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become manifest to our gentlemen by means of a long succession of the severest intellectual throes. It would have edified you to see the gravity which we maintained during the most ludicrous parts of the touching patriotic pathos addressed to us.

I have seen Hookham Frere, who found himself in Malta fourteen years ago at his wife's death, and has forgotten to return to England. He has translated four plays of Aristophanes and will, I imagine, publish them.

There is nothing in this island either ancient or remarkable in the way of art. The knights appear to have thought of nothing but building new forts, and enlarging the defences of Valetta. They have been so successful in this ambition, that the very extent of the fortifications is a source of weakness, inasmuch as it would take 20,000 men to man the works, if the town were regularly invested. This contingency, however, is most improbable, one may say almost impossible, so long as England retains the command of the sea. Nevertheless, the Ordnance are not satisfied unless they keep the place in a perpetual state of siege; and I hear that orders have lately come out from England to cut down some mulberry trees in one of the ditches. A wellfortified town may be an excellent contrivance in time of war, but it is an excessive inconvenience in time of peace. It takes between a quarter and half-an-hour of walking through narrow gates, and across ditches, and up steep steps, and under covered ways, to get clear of the defences, whenever one wishes to breathe some air. You can conceive Ehrenbreitstein on the scale of a town large enough to contain 50,000 people.

The native language of the Maltese is an Arabic dialect, which agrees pretty nearly with the Arabic spoken on the coast of Barbary, as far as Egypt. It has never been written and cannot even be said to have an alphabet. There are not, as far as I am aware, any literary compositions in it preserved by tradition.

The people are an Arab race descended from the Saracens, who obtained possession of the island. Their physiognomy bears a striking resemblance to the Jewish. They are a gloomy people; they never seem to laugh, or sing, or dance; their amusements, if such they can be called, are of a religious cast,

such as processions on saints' days, &c. I hear that the country people pass the chief part of their Sundays and giorni di festa in the churches. They are exceedingly ignorant; and not unnaturally, as there has been no education for the poor, very little for the rich, and no free press. They are, however, by no means wanting in acuteness and ability. Their practical talent is, indeed, remarkable; and in this respect they appear to great advantage even by the side of the English, who (with their descendants) exceed all other nations in this quality. There is a pernicious race of nobles, who transmit their titles to all their sons, together with fortunes varying from 500l. to 40l. or 50l. a year, and a self-imposed inability to follow any money-making occupation. These people are ignorant, narrowminded, stupid, and rapacious of public money; and it would be well if their titles could be abolished. As, however, they are now excessively poor, and they have no means of recruiting their fortunes by rich marriages: a few more descents, and divisions of property, must confound them with the middle and working classes. There is also a numerous body of priests, more than 1,000 (including the regulars), to a population of 120,000. The priests are for the most part bigoted and ignorant; but their influence has considerably declined of late years, and their incomes are most pitiful, varying from 10l. to 30l. or 40l. a year. The merchants, the advocates, the doctors, and the government employés form the really valuable part of the population. From the narrow policy of the government in discouraging education and discussion, there is a great want of knowledge, both of facts and principles, in these classes: but there is a very fair sprinkling of intelligence, and, on the whole, I should be very sanguine of the influence which might be produced upon them by a government which looked to improving the condition of the community.

The misery which prevails among the mass of the people is caused by the excess of their numbers. The great and unnatural commerce drawn into Malta by the Berlin and Milan decrees gave a stimulus to population, and also accustomed the working classes to a higher standard of living, from which they have now fallen. But the main cause of the over-population is

the ignorant recklessness of the people, and the pernicious morality inculcated by the Catholic clergy as to the necessity of early marriage in order to prevent irregular intercourse. The world, always ready to find bad motives for every action, attribute this doctrine in Ireland and elsewhere to the desire of the clergy to augment their fees. In my opinion, their advice is perfectly disinterested; and is founded on a sincere conviction (however mistaken) that they are discharging an imperative religious duty. I am not at all clear that Protestant clergymen would not give just the same advice if the practice of confession afforded them the means of enforcing it.

