Frances did not pay much attention to the discourse about the Savona pots; she went on with her thoughts about the cousins, and when Miss Durant went away, gave herself up entirely to those specula tions. What sort of people would they be? Where would they live? And then there recurred to her mind the meeting of the morning, and what the stranger said who knew her father. It was almost the first time she had ever seen him meet any one whom he knew, except the acquaint ances of recent times, with whom she had made acquaintance, as he did. But the stranger of the morning evidently knew about him in a period unknown to Frances. She had made a slight and cautious attempt to find out something about him at breakfast, but it had not been successful. She wondered whether she would have courage to ask her father now in so many words who he was and what he meant.

From Blackwood's Magazine.
MALTA AND ITS KNIGHTS.*

which were to be had so cheap, quite | history of hospitals; the soldier' reads cheap, but which she heard at home were with the same enthusiasm which Walter so much thought of. Scott gratefully records in reference to his early studies of the Abbé Vertot, the animated narrative of the sieges of Rhodes and Malta, the greatest leaguers of their respective epochs; and the politician is interested in a constitution alien to any other in the world's history-the autocratic authority of a military chieftain, tempered by democratic equality of the convent. Yet, after all, it is to the scene of the zenith of their glory and the decay of their spirit, that the English student of the history of the Knights Hospitallers will ever turn; so that they are in our minds, as in popular parlance, less chevaliers of Jerusalem or of Rhodes than knights of Malta. It is a slight indica tion of this substitution of the genius loci for the esprit de corps, that General Porter in his earlier pages appears to surrender a point which, to a genuine old miles Hierosolymitanus, would have been dearer than his own genealogical proofs, describing the dedication of the original chef lieu of the order at Jerusalem as having been to St. John the Almoner, against which degradation of the convent of the illustrious Precursor the learned Paciaude, in the work which he dedicated under Grand Master Pinto to Pope Benedict XIV. (in 1755), protests in lengthy and energetic sentences, striving to show that it was a fallacy, hatched by the envy of the Greeks. Clearly, if the Almoner appears to nineteenth-century acumen the proper patron for an order of Hospitallers, it was not long before he was altogether disowned by the fraternity, and the Bap. tist invested with the tradition of their earliest consecration. In St. John's Church at Valetta, in addition to the famous gift of Bajazet, the hand of the Baptist, captured by the Turks at Constantinople, whither it had been conveyed by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, after he had bribed a deacon to steal it from Antioch, - other relics hardly less sacred were deposited, of which Paciaude gives representations. The grand possession, the actual ministrant of the baptism of the Saviour, in a case richly jewelled, was seized by Buonaparte, who, transferring to his own finger the gem which sparkled on the dead hand, desired the case to be taken on board the "Orient," and carelessly observed to Hompesch, "You may keep the carrion," which he did, and handed the relic over to the emperor Paul at St. Petersburg, where it still shares the reverence of devout visitants, with another

It is a strange irony of fate which has made the English-dubbed by the first Napoleon a nation of shopkeepers-the heirs of the haughty, fastidious, chivalric Hospitallers; and, stranger still, that the last link in the chain of circumstances which led to this unlooked for result, was forged by the high-handed enterprise of the great Corsican himself. Neverthe less, it is unquestionably true that we are indebted in no small degree to the religious fanaticism which tempered the stern savagery of the Middle Ages for the possession of our great Mediterranean arsenal. The history of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem is the history of one of our most valuable dependencies. Many years ago General Porter contributed to our literature the best and most readable summary of the deeds of the order in a book of which he has now published an enlarged and revised edition, with, we may hope, a prospect of a wider popularity in this age of extended reading. The subject, indeed, sparkles with many facets of interest. The medical man finds light thrown upon the early

* History of the Knights of Malta; or, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. By Wintworth Porter, Man: General Royal Engineers. Revised edition. London: Longmans, Green, & Co.

