The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-05-10 00:00:00

PRICE SIX PENCe.

1 they have forfe.ted them by an aft much mora
conclusive than that of conquest, by the must nn-
' worthy treason to their own body, violating the
sacred laws of religion, honour, and the statutes of
the Order, which they solemnly- swore at the alrar
to maintain with the last drop of their blood : by
this aft, according to their taro laws, they ceas-• to
bet members of tEe Order. are degraded With inf :-
my, and the sound pal t of them, if such there we ra
among‘t a ent, were obligated to pat them to death.
And if at that tiitea w:ten the Knights of the Order
were entire, as.embled in the scat of their establish-
ment, which had been witi.ea of so many glorious
actions, with every means of defence, and without
any wants : if, at that time, when their honour had
'still a name, they were traitor, and partizans ot the
i. French, how much more must they be so now, cover
ed as they are with shame and intorno, and reduced
'to indigence, and the most disgraceful mendicity !
But the Malte,e have other. pretensions to the sove-
reignty of their own island. Without recut ring .to
the maxim of sonic writers, that " when the throne
becomes vacant, the right at nominating the sore-
reian devolves to the people," the Maltese found
P
their right to independence in having twice purchased
Malta, and paid the stipulated price to the Kings of
Spain and Sicily. King Alphonsus (to whose alto
dorninio, or suzerainty, our ancestors voluntarily sub-
mitted after having purchased the island) in his di-
ploma of the 27th of November 1397, declared, that
Malta formed a portion of his dominion; and in case
any of his successors alienated it from the crown.
under whatever title, whether as a govtrament, or
perpetual or temporary reftory, to any person what-
ever, even though he should be of the most exalted
blood of the reigning sovereign, Malta was to he
preserved "conjunftam sem per tanquamrnembrumat:
Regie Corone, &c.;" permitting the Maltese, in
case of a contrary condua, to resist " maim fora.
pro quo in nullum crimes, deliflum, vel in inobe-
dientiam incurrere reputentur, et aliquatenus conse-
antur." This was confirmed by King Ferdinand*
on the 4th of January 1.199 ; the Maltese consider
it as their Magna Charta, and confident they are.
that a charter so dear to the English, will never be
ravished from them, by tbut nation.—With ' thesc-
privileges, Malta remained 'annexed to the crown of
Sicily ; and her inhabitants were treated by the King
of Spain as a free people, until the reign of Charles
the Fifth, who ceded the government to the Order ot
Saint John of Jerusalem, after the expulsion of that
Order from Rhodes. After a long negotiation, the
Maltese submitted, but under the express condition,
that they should enjoy their privileges for ever, and
be considered as vassals, and annexed to the crown
of Sicily ; and that if the Order of Saint John should
remove to anotier residence or establishment, Malta
should return, as lefire, under the King of Sicily. The
submission of the Maltese to the King of Sicily,
or to the King of Spain, was not. in consequence of
any right in those sovereigns to the Sovereignty
of the island, but their alto dominio or suzerainty,
and their proteftion was a favour solicited from
them by the Maltese, for the sake of being pro-
tcfted by a powerful state against their enemies.
They were free allies, deed their Sovereigns, the
Kings of Sicily, and governed their Island themselves_
Numerous documents are still in existence, to es-•
tablish the truth of every assertion we have ad-
vanced, and still more. Convinced of their own
political weakness, and placing a fun reliance iix
the sincerity of the British government, and in the
faith cf the British nation, the Maltese were more
dairous of becoming subjeds of the King of Eng-
, land, and of enjoying all the advantages of free
suhjefts of a Monarch who is the father of all his
people, than to assert and maintain their own en-
I tire independence ; but never did they saspe&, nor
can they now for a moment believe, that, violating
all the laws of justice, divine and human, they are
to be forcibly delivered up by their auxiliary al.
lies, as a conquered people, or as the slaves sold
for a political consideration to other masters, to
masters whose tyranny, extortion and sacrilege,
have rendered them' be execration of every vir-
ttams mind, and to whom, whatever horrible cala.'
mity may ensue, the Maltese nation never will
submit. • Excluded from the fortifications, almost
entirely without arms, without ammunition, with-
: ou.: provisions, and absolutely without any foreign
:fiance or prordse of assistance, our brave island-
. ers resolved to perish or be free. The whole
country rose uo, armed, for the greater part, with.
;instruments of husbandry, and drove the French
out of every post, except the great fortresse,,
which they blockaded, repulsed eve!), sally cf
the enemy, and mortgaged their very lands in or-
der to procure grain from Sicily. The entrance of
the Great Harbour they could not command; hut
while this entrance was blockaded by the British
fleet, the Maltese defended every other pass, till at
. last Valletta surrendered. And can it be expefled.
that such a people will deliver up their privileges
and their liberty to such masters ? They may be
free, they may perish is the attempt, but never wilt
the Maltese submit ! At whose hands will Diviner
Justice demand their blood ? Upon whose head
'will the vengeance of Heaven fall; that
.vengeance
which our fathers invoke, together with our innocent
children, our venerable clergy, our wives, and our
violated daughters ? His Britannic Majesty has ne-
ver declared himself, in any public aft, or in any of
the manifestos of his generals, our sovereign. Ne-
ver has he made use of any ether title than that of
Prote/lur, however ardently the Maltese were desir-
ous of being united with his subj.als! We conceive
it totaily seperfluous to enter into a detail of the in-
dignities which the Maltese hare received •it the
hands of the Order al Saint .10ha„ how they mere
held in base:- sahjedlion, treated' as beings of an
inferinr am; every Ncasle* excluded .from all pre_
to-.*inns to hoacur and. dist:Li:kilo% esdr r mats of
merit or talent deprived of every honourable siriaa;
Tim ; how of r (macs svere chsboranarekor.nds. '
td, whenever the caprice cif t bd.& liteenkceat
its ariaim. What those men were, and x'l74 mit
have bred the 4taa-ina of their Goverawkit,.. may'
be eanreived from Ms single 4.l—erery one cf•
diem had betrayed hie own order.--We p.-as indig -
wail/ ever- gait point, tu pant, ea:. to &Livia.

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