350 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
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 with 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 neighbours, 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- 
