350 VISITS TO MADAGASCAE. chap. xiii. 



ease. He asked after my home and family ; and was much 

 pleased with a picture of my house, and with portraits of some 

 members of my family, which he said the princess his wife 

 would like to see. I told him I had a small present which 

 my wife herself had worked, and which I had thought of 

 offering to the queen or some member of her family. He 

 said the princess his wife would, he was sure, be much pleased 

 with it. He spoke freely of the accounts he had heard of 

 England, and of his esteem for the English; of his high 

 estimate of the conduct of the English on several occasions 

 which had been reported to him ; of the character of their 

 laws, especially in relation to human life, which he said they 

 appeared to regard as a most sacred thing, not to be care- 

 lessly nor recklessly destroyed. He spoke of the English 

 having often interfered to protect the weak and the injured, 

 and to prevent wrong. 



The prince also spoke of the Queen of England, of Prince 

 Albert, and the royal children ; and asked about the results 

 of the war wdth Russia, as well as the alliance and friendship 

 between England and France. I replied, that since the close 

 of the war in the Crimea there had been peace throughout 

 Europe, and that the existing relations of amity with France 

 were agreeable to the people of England; adding that the 

 English and French were such near neighbour.s, and had so 

 many commercial and other interests in common, that their 

 alliance must secure the most important advantages to both 

 countries ; while their sincere co-operation for the prosperity 

 of other nations could not fail to prove a benefit to the whole 

 world. In the course of our conversation the prince asked 

 what was the meaning of 'protection, as in the case of one 

 nation being under the protection of another nation. This 

 kind of protection I endeavoured to explain to him as well as 

 I could as being a sort of modified sovereignty, under which, 

 the protecting power, while leaving the people of the pro- 



