334 [Senate 



them of a larger amount. But how did the government thus increase 

 its revenues, when the great mass of the people were so wretchedly 

 poor 1 Only, we may answer, by exacting this cruel tax on bread 

 stuffs; no wheat being raised on the island fof consumption, all which 

 was eaten must of course come from abroad, and the larger the quan- 

 tity imported, the greater was the sum which it yielded to the colo- 

 nial chest. Thus have we the singular fact that the poverty of the 

 Maltese vras made a source of profit to their rulers. With the yearly 

 income greatly increased in this time of drouth, dearth, famine and 

 death, there could be no excuse for reducing the salaries of the em- 

 ployes, however extravagant ; which, with the salaried officers in 

 their legislation at this island, we should judge is a great point to be 

 saved. But should high minded and honorable men, some of whom 

 were receiving a princely pay, considering their situation, and taken 

 from the mouths of the poor, have pursued a course so grinding, heart- 

 less, and unjust. Such conduct we might expect to meet with in a 

 miserly Mahommedan ruler, who had farmed a province from the 

 Sultan, and cared not how many persons perished of hunger, so long 

 as his coffers were filled, but in Englishmen, ruling over a christian 

 community, never. Many of the poor farmers, getting no relief from 

 the government, and fearing to become inmates of Her Majesty's pri- 

 sons for debts due to the treasury, clandestinely left their fields and 

 their families, and fled to Barbary, Syria, Egypt, and Turkey — coun- 

 tries in which, if they found no work, they would not be taxed for 

 bread when lingering on the threshold of starvation. 



Were we to call the inhabitants of Malta and Gozo a pauper popu- 

 lation, strong as the term may be, we should be justified in our asser- 

 tion. The royal commissioners, Messrs. Austen and Lewis, who were 

 sent out to these islands by His late Majesty, William IV., to legis- 

 late for the benefit of his Maltese subjects, have said as much, though 

 using different language. That the state of the people in ordinary 

 seasons may be known, we take the following extracts from a de- 

 spatch sent by them to Lord Glenelg, under date of the 4th of May, 

 1837 : " The evidence (say these gentlemen) which we have taken 

 in the casals (villages) on the state of the poor, proves that all the 

 working people of the country are scarcely ever (never) employed 

 for hire ; and that during several months in the year not more than a 

 tenth part of them are in the receipt of wages. The rate of wages, 

 moreover, is so low, (from four to five tari, or 6 1 to 8 J cts. a day,) 

 that laborers, especially those with families, are unable to lay by any 

 of their earnings, as a provision for the season when employment is 

 scarce." Here we have a statement from the best authority, that for 

 many months in the year, not one tenth part of the country people 

 are employed, and that when on wages, they only receive a paltrr 

 pittance of thirteen, or at most eighteen cents a day for their labor. 

 But when the government is aware that so large a number of the na- 

 tives are living in idleness, why does it not propose some plan by 

 which to keep them employed 1 This would be no difficult task, 

 for with nearly one half of the island unimproved, still it should 

 no longer be allowed to remain so. Most of the country now culti- 