famous relic from Malta - the icon of our | lies the dockyard creek, at that time conLady of Philermos to which, in the true taining the slips on which the galleys spirit of modern ultramontanism, the were laid up, protected by a strong chain papal Order of St. John seem to pay their drawn across the mouth of the bay beprincipal regard, to the neglect of their tween the Castles of St. Angelo and St. once venerated patron saint. Michael. The Turks, after the fall of St. It is no wonder that the Order of St. Elmo, brought their fleet into the MarsaJohn have to us mainly a national inter- muscetto harbor, and drawing some ships est as the possessors of Malta. Had across the promontory at the landward they settled at Genoa, where the merchant end, below Floriana, launched them on princes were most anxious to attract them the upper bay of the “grand harbor,” and -where, indeed, was established one of thus completely invested the two strongthe most flourishing commanderies, and holds of the order by sea; while from where, in a chapel of the cathedral from Corradino, Zabbar, Bighi, Ricasoli, and which the female sex (as sisters of Hero- the lower St. Elmo, they raked the fortifi dias's daughter) are rigidly excluded, you cations from the land by a nearly complete may see the Byzantine casket which once circle of batteries. The traveller, viewing held the ashes of the Precursor; or had the scene of the conflict from the height they remained at Syracuse, where they above (the upper Barracca), and reading repaired for a while after the taking of that the Turkish army numbered forty Rhodes, and sculptured Grand Master thousand, might well wonder that they d'Amboise's arms on the wall of the pa- did not, to quote Hushai the Archite (2 lazzo now used as a museum, few would Samuel xvii. 13) “bring ropes to that city have cared about them, except an anti-and draw it into the water, until there be quarian or two; but even the most prosaic not one small stone found there." And passenger by the Peninsular and Oriental so, indeed, in spite of the most heroic enline, cannot resist an inquiry as to the durance and bravery on the part of the builders of the stately city, at the foot knights, they would have done, but for the of whose stupendous ramparts his vessel ineradicable sloth and indiscipline of an is anchored; while politicians and eth- Oriental force. They neglected to seize, nologists, in the pursuit of their respec- as they could at first readily have done, tive hobbies, constantly come across the Citta Vecchia, the capital of the island, a legends of the soldier monks, to whose few miles inland; from whence a small halls, docks, and fortresses we have suc- garrison constantly harassed their rear by ceeded. A few words on the former topic, unexpected attacks, one of which at least the city of Valetta, may not be out of saved the besieged by creating a diversion place. As seen from the deck of an east- at the very moment when their storming ward-bound steamer, it is the modern party were on the point of success, having town which faces the anchorage - for the planted their horsetail standards on the P. and O. ships go into the Marsamu- summit of the walls. One of the most scetto harbor; and in the days of the great graphic and interesting, although little siege, the ridge of high ground on which known, narratives of the events of the the present city, built by the contributions great siege, was printed at Perugia in of all Christendom in obedience to the 1567, by F. John Anthony Viperan, who bull of Pope Pius IV., stands, was a rocky had served in the garrison of the capital. peninsula with a solitary fort at the ex- His chronicle gives us to understand how treme end, the harbor's mouth, the fort imperfectly, in spite of the cordon of being named St. Elmo after the patron of troops and batteries, the Moslem blockmariners and not only the scene of in-aded the town. Reinforcements found calculable bravery and self-sacrifice during the siege, but interesting as the spot to which Abercromby, while it was still in the hands of the French, with a prescience of its future, desired his body to be transported when he fell in the hour of victory. The town which the Turks aimed at destroying stood upon the two central promontories of the opposite side of the "grand harbor," flanked by the French creek on the landward, and the bay below the Naval Hospital at Bighi, on the seaward side; while between the peninsulas

their way to St. Angelo through the Turkish lines; and even within a few weeks of the termination of the siege, an emissary, sent by the viceroy of Sicily to report upon the state of affairs in Malta, traversed the enemy's intrenchments, between dawn and sunrise, with a small escort, and without a challenge from a sentinel or an interruption from a patrol. Indeed, but for the jealousies which sundered the councils of Christendom, a more frightful calamity than that which actually befell the besiegers might have

