266 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 230. 



recently delivered to me your Majesty's above- 

 mentioned letter ; which I having thought proper 

 to communicate to my Council, I procured that 

 the venerable brethren Henry de Estampes Va- 

 lancay, the Grand Prior of Campania, and Don 

 Gregory Caraffa, Prior of Rocella, should be de- 

 puted commissioners to examine this case. And 

 they having heard what the said Ansely had to 

 say, offered to him in my name, and in that of all 

 my Order, an opportunity to make an appeal 

 which had been deserted ; but the said Ansely, 

 for want of proper authority as he stated, did not 

 accept the proposition. 



Such being the case, I reverently submit to 

 your most serene Majesty the following argu- 

 ments, to which I earnestly entreat your Majesty 

 to apply your Royal attention, and your Majesty's 

 accustomed serenity and clemency. 



In the first place, it is possible that the said 

 Roger may have been really deprived of his 

 property ; but it does not follow that the proofs 

 adduced by him of that fact were perfectly con- 

 vincing, or entirely in accordance with the law. 

 And even if they had been such, they might have 

 appeared otherwise to the said judge of the Prize 

 Court ; and it is on this account that the Supe- 

 rior of Ten rescind the decrees of the Inferior 

 Tribunals. 



Secondly, the omission to continue the above- 

 cited appeal, can in no way be attributed to the 

 judges of this island; neither is it true that any 

 threats were made use of towards the above- 

 mentioned attorney. Such a course would have 

 been diametrically opposed to the statutes of my 

 Order ; neither would its members have dared to 

 act in such a manner, either against foreigners or 

 the inhabitants my subjects, without incurring a 

 heavy responsibility. 



Finally, as it is impossible for my knights, 

 putting aside the order of right, and neglecting 

 the rule of our statutes, to restore to the above- 

 mentioned Roger that which he claims, nothing 

 remains in our power but to grant him the faculty 

 of again prosecuting his right before the above- 

 mentioned Court of Audience as in law so often 

 and earnestly offered to the aforenamed attorney. 

 Nor certainly can it be presumed, that your Ma- 

 jesty in your clemency and justice can desire any- 

 thing farther. To this conclusion I am the more 

 drawn from the decision of the advocate of the 

 Admiralty himself, for he proposes the granting 

 of letters of reprisal not for any other reason than 

 that he supposed justice had been denied to the 

 said Roger, and that he had been precluded from 

 the remedy of a Court of Appeal. This having 

 been an erroneous conclusion, the entire found- 

 ation of the above-mentioned opinion is wholly 

 removed. And it is the more to be hoped that 

 this decision will be approved of by your most 

 serene Majesty, as my necessary subjection to the 



Apostolic See and to the Roman Pontiff cannot 

 be unknown to your Majesty. From which it 

 necessarily results that so large a sum could not 

 be taken arbitrarily or by force from the parties 

 concerned, without grave reprehension and pre- 

 judice, and also without infringing the forms of 

 right as prescribed in the statutes above alluded to. 



Confiding therefore in the singular clemency of 

 your Majesty, I entertain a hope that your Ma- 

 jesty, moved by so many and such valid reasons, 

 and considering also the high respect of this my 

 Order towards your Majesty, will be pleased to 

 direct the said Roger not to prosecute his right 

 by other means than by action at law before the 

 said Court of Audience. And that he at length 

 will cease to excite the mind of your Majesty 

 against the innocent by any such vain and unjust 

 complaints ; and that he refrain from any more 

 seeking so inopportune and final a remedy of 

 right, as the concession of letters of reprisal against 

 an Order obediently subject to the wishes of your 

 Majesty, and most ready to do anything for the 

 advantage and utility of your Majesty's subjects, 

 as those who daily touch at these islands to re- 

 victual or refit their ships can testify. And now, 

 in my own name, and in that of my Order, I 

 humbly submit all this to your Majesty by these 

 letters, as I shall also do shortly by a Nuncio, 

 whom I shall send to your Majesty with the 

 necessary documents, in order more clearly to prove 

 the truth of my statements. 



In the mean time, most submissively kissing 

 your Majesty's most serene hands, I devotedly 

 implore the benignity of the Most High and the 

 Most Great God to grant to your Majesty pros- 

 perity in all things. 



Given at Malta, on the eighteenth day of Feb- 

 ruary, in the year 1669. 



Your Serene Majesty's 



Most obedient Servant, 



Cotton er. 



To the above submissive letter the following 

 reply was sent : 



No. IX. 



Charles the Second by the Grace of God, of Great 



Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender 



of the Faith, &c. &c. &c. 



To the most illustrious and most high Prince, 

 the Lord Nicholas Cottoner, Grand Master of the 

 Order of Malta. Our well-beloved cousin and 

 friend, Greeting : 



Most illustrious and most high Prince, our 

 well-beloved cousin and friend. 



Your highnesses letters of February, 



having been delivered to us by the Nuncio selected 

 by your highness for that purpose, we caused 

 Roger Fowke, our subject and Consul in the island 

 of Cyprus, in whose favour we sometime since 

 addressed your highness, to be summoned before 



