pleasingly spent in this place: the riches of the altar, and of the chapels, appropriated to the different Langues, the pompous arrangements for the accommodation of the order, the monuments of the grand masters, the pavement blazoned in incastro with the arms of the knights in polished marble, lapis lazuli or enamels, the imposing splendor of the place throughout, altogether take possession of the imagination, which, readily overleaping the period of its corruption and decline, is transported back into the early and heroic ages of that illustrious institution. A contrast is opposed to the graver character of St. John, in the interior of St. Paul's, in Città Vecchia, the ancient metropolis, formerly called Città Notabile, and situated a few miles from La Valletta. The characteristics of this are lightness, elegance, and a festive brilliancy of appearance. When the traveller has visited these, and what else has been here specified, he has but to dive into St. Paul's cave and the catacombs, and he will have exhausted the wonders of Malta.

The country will have few attractions for him; and if this island be, as is now contended, the Ogygia of Calypso, he will no longer admire at Ulysses' rejection of immortality clogged with the condition of perpetual residence. Divided into a series of terraces, built up with free-stone, for the support of the scanty soil, during the rains, it exhibits the appearance of one vast church yard, a resemblance rather increased than diminished by a few and thinly scattered trees. The only two pleasure gardens of any extent, unless we class the Boschetto, previously mentioned, amongst these, are that of Floriana, a suburb of La Valletta, and that of S. Antonio attached to one of the villas of the governor, at about four miles distance. They are both laid out in the Italian style, but with considerable diversity of design. The latter is the most spacious and the most richly dressed. Near the former of these is also a small botanic garden; it is, however, on a sufficient scale tolafford a fair proof of the experiment suggested by Denon in his book on Egypt, namely, the attempting to make Malta an intermediate station for the plants of warmer countries, as a mode of gradually seasoning them to the colder temperatures of Europe. It should seem, however, notwithstanding certain exceptions, that in spite of the absence of frost, there is something in particular winds which prevail here, exclusive of their violence, that is prejudicial to a large tribe of the vegetable creation. Several shrubs, which in our southern counties flourish in the open air, such as the Magnolia Grandiflora, and the less hardy Camelia Japonica, scarcely. shiver through a Maltese winter with the shelter of basket-work or matting.

To some useful plants, however, which require warmth, such as the cotton-tree, the produce of which is manufactured here on a

small

V

small scale, and to many fruits, this island is more congenial. The reputation of its oranges is established throughout the world. Of these the different species are described at length in the Saggio,di Agricoltura.

6

A very strange idea is popular at home, derived from Malta, where, indeed, it is almost universal, that the blood-coloured orange (the best known in England, but not equal in flavour to the oval or egg-orange) is produced from a graft upon the pomegranate. The Padre Carlo observes, that some boast themselves to be in possession of plants thus worked; but with whatever attention I have observed them, I never could succeed in discovering in any one of these the slightest appearance of the pomegranate; and however often, moved by their repeated assertions, I have tried this inoculation in all possible modes, I never had the good fortune to see it once take. Hence it appears to me probable, that the first plants of this kind were imported into Malta, as were all the others which are most remarkable. Whether, however, in any other country this variety be natural, or whether it be artificial, is a question on which I shall not venture to pronounce an opinion.'

The figs of this country are delicious. The inhabitants, who, together with the islanders of the Levant, appear to have inherited the usage from the ancients, practise what is termed caprification, but not uniformly, even upon the same trees. If the erroneousness of the doctrine, respecting this being necessary to the fertilization of the fruit, had not been already exposed in England, this irregular execution of it would be sufficient to its detection. There is, however, no doubt but that it is thus most essentially improved, whether it be, as has been supposed by some, that the insects, in depositing their eggs, leave any liquor which produces a beneficial fermentation in the milk of the fig, as those of Provence are observed to ripen better from being pricked with a straw dipped in olive-oil, and as various fruits are ameliorated by the bite of the wasp, round which puncture the pulp is uniformly richer than elsewhere, must be determined by better naturalists than the Padre Carlo or ourselves. It night, perhaps, be worth while to introduce the first fig, which ripens in these islands in June, into Great Britain, where it is, we believe, unknown. A tree which matures its fruit with such early suns might possibly bring it to perfection even in our colder climate at a later period of the year. The olive and the vine both flourish in Malta; but though the first appears to have formerly furnished, over and above the oil consumed by the inhabitants, an article of export, (Saggio di Agricoltura, p. 215,) neither are any longer cultivated for profitable purposes. With the large exception of oranges, melons, pomegranates, and grapes, the latter of which also are better, forced in England, we

have nothing to envy on the score of fruits, having accomplished with the help of art more than nature has done for the Maltese. The pine-apple, indeed, since it grows, we believe, without the shelter of houses, in Naples, they might, and the prickly pear or Ficus Indianus they do cultivate all over the island. But though this is both praised for its flavour and its nutritious qualities, and forms part of the food of the inhabitants, we doubt whether it, would arrive at the rank of an eatable, much less of a luxury, in England. Vegetables of all kinds are excellent in Malta, during the winter, spring, and autumn, saving potatoes, turnips, and the pea: the culture of the latter, however, appears to have failed, from an improper selection of the sort. It is equally bad at Gibraltar, with the exception of one species, partially introduced, called by gardeners the fan-pea, which thrives as in England. The success of this experiment might suggest its importation into Malta. The most curious vegetable production of these islands is the Fungus Melitensis; this grows spontaneously on a rock. contiguous to Gozo, and in a very small district in Malta. It has a great, but apparently an exaggerated, reputation as a stiptic.

