‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.’--ISAIAH ix. 2. ‘With the accession of Radàma II a new era in the history of Madagascar began. For although not himself a Christian, he had long been recognized as the friend and protector of the persecuted Christians; and one of his first acts, as King of Madagascar, was to proclaim religious liberty, a blessing so earnestly desired by hundreds of his subjects, but so persistently denied by his mother[20]. ‘The reopening of Madagascar to the Gospel stirred up in other churches a strong desire to share in Christian work. Even before the arrival of the Rev. William Ellis (who had been sent out by the Directors of the London Missionary Society to reopen the mission), Roman Catholic priests and workers had reached the capital. From the first these agents pursued the invariable policy of Rome. They denounced Protestantism, they attempted to secure the direction of affairs, and they showed no scruples in the means they used to secure their ends. ‘French political agents were also already on the spot, and active in their efforts, only too successful, to gain an influence over the king, and to aggrandize France. The French Consul was M. Laborde, and in close association with him was M. Lambert, who, in 1857, had been banished along with M. Laborde and others by Rànavàlona because detected in a plot to dethrone her. Mr. Pakenham, the English Consul--“the degenerate son of a noble sire, married to a low French-Creole woman”--contrary to all reasonable expectation, took the side of the French as against Mr. Ellis, and did all in his power to lower the missionary’s influence and weaken his authority[21].