302 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
was in fact a duty that he owed to his people, who 
would derive satisfaction from such a law, from which none 
but the worthless could dissent; he was urged to issue a law 
on the subject. The king had long seen the evils of the prac¬ 
tice complained of, had taken some measures to convince 
the chiefs of their injurious operation, and now issued orders 
for the suppression of these abuses. 
Radama in pointed language expressed his thanks to all 
his subjects for their willing and uniform observance of 
his laws, declaring his readiness to honour with marks 
of approbation or otherwise remunerate, any person of 
merit; though at the same time he told them that 
he could no longer permit acts of valour performed 
either by themselves or their ancestors to be a screen to 
any class who evaded the laws, as such a system was equally 
disgraceful and injurious to the sovereign and the subject. 
He confirmed the present laws, which declare a theft of any 
property amounting in value to more than a fowl, or the 
twenty-fourth part of a dollar, should subject the perpetra¬ 
tor to a public trial; he enacted that all common thefts 
should subject the perpetrators to work such a number of 
days on the public roads as the police officers of the district 
where the theft was committed should adjudge; and he 
positively commanded that the police of every district should 
furnish rations to every person voluntarily offering to 
labour on the public works, by which means he removed 
the possibility of any person committing a theft merely to 
satisfy the wants of nature. 
Whenever advice had been offered to the natives of Xme- 
rina to induce them to cultivate habits of industry, they 
usually replied, that they did not labour under any 
particular wants, as they were not permitted to wear jewel¬ 
lery, nor clothes except of a certain description; such as 
