The discussion of the Anglo-French agreement in the House of
Commons on Monday was made the occasion for a good deal of grumbling. Mr. Buchanan and Mr. MacArthur and Mr. Webb, who were specially angry at what they described as the handing over of the Hovas to France, do not seem to have considered that the French are already masters in Mada- gascar, and that, unless we are prepared to eject them—a course which no sane human being would suggest—it is useless to object to this part of the agreement. We only give up the right to pick a quarrel by admitting that the French have a de jure as well as a de facto control over the island. The rest of the debate, which throughout was of a desultory character, was concerned with the question of the slave-trade, and with the omission of the Newfoundland fisheries dispute from the settlement with France. On the whole, the House showed itself content with the agreement.
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