204 
MADAGASCAR. 
to trust to a well organised commerce, a strong 
and patriotic army, a people enlightened and 
bound to the rest of the world by civilisation and 
international and reciprocal obligations, rather 
than to the mere physical accidents of their geo¬ 
graphical position, for real security and peace. 
Military science no longer hesitates to deal with 
the most difficult problems of physical obstruction 
to the onward march of victorious armies, as the 
recent campaigns in Afghanistan and Egypt 
have clearly demonstrated. But, by securing the 
unity and friendship of the great nations of the 
world, Madagascar will enjoy a security which 
she has never yet experienced, and will have 
ample leisure for that internal reform and reor¬ 
ganisation which she so much desires. Isolation 
and insularity in these days are only synonyms 
for weakness and failure. The strength of a people 
depends entirely on the spirit with which it enters 
into the community of the nations, and discharges 
its obligations as one of that community. The 
boast, therefore, of the Malagasy, that they have 
in the “ fever and the forest ” an unassailable 
defence against foreign aggression, is getting a 
little old-fashioned as things are. Times change, 
and conditions of life change, and these are days 
when, for countries as well as for individuals, 
worth and usefulness, and a deep sense of respon¬ 
sibility to the age in which they live, will avail 
