A man distinguished by unrivalled travels and discoveries in Africa.
"I only wish that I could infuse into you my own clear belief of your power. If you only felt as I feel that you possess it, there is not a shadow of a doubt but Africa would feel the benefit of it, within this year, through its length from the Cape of Good Hope to the Pharos light. But the faculty of hopefulness, like every other faculty, falls into decay through disuse. If you would only help your premier to say 'no' just once, it is wonderful how your vocal power to repeat it would gain strength. Why, if you believed in your own strength as I believe in it, you could shout such a 'no' as would peal around the globe. Then what an army, of workers would issue out of this island - missionaries by the hundred, artisans, mechanics, young men of mettle and muscle and brain by the thousand; ships would be loaded with rails and sleepers; your forges, your factories and workshops would be filled with the sound of toil and preparation for the crusade for the redemption of Africa by commerce. It is melancholy to know that there are men in this world possessing a giant strength, but yet so ignorant of it that it is allowed to become atrophied ; but it is still more melancholy to see a whole nation, elevated to proudest majesty by ages of enterprise and freedom, fallen into such a state of apathy and numbness that they are either incapable of discerning the slow and sure sapping of their greatness by a rival power, or so doubtful of its resources and so timid as not to be able to deny it anything. In the hope that something may be done to arrest this tendency to close the only new market that is possible for your industries, and to prevent the wintry frost from destroying the green shoots of young civilisation that have just sprouted, I have availed myself of this opportunity to speak to you."