I am busy, and tired, this month; so shall keep my making up of
accounts till January. The gist of them is simply that we have got
£8000 worth of Consols; and we had a balance of £501 7s. at the bank,
which balance I have taken, and advanced another hundred of my own,
making £600, to buy the Sheffield property with: this advance I shall
repay myself as the interest comes in, or farther subscription; and
then use such additional sums for the filling of the museum, and
building a small curator’s house on the ground. But I shall not touch
any of the funded sum; and hope soon to see it raised to £10,000. I
have no word yet from our lawyer about our constitution. The Sheffield
property, like the funded, stands in the names of the Trustees.
I have accepted, out of our forty subscribers, some eight or nine for
Companions, very gratefully. Others wish well to the cause, but dislike
the required expression of creed and purpose. I use no persuasion in
the matter, wishing to have complete harmony of feeling among the
active members of the Society.
E. L.’s courteous, but firm, reply to Mrs. Green’s letter reaches me
too late for examination. In justice to both my correspondents, and to
my readers, I must defer its insertion, in such abstract as may seem
desirable, until next month.
I. Letter from a clergyman, now an accepted Companion. The extract
contained in it makes me wonder if it has never occurred to the Rev.
Dr. Mullens that there should be immediately formed a Madagascar
Missionary Society, for the instruction of the natives of England:—
“My dear Sir,—Apropos of your strictures on usury which have from time
to time appeared in ‘Fors,’ I have thought you would be interested in
the following extract from a recent work on Madagascar, by the Rev. Dr.
Mullens, of the London Missionary Society.
“After describing a ‘Kabáry,’—a public assembly addressed by the
Queen,—in the Betsileo [85] province, he goes on to say: ‘Having
expressed in a clear and distinct voice her pleasure in meeting her
people once more, the Queen uttered several sentences usual to these
assemblies, in which she dwelt upon the close and affectionate
relations subsisting between them and herself. “You are a father and
mother to me: having you, I have all.... And if you confide in me, you
have a father and a mother in me. Is it not so, O ye under heaven?” To
which, with a deep voice, the people reply, “It is so.” Passing at
length to the subject specially before her, the Queen said, “My days in
the South are now few; therefore I will say a word about the Schools.
And I say to you all, here in Betsileo, ... cause your children to
attend the Schools. My desire is, that whether high or low, whether
sons of the nobles, or sons of the judges, or sons of the officers, or
sons of the centurions, your sons and your daughters should attend the
Schools and become lovers of wisdom.” The Prime Minister, then, in the
Queen’s name, addressed the assembly on the subject of usury,—a great
evil among poor nations, and only too common in stages of society like
that in Madagascar,—and said, “Thus saith the Queen: All the usury
exacted by the Hovas from the Betsileo is remitted, and only the
original debt shall remain!’”
“I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
“Joseph Halsey.”