336 [Senate 



almost universally in very straitened circumstances; they have scarce- 

 ly any capital — they pay their rents with the utmost difficulty, and 

 are frequently distrained upon and ejected by their landlords." True 

 as is every word of this statement, yet the commissioners might have 

 gone farther, and told us who these landlords were to whom they 

 have thus referred. But we will give this information, as it certainly 

 should be known. The government owns the land, and the collector 

 of Her Majesty's revenue was formerly, as the Crown Advocate is 

 now, the landlord who thus distrains upon, and ejects his miserable 

 tenants. How often have we been passing the court-house in Strada 

 Reale, and seen the poor farmers surrounded by their wives and chil- 

 dren, mourning over the loss of their oxen, cows, donkeys, rakes, 

 hoes, and plows, which had been seized by the marshal, and were to 

 be sold at public auction to satisfy some paltry debts due to the queen. 

 Debts incurred for the hire of a field, on which perhaps they had 

 wasted a year's labor, and owing to the scarcity of water, could not 

 get produce enough to pay their rents. There is something truly 

 barbarous in this seizing upon, and selling the cattle of the poor far- 

 mers, with their implements of husbandry — and to satisfy whom '? — 

 no less a personage than Her Majesty of England. Is this English 

 liberality 1 Is this English justice 1 Or is it by such an unjust, un- 

 christian, and unmerciful course of administration that the Maltese are 

 to become true, loyal, and happy subjects of the English crown? Had 

 the islanders been aware of the treatment which they were to receive 

 from their present masters, we doubt very much if in the days of their 

 revolution, they would have called on the British to have become 

 their protectors, or suffered them to put upon the guard-house which 

 fronts the palace square, the following modest inscription. 

 'Magn£eetinvict8eBrilanniae, vox Europseet amor Melitensium, hasinsulatconfirmat.' 



In case of another war, the mother country will probably become 

 better acquainted with the views, feelings, and wishes of her present 

 unfortunate vassals. This lesson, however, may come too late if any 

 powerful enemy has entered the lists against her. In a word, this 

 possession may then be lost. Concessions made to a people when 

 they can be no longer withheld, are seldom received by those to whom 

 they are offered : to have any weight, they should willingly come 

 from the power which governs them, or not at all. England found 

 such to be the case with the American colonies, and why does she 

 not profit by her instruction, to improve the wretched state of her 

 Maltese vassals, who only by the force of her arms are still held under 

 her rule. 



Malta, Sept. 5th, 1844. 



