The Standard has sent a Correspondent to Madagascar, who announces
that four French armed vessels have appeared off the north-west coast of that island, and that the Hovas are pre- paring for war. A large force has already assembled at the capital, and it is known that Queen Ranavalona can dispose of 20,000 very good men, who will fight under the shelter of their forests. Intermediately, the Europeans in the island are afraid
of a general massacre, and believe that the Hovas may even renounce Christianity, many leading Malagasy declaring that the adoption of the new creed is the cause of all their woes. It does not make matters better to know that North-Western Mada- gascar, if conquered, is to be turned into a penal settlement for habitual criminals. M. Waldeck-Rousseau has announced that in the Chamber, the calculation of the French Government evidently being that the guardianship of convicts in Madagascar will be easy. If they fly_ a little way from the coast, the Sake- ava police will catch them ; and if they go still further, the Hovas will put them to death. Sentiment in France has clearly not extinguished cynicism.
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