Mar. 25. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



265 



All historians agree in stating that he was a man 

 of a noble carriage, high and honourable charac- 

 ter, and withal a clever diplomatist. He died in 

 March, 1680, after a happy and glorious rule, in 

 the seventy-third year of his age, and seventeenth 

 of his reign. The following letter written by him 

 may be of sufficient interest to excuse its length. 

 Its perusal will show the great respect which was 

 paid by the Order of St. John to an English mon- 

 arch, and the "incorruptible" manner in which 

 justice was administered at this island nearly two 

 centuries ago. 



To the King of Great Britain. 



Most serene and invincible King : 

 A short time since John Ansely, the attorney 

 of Roger Fowke, delivered to us your most serene 

 Majesty's gracious letters, in reply to mine regard- 

 ing the affair of the said Roger ; from which, not 

 without great disturbance of mind, I perceived 

 how incorrectly what had taken place had been 

 reported to your Majesty. But my grief was in 

 some measure assuaged by your Majesty's continued 

 benignant protection of this my Order ; through 

 which it came to pass that it was determined to 

 abstain from granting the letters of reprisal which 

 it was the opinion of your Majesty's advocate in 

 the High Court of Admiralty, inserted in the 

 above-mentioned Royal Letters, might have been 

 granted to the aforenamed Roger, for which I 

 truly return your Majesty my most sincere and 

 humble thanks. The above Roger still claims of 

 right the sum of 4,500 pieces of eight, which he 

 asserts had been formerly seized by some armed 

 ships of this island; from which sum, together 

 with the expenses incurred, or to be incurred, he 

 forms another greater sum of about 24,500, which 

 he also claims. 



But as it would sufficiently appear from your 

 Majesty's letter, which contains the above-men- 

 tioned opinion of the said advocate, and also from 

 the verbal report made to me by the said John 

 Ansely, that your Majesty felt persuaded that the 

 said Roger had both lost his cause before the 

 Judge of the Prize Court, and subsequently been 

 denied an appeal to the Supreme Court, and, 

 lastly, that his attorney had been treated with 

 violence, rather than under any order of right, I, 

 to confess the truth, being much mortified, cannot 

 but endeavour, with all due respect in my power, 

 to demonstrate the real state of the case to your 

 Majesty ; and hope, by a more faithful narrative 

 of all that occurred, to convince your Majesty of 

 that equal distribution of justice which in this 

 place is constantly observed, both to the inhabit- 

 ants and foreigners, with incorruptible honesty. 



Before, however, beginning to explain the affair 

 from its commencement, it behoves me to inform 

 your Majesty, that not only subjects of Christian 

 Princes, but Greeks and Armenians, and other 



persons subject to the rule of the Turks, the bit- 

 terest enemies of this Order, are continually 

 coming to these islands for the purpose of insti- 

 tuting or continuing suits at law against the cap- 

 tains of our ships and other inhabitants, yet we 

 have never heard from them that justice is either 

 denied or refused. I therefore humbly beseech 

 your Majesty to consider, and with benignant 

 mind to reflect, what faith ought to be given to 

 those who have dared to affirm that any contrary 

 course had been pursued or tolerated by me 

 against the said Roger ; and the more so, as it has 

 been the constant wish of my Order to deserve 

 well of your Majesty's subjects, and to take par- 

 ticular care of all foreigners. This we trust will 

 be sufficiently shown from the fact of our always 

 having employed one of the principal lawyers to 

 undertake the defence of foreigners ; not indeed 

 altogether gratuitously, but under such laws and 

 restrictions that he must remit to them the third 

 part of the usual stipend which it is customary to 

 receive from the inhabitants, and even my knights. 

 From which it may be concluded how well and 

 how honourably foreigners are treated here, and 

 how unlikely it is that justice should be denied to 

 any of those who it is proved are favoured with 

 such grace and love. 



But to return to the affair in question, I hum- 

 bly submit to your Majesty, that in the year of 

 our salvation 1661, John, called De St. Amand, 

 acting as attorney in the name of the above-men- 

 tioned Roger, appeared before the aforesaid judge 

 of the Prize Court, demanding the restitution of 

 different kinds of merchandise, which he asserted 

 had been seized by certain captains of ships ; but 

 it not appearing to the said judge that he had 

 produced convincing proofs of the fact, they were 

 declared inadequate, and not sufficiently legal. 

 From this decision the said attorney, as is usual 

 in such controversies, appealed, on the 10th. of 

 July, 1662, to the Supreme Court of Audience in 

 council, at which I, together with the Chief Grand 

 Crosses of my Order, assist ; but he afterwards of 

 his own accord neglected to follow up said appeal. 



Subsequently, in the year 1665, there appeared 

 another attorney of the said Roger furnished with 

 letters from your most serene Majesty, to whom I 

 immediately explained that I had no right to 

 order the actual restitution of the money de- 

 manded ; but that if he would act according to 

 law, and seek it by a judgment, I promised to give 

 my co-operation, which I undoubtedly would 

 have done ; so that he might have been permitted 

 by the said Court of Audience to recommence the 

 suit, although it had been in a former instance 

 deserted. But the attorney having replied that 

 he was not furnished with this authority, left the 

 island of his own free will and accord. 



From that time no other person has appeared, 

 except the above-mentioned John Ansely, who 



