Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors.

Date:
[1874?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    will of my people, Queen of Madagascar and Defender of the laws of my kingdom. And this is what I say unto you, my subjects. God has given me this land and kingdom; and concerning the rum, oh my subjects, you and I have agreed that it shall not be sold in Antananarivo or in the district in which it was agreed it should not be sold (Imerina, the central province). Therefore I remind you of this again, because the rum does harm to your per- sons, spends your possessions in vain, harms your wives and children, makes foolish the wise, makes more foolish the foolish (literally gives heart to the foolish), and causes people not to fear the laws of the kingdom, and especially makes them guilty before God. All this shows the rum to be a bad thing to have at Antananarivo, for at night (under its influence) people go about with clubs to fight, and they fight each other without cause, and stone each other; therefore why do you love it, oh my people ? But I tell you that trade in good things,by which you can earn money, makes me very glad indeed, oh my people. This, then, is what I say to you, oh my people; if you trade in rum, or employ people to trade in it, here in Antananarivo, or in the district spoken of above, then, according to the laws that were made formerly, I con- sider you to be guilty, because I am not ashamed to make laws in my kingdom which shall do you good. Therefore I tell you that if there are people who break my laws, then I must punish them. Is not this so, oh my people ?—Says Eanovalomanjaka, Queen of Mada- gascar.—August 8, 1876.”