POLITICS AND RELIGION 
99 
prime minister passed over to Christianity in the follow¬ 
ing’ year and received baptism in the presence of a great 
assemblage ; the idols of the ruling family were destroyed 
and the guardians of the idols were dismissed. Thus the 
example was given to loyal subjects to pass over to 
Protestantism en masse. It afforded deep satisfaction to 
the native clergy to give proofs of their inborn talent 
for oratory as preachers. Sibree emphasizes the fact with 
much satisfaction, that by the adoption of European 
modes of life and European dress practical advantages 
had been gained for trade, and that each missionary 
meant the value of two to three thousand pounds sterling 
for English imports. Numerous schools and churches 
have been built. At the present time the Protestant 
mission of the English in Madagascar counts 68 mission¬ 
aries, some 6000 native assistant clergy with 310,000 
native Christians, 1300 churches and 1176 schools. Three 
printing-presses, two hospitals and one lazar-house are 
supported by an annual budget for the needs of the 
combined mission which has grown to about a million. 
Besides the English there is also a Norwegian 
mission. 
In the year 1830 the French Jesuits were already 
beginning to make their propaganda for Catholicism. 
Their success was at first small, but it slowly increased 
in later times, and at present a hard struggle is going 
on between the interests of English Protestantism and 
the French Jesuit Mission, which may very likely end in 
the victory of the latter. No wonder, for when at the 
time of the last French invasion the hard-pressed 
Malagasy turned in their need to their brethren in the 
faith in England, who had done a good stroke of business 
with them, they were left miserably in the lurch. The 
Hova are practical and intelligent, so the natural conse¬ 
quence will be that they will endeavour to stand well with 
their new rulers and will more and more join the French 
