explorations in a Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its tributaries, and of the discovery of the lakes Sherwa and Nyassa.

In 1866, Livingstone started on his third and last expedition. In March he left Zanzibar and struck up the country towards lake Nyassa. For seven years he bravely prosecuted his travels and labours in Africa, suffering many hardships and dangers. At last, worn out, he died on the 1st of May, 1873. He had before expressed a wish to die in the still forest, “and no hand ever disturb my bones.” But so beloved was he when alive, that his body was rudely embalmed by his faithful followers, and carried by them hundreds of miles to Zanzibar, whence it was conveyed to England and interred in Westminster Abbey, on the 18th of April, 1874. Thus lived and died Dr. Livingstone, a man equally remarkable for his great intelligence and sagacity, his warm-hearted and wide sympathies, which were admirably exerted for the elevation and good of the natives of Africa; his bravery, fortitude, and endurance were wonderful, and his strength of will and perseverance unmatched. He was the first who called public attention to the suffering and horrors of the East African slave trade, which he continued to expose throughout his life; and his whole career was a noble struggle for the enlightenment, improvement, and civilisation of the natives of Africa.

Before closing this chapter, it seems requisite to give a brief account of the rise of newspapers and periodical literature. During Cromwell’s rule in Scotland there were some reprints of English news published in Edinburgh; after the Restoration two attempts were made to issue newspapers, but neither of them continued long. The first regular Scottish newspaper was the Edinburgh Gazette, established in 1699. The first Glasgow newspaper, called the Glasgow Courant, containing the occurrences both at home and abroad, appeared on the 14th of November, 1715; it was published thrice a week, but only lived about seven months. The second newspaper published in Glasgow appeared on the 20th of July, 1741, under the name of the Glasgow Journal, and it continued to be issued for upwards of half a century. On the 14th of October, 1745, the first number of the second Glasgow Courant was issued; and in 1783 the Glasgow Advertiser first appeared.¹ The Aberdeen Journal appeared in 1748. Newspapers continued slowly to increase in number till the end of the century; but it is chiefly within the last fifty years, and especially since the abolition of the stamp duty in 1855, and the duty on paper in 1861, that the newspaper press has attained its great development.

¹ Macgregor’s History of Glasgow, pages 295, 335, 336, 386.

The class of what may be called literary periodical papers, as distinguished from newspapers, began to appear in Scotland early in the eighteenth century. In 1711, a paper of this description was published in Edinburgh, and continued through thirty weekly numbers, under the name of The Tatler. Soon after this a number of periodical papers appeared, and disappeared again, but few of them had much merit. The Echo ran its weekly numbers from 1729 to 1733; The Review appeared in 1737; and The Letters of the Critical Club in 1738; The Mirror and Lounger, a periodical published in Edinburgh, attained a higher reputation. In January, 1739, the first number of The Scots Magazine appeared, and was continued till 1826. It contains a store of events, facts, interesting pictures of manners, characters, and incidents, extending over a period of well-nigh a century.

I have already referred to the establishment of the Edinburgh Review, and the influence which it wielded. Blackwood’s Magazine first appeared in 1817, and Tait’s Magazine in 1833; and about the latter date the Messrs. Chambers began to issue their instructive and cheap periodical publications, many of which attained a wide circulation. There are now magazines devoted to almost every department of knowledge, and to nearly every variety of opinion and doctrine; even every party and interest deem it necessary to be represented in the periodical press.

The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was published in 1771, in four volumes, under the editorship of Mr. William Smellie. The second edition of this work was begun in 1776, and it extended to ten volumes, embracing biography and history. The third edition, enlarged to eighteen volumes, was completed in 1797; and which contained many original treatises on physical science, and able and valuable articles by Professor Robison, Dr. Doig, and the ingenious editor of the later volumes​—the Rev. Dr. George Gleig. Two supplementary volumes were afterwards added to the work. The fourth edition, under the editorship of Dr. James Miller, was finished in 1810, enriched by several scientific treatises and many valuable articles by William Wallace, professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh. The next two editions were nearly nominal reprints; but the supplement projected by Mr. Constable contained contributions from many of the most ♦eminent writers of the time​—Sir Walter Scott, Jeffrey, James Mill, Dr. Thomas Young, Playfair, Leslie, Mackintosh, Dugald Stewart,¹ M. Arago, M. Biot, and others. The seventh edition under the editorship of Mr. Napier, ably assisted by Dr. James Browne, was completed in 1842, in twenty-one volumes; and contained many new and valuable articles, along with the supplements mentioned above. The eighth edition of this great national work was completed in 1861; and the ninth edition, under the editorship of accomplished and learned gentlemen, was completed in 1888.

¹ Large sums were paid to some of these writers for their Dissertations and Articles. Dugald Stewart was to receive £1000 for his Dissertation on Metaphysical Philosophy, and Playfair for one on the Progress of Natural Philosophy £500; Stewart actually received £1600, and Playfair would have received an additional £500 had he lived to complete his Dissertation. Such large sums had never before been given for literary work in Scotland.

The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, under the editorship of Sir David Brewster, was commenced in 1808, and completed in 1830, in eighteen quarto volumes. The scientific portions of this work are valuable, and were long highly appreciated.

The first edition of Chambers’ Cyclopædia of English Literature was published in 1843; and several revised and enlarged editions have since been issued, in two large volumes. It is a useful and generally accurate work. The later editions had the benefit of the extensive information and the fine literary taste of the late Mr. Robert Carruthers, of Inverness, who thoroughly revised the whole work. The Messrs. Chambers have also published an Encyclopædia, which is very highly esteemed as a work of reference. A new and revised edition of this excellent work has just been completed.

So much for the modern literature of Scotland.