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slavery—as incapable of receiving moral instruction, 
or of comprehending the nature of those political 
arrangements which distinguish the politer and more 
intelligent nations of Europe—much less have we 
believed them susceptible of those moral causes to 
which the superiority of one nation over another is 
to be ascribed ; and, consequently, to suppose them 
desirous of mental improvement , as the means of at¬ 
taining political greatness , is an idea that, ten years 
ago, would have been treated with ridicule by any 
man of common understanding. 
Before, however, their intercourse with Great Bri¬ 
tain had existed, the period just mentioned, these 
islanders have burst upon the view of astonished 
Europe, as the imitators of their new ally, and the 
resolute candidates for national greatness ;—-wrench¬ 
ing off the fetters with which their energies have been 
confined,—discontinuing those practices which are 
inconsistent with a state of civilization,—eagerly seek¬ 
ing the means of emancipation from ignorance and 
superstition,—and commencing a political career which 
bids fair to rival, in substantial greatness and strength, 
some of those nations who have hitherto treated her 
with insult and scorn. 
We now find that if Madagascar has remained in 
a state of barbarism, Em'opeans have actually caused 
it. If perfidy and cruelty have marked her character; 
if war and rapine have desolated her provinces; if her 
population has been kept down, and her children 
transported to foreign climes, to linger out a miserable 