been their portion. The viceroy of Sicily, in the Times last year, that the future hampered by the prudent and grudging gendarmerie of Egypt might be composed instructions of his master, the cold, cal- of Maltese, is a suggestion which may culating Philip, only sent assistance at the very possibly be reverted to; for it is eleventh hour, and then to the least ex-founded upon their peculiar qualifications tent compatible with his own credit and the security of the force detached. Again the Turkish generals by land and sea blundered, scuttled to their ships, squab bled, and disembarked their army to receive a more crushing defeat, and Malta was saved.

as a race with an Eastern language and Western sympathies. The knights also gave them credit for being good soldiers if well led, a character which General Porter, from personal_observation, and from the annals of the French siege, considers them to have maintained. The General Porter's account of this pro- history of the French occupation is full of tracted conflict is one of the best exam- interest, and throws light upon more than ples yet afforded of the way in which one vexed question of Maltese governmilitary history ought to be written. ment. The rule of the grand masters, Without technical pedantry, and equally ever oppressive to the natives, in the latter without that loose exaggeration of word- part of the eighteenth century had become painting which passes muster in the pres-positively odious. Instead of being the ent age for picturesque narrative, he sets before his reader the whole detail of the scene, as from day to day increasingly desperate efforts of attack and defence were made by either side. The gigantic artillery of the besiegers pounded with huge missiles the friable stone of which the ramparts were composed until the wall was reduced to a mere mound of crumbled dust, up which the Turkish levies were driven sword in hand by their officers and janissaries to be hewn down in heaps by the well-armed and spirited handful of defenders. The mines and the countermines, with the subterranean combats to which they gave occasion the encounters in the water, where the swimmers of Dragut strove to break the chain which barred the port, or to destroy the palisade which fenced the shore of Isolu point the Greek fire and blazing hoops which were tossed to and fro by the combatants, all are placed vividly before us, and combine to make a picture unequalled in the annals of war. We can not refrain from expressing a hope that this chapter at least may find a place in the collections of English classics now so much in vogue for educational purposes, both as an example of the decaying art of the historical chronicler, and as a truthful description of a great event in the world's history.

One conspicuous feature of this memorable struggle is the attitude of the native population. Arab as they clearly are by origin, they did not then, nor do they now, display the slightest inclination to support or amalgamate with any Mohammedan race. Their Catholicism is not only of a strict type, but seems thoroughly to have interpenetrated their national character. A recommendation which appeared

channel through which a large sum of for. eign money was distributed through the island, the order, after the confiscation of their European property, had been obliged to resort to all manner of devices to exact from the Maltese the means of maintain. ing their various public establishments. A significant indication of the shifts to which they were driven may be seen in the public museum at Valetta, where a large collection of matrices and dies for coins are preserved — all belonging to the three last grand masters; who, by issuing new silver coins, and calling in the old, der based the circulating medium, and utilized much of the plate belonging to the gov ment, the Langues, and the religious foundations. The smouldering discontent was fostered in masonic lodges, just as the late intrigues in Egypt caused many initiations into French and Italian Freemasonry in that country. When at length the first consul appeared before Valetta, Hompesch, the grand master, found himself deserted and betrayed: as his apologist justly says, De Lisle Adam lost Rhodes in fair fight, but Hompesch lost Malta without the opportunity of striking a blow in its defence. When Napoleon entered the gigantic lines, ramparts, and ditches hewn by the labor and cemented with the blood of thousands of Mohammedan captives, he turned to his lieutenant with the remark, "It was well we had somebody to hand us the keys of such a stronghold." He is reported to have contemplated a palace at Bighi, from whence he should rule the Eastern and Western empires which he intended to form; but fate called him to pursue his destiny, and to be baffled by the "dauntless seaman," Sir Sidney Smith, on the spot where the order he had plundered had once suc