Malta, which is stated to be twenty miles in extreme length, twelve in breadth, seventy in circumference; and Gozo which is twenty long, six wide, and thirty in circuit, are not, according to the Padre Carlo, one with the other, cultivated throughout above two-thirds of their extent; but the land of the latter is both more fertile and turned to better account than that of the former. They do not together produce more corn than is sufficient for a quarter of a year's consumption of the inhabitants. The bread made from the Maltese and from the imported wheat is detestably composed, and is moreover extremely gritty. This arises from the hardness of the grain which triturates the grind-stone. During the year of scarcity, in our own country, the Sicilian wheat was, on this account, rejected by the English bakers; yet in Palermo, bread may be procured made of the wheat of the country which has not this defect. We were informed that it was obviated by soaking the grain in water till it was sufficiently softened not to abrade the surface of the stones, and these are not, we believe, harder than those of France, which we make use of in England. We mention this as a hint worthy of attention in case of a recurrence of distress similar to that of 1801. In a country so hot as Malta, natural grasses are out of the question, nor are the artificial cultivated in the spirit of experiment. It is a reproach to us that we never should have tried the Guinea grass. In aid of what artificial forage there is, come the prickly-pear, and carrob-tree; the latter furnishes a food which, from the saccharine matter it contains, is extremely nutritious. After what we have stated it will naturally

.

be

be supposed that Malta cannot produce cattle (she breeds no oxen) even in proportion to her growth of grain. The latter is supplied to the inhabitants, according to the old practice of the island, by the government. Bullocks were also, till a short time ago, furnished in the same manner, at an established price, when the scheme was tried of throwing open the market. The inhabitants, Maltese and English, disappointed at this not being attended with immediate success, seemed anxious at once to return to the ancient system, not reflecting that a considerable period of time was necessary to do justice to the experiment, and so much the more, as the island was supplied from Sicily by a contraband traffic. But the restriction put on such an export, either is already, or will be, we should imagine, removed. The Maltese, to make amends for the poverty of the land, extort all they can from the sea, and they deserve the praise of active and successful fishermen.

It is not only for inattention to improvements in agriculture, as observed in the preceding paragraph, that we deserve reproach; we justly merit it for the disregard we have shown to other branches of science. Without venturing to pronounce whether Dr. Domeier, whom we have exhibited as very bad authority on most points, is correct in his strictures on the medical establishments of La Valletta, we sympathize with him, as far as we understand him, which we believe we do in the most essential point; in regretting the want of an astronomer in so clear an atmosphere.

On points of importance to our naval establishment we have manifested more active exertion, and a capacious dock was in a state of forward preparation at the conclusion of last summer. Were we not already a laughing-stock to our enemy for having been the zealous stewards of his possessions, we should hail this great work as a pledge of our resolution to maintain at any cost the possession of these islands. As one

In commercial matters we have shewn yet more energy. proof of this, we have not only inundated Turkey, usually so called, but even her most southern provinces, and those nearest to Arabia, with our West India coffee, nor is any other drunk, unless it be in the houses of the most magnificent and luxurious, throughout the whole extent of that empire. Nay, even that which comes direct from Mocha itself is usually adulterated with another berry, from which it is easily distinguished in its unroasted state: but whether this be the production of the West or East Indian islands, we cannot pretend to determine.

Mercantile speculations have attracted to, and fixed in Malta a great number of English. It has also, since our exclusion from the continent, become the winter refuge of invalids. Its climate

is

is then certainly delightful. It is true, that though the thermometer is scarcely ever below fifty in the shade, it is sometimes cold to sensation, and that an immense quantity of rain falls during this season; but this comes down at once, and never hangs condensed in a canopy of vapour, or spitters, as in England, in a perpetual drizzle. There are few days in which there is not a large allowance of sun-shine, and it would be a cruel injustice to the temperature of this period to compare it to that part of an English winter, which is, by courtesy, called spring, or even to the month of June of our ordinary summer. This latter season is particularly oppressive in Malta, from the extreme heat of the night, which is almost as sultry as the day. The sciroc, which fortunately seldom lasts long, is a severe infliction, and we can compare the feel and temperature of the air during the prevalence of this wind to nothing better than the atmosphere of an extremely hot washhouse. Very detailed and scientific observations on these points will be found in the first subject of this review. These were furnished to the author by M. Dolomieu in his own words, as was the substance of some others on the formation of these islands, which are well worthy of attention, though certainly open to dispute; and it must be admitted that if neither Malta, Gozo, or Cumino, which are all composed of calcarious rock, offer interesting productions in mineralogy, they present many appearances well deserving the investigation of the geologist.

The sum of M. Dolomieu's theory is that these three isles are only fragments of a more considerable land which stretched in the direction of the S. S. E. and that they have resisted, through the solidity of their materials, the violence which overwhelmed the country, to which they belonged. The cause to which he attributes such effects is an immense mass of water put in action by some irregular libratory motion of the earth; but he allows, we quote his words,

"That even since the establishment of population in Malta, the island has been diminished in extent; a proof of which is to be seen in the tracks of wheels, at the extremities of the cliffs. Indeed it is a matter of common occurrence that large portions of the rock give way, occasioned by the fretting of the sea, or by the spontaneous destruction of the beds of the inferior strata, the substance of which,' he proceeds to state, has every where throughout the three islands, more or less tendency to decomposition, on exposure to the air.'

An idea, started in the course of these speculations, has, perhaps,, created some unnecessary alarm.

This valley, (that of La Marsa) says M. Dolomieu, which is now one of the widest, most extensive, and, at the same time, most fertile of the island, was anciently almost entirely occupied by the sea, which

reached