No. 85.] 333 



almost the only item in the whole list of expenditures, of which the 

 Maltese do not complain, is that which gives a few thousand pounds 

 a year for the support of their poor.* 



But let us now say a word of the people who are thus taxed, and 

 of the sufferings with which we have seen them afflicted. 



During the first term of General Bouverie's administration, (that is, 

 in the years 1838 '39 and '40,) Malta was sufferringfrom a long con- 

 tinued and terrible drouth. During this whole period no rain fell on 

 the island, and the only spring which tended the aqueduct was get- 

 ting so low, as to threaten at any moment to fail in giving to the in- 

 habitants their usual scanty supply. f The poor countrymen, unable 

 to get any crops from their sun-burnt fields, went to their churches to 

 pray for rain ; but finding their prayers were not answered, they pe- 

 titioned His Excellency to release them from their rents due to the 

 government, saying that as nothing would grow on the land which 

 they hired, they could not procure the money wherewithal to fulfil 

 their obligations. Without a single acre of water on the whole is- 

 land, or a solitary running stream, and with a light and dusty soil, 

 which had been exposed to a burning sun for three years, one may 

 well judge of the wretched condition of the peasantry — of the barren 

 state of their fields — of the justice of their petitions, and of the san- 

 guine hopes which they might lawfully entertain, that under such cir- 

 cumstances, their prayers would have been never refused. But no ! 

 the starving Maltese were destined to be disappointed ; the answers 

 which they received being to the effect, that though the government 

 condoled with them in their distress, (in what manner we shall shortly 

 see,) yet that it could not listen to their requests, as it was out of its 

 power to grant them. J These petitions not being granted, it may 

 be asked what measures were adopted to relieve the sufferings of the 

 Maltese. Was the duty on wheat, potatoes, and bread stuffs reduced, 

 or the imposts on oil, wood, charcoal, and other necessaries estab- 

 lished 1 No! so far from it, that never before at any period were 

 these grinding taxes so rigidly enforced, or the revenues accruing from 



• From a copy of some valuable statistical returns, which was kindly griven to us by Mr. 

 GJglio, of the police department, we are enabled to give the employments of the Maltese 

 and Gozolans, as officially reported in 1842. At that time, the number of landed proprie- 

 tors is stated to have been 113, not one in one hundred of their inhabitants. Allowing, 

 on an average, two cultivated fields to an acre of private property, although in many in- 

 stances there are four, and two owners to each field, we bring down the actual value of 

 these estates to a trifling sum, and see at a glance the general poverty of the iVIaltese, and 

 of their neighbors of Gozo. We observe also that of the overgrown population, ,34,000 

 persons are employed as artificers and laborers; 12,568 in agriculture; 4,910 in traffic and 

 commerce; and 2,000 in various professions— among which are singularly enough classed 

 —doctors, barbers, lawyers, police officers, and people of all sorts of vocations. Of Ca- 

 tholic churches, cliapels, convents, and oratories, there are 340, with 1,444 priests and fri- 

 ars to officiate in them; of nunneries, 5, with 126 nuns; of protestant chapels and churches, 

 4, with the same number of clergymen ; and lastly, one Greek priest, with his chapel, and 

 Jewish rabbi with his synagogue, to overlook the spiritual wants of their people. Of 

 vessels owned at Malta, there are 163, with 1361 sailors and boys to navigate them; of 

 boats, 1963, and of boatmen, nearly 3,000. 



t Such was the scarcity of water, that Admiral Sir Robert Stepford, who commanded 

 the English fleet, was obliged to send his ships of war over to Syracuse, only that their 

 casks might be filled from Sicilian springs; a prudent measure, and wisely adopted. 



t Whenever a petition is sent in to the government of an English colony, the governor 

 has always a most happy way of excusing himself from granting it. The terms generally 

 used are the following : His Excellency regrets he cannot interfere, or does not deem it 

 expedient to do so. With these answers, nearly every thing is put off, and nothing done. 