cumbed to the Saracen. A contemporary beloved island; and too frequently their account of the proceedings of the French want of harmony with the Mussulman gives a strong idea of their appetite for population around them is the cause at spoil: not only were the more precious any political crisis of their suffering outmetals confiscated wherever they were rage or expulsion. Those who have ever found, but even statues of bronze were visited that singular subterranean town, haled from their pedestals and taken on the Manderaggio in Valetta, originally board the fleet. Some of these valuables scooped out to form a dry dock in the time were retaken by the English, and either of the knights, and now crammed with restored to the island or disposed of to alleys to which the wynds of the Cowgate prize agents; but the chief part were sunk would be considered spacious, must wonin Aboukir Bay. At length the patriotic der that the inhabitants are so healthy and irritation of the Maltese, who saw too late contented. It was this phenomenon, by how grossly they had been deceived by the by, which inspired one of Mr. Plimintriguing agitators, came to a climax on soll's most characteristic effusions — a an attempt to rifle the cathedral at Citta pamphlet in which, in the spirit of the old Vecchia, and an outbreak ensued, so gen-popular dictum that Tenterden steeple eral and formidable as to confine the was the cause of Goodwin Sands, he proFrench to the fortifications of Valetta, mulgated the assertion that the "bread where the natives, with only intermittent tax," or import duty upon corn in Malta assistance from England, reinforced by was the cause of these underground dwellsome Portuguese ships and Neapolitanings, and charged upon the English govregiments, blockaded them for more than ernment the evil of this state of things. two years, made several daring attempts to surprise the garrison, and finally compelled them to surrender. By the Treaty of Amiens it was proposed to revive the Order of St. John as possessors of the island; but the natives strongly opposed such a project, and in 1814 they succeeded in the accomplishment of their wish to have their country handed over to Great Britain as one of her dependencies.

This is a fair specimen of the mischievous consequence of hasty and ill-grounded assumptions. The corn duty in Malta is one of the oldest taxes in existence there, and its abolition has often been advocated by the English governors, but always vetoed by the representatives of the people themselves; while the reason which induces the boatmen and porters of Valetta to herd in the Manderaggio is the At that time the chief rival of Great necessity of living near their work, obligBritain as a claimant of Malta was Rus-ing them to be content with such accomsia. It is now Italy and France who cast longing eyes upon it as a post of vantage, and do their best to intrigue with every discontented party there. That there are such, is, unfortunately, not to be denied; although the natives in the main fully recognize the many advantages they possess under the rule of Great Britain, and appreciate the ample liberty they enjoy in religion and usages. But the laboring population are too numerous for the soil; and in spite of the most untiring industry, and of an enterprise which competes in the vegetable markets of Europe with much larger and more fertile lands, they are constantly hovering on the brink of famine, to which a season of drought, or an invasion of refugees from some scene of disturbance in the East, may at any moment unexpectedly consign them. Emigration has been suggested as a remedy, and is so far resorted to, that at every seaport on the adjacent coasts of Africa and Asia, a large Maltese population is engaged in those petty industries for which such places supply a field; but they all cherish an idea of returning to their

modation as can be found in a walled town incapable of extension. It has been suggested that a better remedy than emi. gration would be found in the increase of the Maltese contingent of the British army. If, instead of a few hundred artillerymen, we had a strong native brigade constantly on foreign service in our tropical stations, we should gain by the supe. rior adaptation of the men to conditions which are detrimental to the health of English soldiers; while the congestion of the labor market in the island would be relieved, and the soldiers themselves would return with habits of discipline and enlarged views, which would be beneficial to the general community. This scheme would likewise furnish a mode of getting at a class who are at present by no means a source of pride or strength either to the local or imperial government - the educated young men of the middle rank of life, equivalent to our clerks and shop assistants. Of these a large number every year leave the public seminaries qualified for medicine or law, both which professions are terribly overstocked in the island.