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-