328 [Senate 



Malta and Gozo will, in the course of a few years, become only two 

 large asylums for the poor, and all the inhabitants, save the employ- 

 ers and traders, their inmates. 



The island of Malta is but a rock of limestone, and were it not that 

 ruins of granite and marble have been foun;l in the vicinity of the 

 Ben Jemma hills, it might literally be said throughout its whole ex- 

 tent to be of the same soft species. The soil has been made by the 

 islanders, and nothing can be more erroneous than the assertion given 

 by Brydone that the earth was originally brought from Sicily. In 

 Hennen's topography we have noticed a long and interesting article on 

 the manufacture of the soil which we should like to quote entire, as 

 given by the pen of Dr. Tully ; we must, however, content ourselves 

 with a brief notice, only stating that however curious his account may 

 appear, yet we can vouch for its correctness, having often witnessed 

 the process. 



A countryman wishing to make a barren, rocky surface a cultivated 

 plat of earth, commences by breaking up the stones which lie on the 

 surface, and for a depth of some six inches. This fine powder is 

 carefully laid aside and mixed with the calcareous earth, which 

 is invariably found under the first layer of stone. A half acre which 

 is the average size of a field cleared in this way, is then covered with 

 this artificial soil. By the assistance of manure " and by its great 

 aptitude in its new form to the absorption of moisture from the at- 

 mosphere, its bulk very susceptibly increases, and soon forms a sort 

 of concrete texture." Watermelons and cucumbers, requiring the least 

 nourishment are first raised, and will flourish the succeeding season. 

 " Corn is the usual growth of the third year." It is by this and 

 " similar processes," that by far the greater part of Malta and Gozo 

 has been brought into a state of cultivation, and the soil been found 

 so rich that although only of a few inches depth, it will produce to 

 the husbandman its two, and even three yearly crops, as a just reward 

 for his labors. It is a common conversation here with the country- 

 men of their " ever producing soil," and a most happy thing it is for 

 the Maltese, for had not nature ordained it so, horrible must have 

 been their fate, and daily the instances of the death of the poor from 

 absolute starvation. In the early part of 1524, when the Knights of 

 St. John, after their expulsion from Rhodes, were wanderers in differ- 

 ent parts of Europe, Charles V. of Spain proposed, should the in- 

 habitants consent, to yield them Malta for a habitation. L'Isle Adam, 

 the celebrated grand master of Rhodian memory, in June of the same 

 year sent two commissioners to explore the rock, and report on their 

 return whether it would be a suitable place of residence, or in other 

 words, he might have said punishment, for it could be but little less 

 to them who had for so many years been enjoying every luxury in a 

 fertile island, and dwelling at the same time in the beautifully built, 

 and strongly fortified city of Rhodes.* The emissaries at this period 



•When the Maltese heard from the two monks who came on this mission, that the Em- 

 peror was about giving their island to the Knights of St. John, they met on the 10th of 

 April, 1524, at the resilience of their captain of the rod, Giovanni di Mazara, and appoint- 

 ed three of their nobles, Jacabo Angarao Inguanes, Antunio Bonello, and Alvaro Cassar, 

 to goto Madrid, and protest against the change of government with which they were 



