public secretary, both of whom undoubtedly should be natives of Great
Britain and appointed by the British Government, there was no civil
office that could be of the remotest advantage to the island which
was not already filled by the natives, and the functions of which
none could perform so well as they. The number of inhabitants (he
would state) was prodigious compared with the extent of the island,
though from the fear of the Moors one-fourth of its surface remained
unpeopled and uncultivated. To deprive, therefore, the middle and
lower classes of such places as they had been accustomed to hold,
would be cruel; while the places held by the nobility were, for the
greater part such as none but natives could perform the duties of.
By any innovation we should affront the higher classes and alienate
the affections of all, not only without any imaginable advantage but
with the certainty of great loss. Were Englishmen to be employed,
the salaries must be increased fourfold, and would yet be scarcely
worth acceptance; and in higher offices, such as those of the civil
and criminal judges, the salaries must be augmented more than
tenfold. For, greatly to the credit of their patriotism and moral
character, the Maltese gentry sought these places as honourable
distinctions, which endeared them to their fellow-countrymen, and at
the same time rendered the yoke of the Order somewhat less grievous
and galling. With the exception of the Maltese secretary, whose
situation was one of incessant labour, and who at the same time
performed the duties of law counsellor to the Government, the highest
salaries scarcely exceeded 100 pounds a year, and were barely
sufficient to defray the increased expenses of the functionaries for
an additional equipage, or one of more imposing appearance. Besides,
it was of importance that the person placed at the head of that
Government should be looked up to by the natives, and possess the
means of distinguishing and rewarding those who had been most