steeple was the cause of Goodwin Sands, he promulgated the assertion that the "bread tax" or import duty upon corn in Malta was the cause of these underground dwellings, and charged upon the English Government the evil of this state of things. This is a fair specimen of the mischievous consequence of hasty and ill-grounded assumptions. The corn-duty in Malta is one of the oldest taxes in existence there, and its abolition has often been advocated by the English governors, but always vetoed by the representatives of the people themselves; while the reason which induces the boatmen and porters of Valetta to herd in the Manderaggio is the necessity of living near their work, obliging them to be content with such accommodation as can be found in a walled town incapable of extension. It has been suggested that a better remedy than emigration would be found in the increase of the Maltese contingent of the British army. If, instead of a few hundred artillerymen, we had a strong native brigade constantly on foreign service in our tropical stations, we should gain by the superior adaptation of the men to conditions which are detrimental to the health of English soldiers; while the congestion of the labour-market in the island would be relieved, and the soldiers themselves would return with habits of discipline and enlarged views, which would be beneficial to the general community. This scheme would likewise furnish a mode of getting at a class who are at present by no means a source of pride or strength either to the local or imperial Government – the educated young men of the middle rank of life, equivalent to our clerks and shop-assistants. Of these a large number every year leave the public seminaries qualified for medicine or law, both which professions are terribly overstocked in the island. They feel themselves superior to mere handicraft and to trade, even were an opening to present itself; and they simply become loafers on the pavements and in the cafés of Valetta, from which, after a while, they cannot make up their minds to tear themselves, even when offered positions in the service of the English Government abroad. Quite recently two young men of considerable promise in their profession accepted posts under the English Government in foreign parts, and both, before the period for starting arrived, threw up their appointments.
If, however, it became the custom for their social superiors to take a term of foreign service, they would fall into the same habitude, and gradually be brought to look forward to such an incident as their natural career, instead of vegetating in a confined circle, exposed to the fascinations of intriguing emissaries of foreign Powers, or restless agitators of patriotic complexion. Malta is peculiarly liable to become the refuge of certain British subjects, who, having "left their country for their country's good," endeavour to do as much mischief as possible in their Adullam, and employ the press in propounding the wildest theories or ventilating the pettiest grievances. The half-educated youth of Malta (for what education is complete without experience of the world?) are ready victims of this style of adventurer, and adopt the jargon of the Continental Liberal as the symbol of their enlightenment. One of their greatest bugbears is the increase of English teaching in the schools; a movement for which the late Governor and his administrators