The government has lately been making some changes in their charitable institutions, which we had recommended. The expenditure in charities is now 16,000l. a year out of a revenue of less than 100,000l. One of the institutions which we recommended to be gradually abolished was what in Italy is called a 'Conservatorio,' that is, a charity-boarding school for girls, who remain in it till they can get places or are married. On examining the girls in the conservatorio somewhat more closely than had hitherto been done, it has recently turned out that, although they have been regularly taught to read Italian, they never learnt the meaning of the words; and although there are some (who have been undergoing this process for several years) who can pronounce Italian to perfection, they cannot understand or speak a word of it. I hope this is not the way in which English is taught in Welsh schools.

The following extract is from a letter dated March 18, 1855, announcing his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is eminently characteristic of the writer, and those who knew him well will not suspect him of any affectation when he professes his indifference, or rather his reluctance, to accept the high office then placed at his disposal.

Events have succeeded one another so closely with me of late, that I really have had no time to write to you. Soon after my return to London after my election, I received quite

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unexpectedly the offer of the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Palmerston's Government. I had just returned from the country: I had had no time to look into my private affairs since my father's death. I had not even proved his will. I had the Edinburgh Review for April on my hands, and the last part of my volumes on the Roman History. I had been out of Parliament for two years, and I did not know the present House of Commons. I had to follow Gladstone, whose ability had dazzled the world, and to produce a war budget with a large additional taxation in a few weeks. All these circumstances put together inspired me with the strongest disinclination to accept the offer. I felt, however, that in the peculiar position of the Government, the office having already been refused by, refusal was scarcely honourable, and would be attributed to cowardice, and I therefore most reluctantly made up my mind to accept. I remembered the pope, put in hell by Dante,

Che fece per viltade il gran rifiuto.

My re-election passed off without difficulty. I went down to Harpton for two nights and made a speech in the Town Hall at Radnor. Since my return to London I have been engrossed with the business of my office, and have hardly had a moment to spare. There is an awkward question about the newspaper stamp, which I have had to plunge into. There are also all the preparations to be made for the impending budget, and measures to be taken for providing sufficient sums to meet the enormous extraordinary expenditure which the war in the Crimea is causing. Gladstone has been very friendly to me, and has given me all the assistance in his power.

In 1856 I had sent him a lecture of Dana's on Mr. Charles Sumner, and his reply is most remarkable. It shows very plainly how thoroughly he understood the position of affairs in America. Many men had foretold the separation of the Northern from the Southern states, but very few appreciated the significance of the assault

committed within the walls of the Senate House at Washington. He saw clearly, not that the storm was possible, but that the first blow in the great quarrel had already been struck.

Dana's lecture on Sumner is very interesting. It illustrates. the relations of the South and North, and their feelings to one another. People here speak of the outrage on Sumner as a proof of the brutal manners of the Americans, and their low morality. To me it seems the first blow in a civil war. It betokens the advent of a state of things in which political differences cannot be settled by argument, and can only be settled by force. If half England was in favour of a measure which involved the confiscation of the property of the other half, my belief is that an English Brooks would be equally applauded. If Peel had proposed a law which, instead of reducing rents had annihilated them, instead of being attacked by a man of words such as Disraeli, he would probably have been attacked with physical arguments by some man of blows. I see no solution of the political differences of the United States, but the separation of the Slave and Free States into distinct political communities. If I was a citizen of a Northern State I should wish it. I should equally wish it if I was a citizen of a Southern State. In the Northern States the English race would remain unimpaired. But I cannot help suspecting that it degenerates under a warmer sun, and that a community formed of Anglo-Saxon masters within the tropics, and of negro slaves would degenerate. I see no reason why the pure English breed should not be kept up in the Northern Provinces and the Northern States. It may also be kept up in Australia, which has a climate suited to our race, and has fortunately been kept untainted by the curse of coloured slavery.

A similar view of the subject is expressed in a later letter (November 5) of the same year, 1856:

The United States seem to me to have come nearer to a

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