No. 85.J 331 



profit by its growth, when sent to foreign market for sale.* Fortu- 

 nate it is, for the Maltese, that their beautiful climate enables them to 

 dress in the coarseii stuffs which are sent from England, or wander 

 about half naked. Even in mid-winter, the beggarly children, while 

 crying for food, do not complain of the cold, and having no hovels 

 to lodge in, make their beds on the sidewalks, when night overtakes 

 them. At daybreak, disturbed by the calls of himger, they return 

 to their daily vocation of begging, which they pursue in an untiring 

 manner, much to the inconvenience of all strangers, whom they only 

 seem to annoy. Poor as the Maltese are, still they are laden with 

 taxes, — and on articles also, which, to them, should always be free. 

 Two hundred thousand dollars a year, is the amount collected by the 

 duty on wheat, beans, peas, other kinds of pulse, and potatoes. A 

 sum which is hard to be borne by the natives, as its exaction from 

 them is unchristian and unjust.f Without any wood on the island, 

 still there has been, until very recently, a heavy impost on charcoal, 

 — and its removal, we hear, is only a temporary measure, for shouhl 

 the revenue, from any unforseen cause, not reach the expenditure, 

 this duty is again to be levied. Growing no olives, yet are the na- 

 tives compelled to pay more than five thousand dollars a year for the 

 oil, which they import from Sicily. Raising no cattle, yet are they 

 annually charged nearly seven thousand dollars more for the privilege 

 of landing the beasts which are brought to them from the different 

 parts of Barbary, to be fattened for their consumption. 



Is it right thus to tax the Maltese ? Is it just l Is it necessary 1 

 To all these queries we may give a decided negative, unless the go- 

 vernment is determined to pay to its public servants for the future, 

 the same exorbitant and extravagant salaries which it gives them at 

 present. Can it be credited, that the Governor of this wretched 

 colony, — the whole circuit of which, " as sailed round in a boat," 

 is only forty miles, — has a greater salary, by two thousand dollars a 

 year, than the President of the United States, who is the Chief 

 Magistrate of our country, and ruling over nearly eighteen millions 

 of people. Yet such is the case, and the simple statement of this 

 fact is sufficient to show how much the Maltese are imposed on, and 



* Several years since, we were requested by the late Hon. John Forsyth,— when Secre- 

 tary of State, — to send him a few hundred pounds of the Maltese yellow cotton seed, as 

 he was anxious to raise it in Georgia. Meeting- with Mr. Forsyth some time afterwards, 

 at Washington, he told us the experiment had failed, as the cotton grown on liis planta- 

 tion was only slightly tinged with yellow, and the little color it had, soon disappear- 

 ed, when either exposed to the sun or frequently washed. Well knowing that the cotton 

 raised on this island was of a deep yellow coloi-, — which it never lost, — we enquired, on 

 our return, of one of the chief cultivators, to know why it should differ so much in 

 America. Our query was readily answered : The cotton cloth of Malta, when first 

 manufactured, is of as light a color as that which was made in Georgia— and it is only af- 

 ter having been exposed to the heavy dews for several months, that it becomes of that 

 deep yellow, for which it has so long been famed. Should the " Forsyth cotton" still be 

 cultivated in the United States, this information may be valuable to those who are raising 

 it. Dellaport, in his '■ Pianfe di Cephalonia," states that the cotton of Malta, when trans- 

 planted, loses its color. But may not this be owing to its not havmg been exposed to the 

 dew, which, the natives have told us, improves the color, and makes it fixed. 



t Some twenty years ago, the Greek priests of Cephalonia would not permit the people 

 to raise potatoes on their island, saying "that it was the identical fruit with which the 

 serpent tempted our first parents." Is it for the same reason, that the Englisli Govern- 

 ment puts such a heavy duty on tliese esculent roots, to prevent their importation, at 

 Malta? 



