The Sun.
London, England, 1821-02-10 00:00:00

THE PRINCEis OF. WALES AND THE
ORDER OF MALTA.,

, The, following extract is a translation of an
authentic letter from a commander of high official
rank in the Order of Malta to another commander
of the same Order. The circumstances detailed
in it might, no doubt, be verified or disproved
by a reference to the records of this ancient Order
at Milan :

. % 'r
-SATAN lA, SEPT._ 14,J 820.
" SIR---The trial of her Majesty the QUEEN of
ENGLAND is .now'so far •advanced, that it is im-
possible hut what the Parliament must at last be
made acquainted with the manner in which our
sacred Council granted the Cross of bevotion. to
to M. PER-GA.SIIOIMA with the reasons which after•
wards induced us to revoke the grant.
" I do not recollect whether I informed you
of the circumstance at the time it took place ;
but, that you may- be able to answer any interro-
gatories which may happen to be put to you on
the subject, I think it proper to acquaint you,
that on the arrival of her Majesty, then Princess
of Wales, at Catania, in 1816, she made a de.
wand to his Excellency the Lieutenant of the
Magistery, to grant the Cross of Devotion to M.
Bartolomeo Pergami: I waited upon her, in
company with another Knight, in obedience to
the commands of the Lieutenant) and represented
that the Order of St. John of Jerusalem never
granted the Cross without a certificate, ex-
Pressive of the nobility of the candidate, signed
by the professed -Knight Ancients of the Pri-
ories of, which they were members, nor with-
out payitig the customary fees. To this she
replied, that the Order ought to regard the re-
comthendation of a Princess Of Wales, who was
the mother of the lleiress of the Crown of Great
Britain, as a suffkient Motive for compliance, and
that for the same reason the Sacred Council
should, condescend to dispense with the answer
from Milan, which would occasion too -long a de-
lay, since her Royal Highneis could not possibly
put off her departure from Sicily'. She then
added, that in order to supply the want of the
certificate of the Milanese Knights; 'she z:ould
hersef attest the nobility of the candidate she re-
commended ; and she afterwards went in person
to every Member of the Sacred Council to engage
them to take the affair into consideration. To
have doubted her word, and to have refused her
request, wonld, at that time, have been not only
improper, but highly offensive. The Sacred
Council accordingly granted the Cross to- M.
Pergami in consideration of the demand of her
Jaoji at Ltignness, aispensing Iwa likezeuvrom
lug Melees if passage; and on condition' that the
Bull should not be valid till rifler it had been re;is-
tered in the Priory of Lomb(lrdw' all of which was
properly stated in the Bull. Weimmediatelygave
notice to our Brothers the Milanese Knights of
this affair; when, to our great surprise, they in-
formed us of the birth of Bergami, of his moral
character, and of the servile employment he-had
exercised. On receiving this intelligence, his
Excellency the Lieutenant applied to the Presi-
dent of the Venerable Assembly at Milan, and
to the Venerable Bailiffs, to collect all the neces-
sary documents for properly stating the rank of
life and priVate character of Bergami ; and in
1817, reclamations being brought forward against
the concessions made in favour of Bergami to 1-he
Lieutenant, he gave an official charge to the
above mentioned three Dignitaries of the Order,
to inquire whether M. Bergami was really such
as he had been represented on receiving the
Cross ; on the contrary, it was proved
not, to be the case, he authorised them not toye-
gister- the Bull, but to declare it void, as he:Vt./1g
been- obtained under false p'retences.,
" Her Royal Highness endeavoured to inter-
fere this affair, and wrote to the President,
and to me ; but with the respect due to her ex-
alted rank, we assured her that this affair related
personally to M. Pergami, and must be discussed
between him and the- Milanese Knights. My
letter drew upon me a reply in such unbecoming
terms that I was advised to- return no answer.
The Bull was then declared void, and his Im-
perial Apostolical Majesty the Emperor of Au-
stria.prohibited his wearing the'decoralion of. the
Cross of the Order.

such was the manner in wilier; the Cross was
granted, dependrizg on the word qf the Princess,
but the concession was afterwards revoked, fro►n
the clearest proofs that the whole was a gross
misrepresetitation:l •