this century the fortifications of the island were continually increased and strengthened; war was perpetually maintained with the Moslems; difficulties and disputes occurred respecting the appointment of officers in the different European countries, and in obtaining corn and other supplies, which the island cannot produce. Disputes arose at the election of Grand Masters, and with the Pope, on account of the arbitrary appointment of his friends to important and lucrative posts in the Order. Reports were more than once received that the Sultan had prepared large armaments for attacking Malta, but they proved incorrect; the signal defeat of the Turkish forces before Vienna and other causes having greatly weakened the Ottoman power.

Complaints were made of the assumptions of the Inquisition in Malta, their pretensions being found inconsistent with the rights and liberties of the Grand Master and the knights; and in consequence the power of the inquisitors was much curtailed and limited.

The pirates of Algiers and other places continued to be very troublesome, and to make raids upon the towns of the Italian coast and other parts of the Mediterranean, and also upon the merchant shipping, carrying off many persons into slavery. The galleys of the knights were consequently incessantly at sea, pursuing and taking the pirates, and releasing the unfortunate Christian captives. But these conflicts cost them many valuable lives, and often the loss of their ships.

In 1723 the Turks again attacked Malta, but finding the place so strong, retired, after cannonading the town and forts for some time, without attempting to land any troops, or to commence a regular siege.

In 1783 a terrible earthquake laid the city of Messina in ruins, and the sufferings of the surviving inhabitants were terrible. In this great calamity the knights of the Order devoted themselves to the care and relief of the sufferers, thus exhibiting in the last years of their corporate existence, the same Christian charity which had distinguished them from the time of their foundation six hundred years before.

CHAPTER XX.

The French Revolution-Napoleon Bonaparte-The property of the Order in France confiscated-Napoleon attacks Malta—Valetta capitulates-Malta taken by Nelson-Fate of the Order of St. John-Revival of the English Lange-Work of the modern English Knights of Malta-List of members of the Order. APPENDIX I.-List of the convents of the Order in England. APPENDIX II.-Extracts from the martyrology of the Knights of Malta.

"A fouler vision yet; an age of light,

Light without love, glares on the aching sight."

Christian Year.

BUT a new order of things was coming. The Revolution that broke out in Paris at the end of the eighteenth century, not only swept away the Throne

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and the Church, with all its dependent corporations and associations in France, but speedily spread itself over Europe.

The Republican armies everywhere abolished public worship and the profession of Christianity. Gradually, as one Government after another ran its short course, and was supplanted by another, the power was more and more concentrated in the hands of a few; and step by step Napoleon Bonaparte rose to the height of authority, till he became Emperor, the despotic and autocratic ruler of France, which had so lately and so emphatically declared itself eternally republican.

The Revolution abolished the ancien régime in France, and indirectly in every country in Europe. The French armies swept over the continent, kings were dethroned, national boundaries were changed, rulers and states were abolished, the whole face of Europe was entirely altered. Napoleon was not satisfied with being the master of France; he aspired to rule the world, to map out its countries according to his will, and subject all people to his dictation.

It was not to be expected that such an old-world institution as the Order of St. John would escape, when thrones were falling, and when "times and laws were changed."

In September, 1792, a decree was passed, by which the estates and property of the Order of St. John in France were annexed to the state. Many of the knights were seized, imprisoned, and executed as aristocrats. The principal house of the Order in

Paris, called the Temple, was converted into a prison, and there the unfortunate Louis XVI. and his family were incarcerated.

The Directory also did its best to destroy the Order in Germany and Italy; and the requirements of war led to the heavy taxation of its property in Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and Piedmont, so that the revenue was reduced by two-thirds of its amount, and it was found necessary to melt down the plate and coin money to pay the sailors, and to buy corn.

All this time the Directory had agents in Malta, who were propagating revolutionary doctrines, and stirring up the lowest of the people to rebellion and violence.

There were in the island 332 knights (of whom many, however, were aged and infirm), and about 6000 troops.

On June 9, 1798, the French fleet appeared before Malta, with Napoleon himself on board, and a few days after troops were landed, and began pillaging the country. They were at first successfully opposed by the soldiers of the Grand Master, but the seeds of sedition, which had been so freely sown, began to bear fruit, and the soldiers mutinied, and refused to obey their officers. All the outlying forts were taken, and the knights who commanded them, who were all French, were dragged before Napoleon.

He accused them of taking up arms against their country, and declared that he would have them shot as traitors.

Meanwhile sedition was rampant within the city. The people rose and attacked the palace of the Grand Master, and murdered several of the knights. They demanded that the island should be given up to the French, and finally opened the gates, and admitted Napoleon and his troops.

After some delay, articles of capitulation were agreed upon, Malta was declared part of France, and all the knights were required to quit the island within three days.

Napoleon sailed for Egypt on June 19, taking with him all the silver, gold, and jewels that could be collected from the churches and the treasury, together with a vast number of trophies and historie relics belonging to the Order, most of which were lost shortly after, when the ships that carried them were blown up at the battle of the Nile.

In the following September, 1798, Nelson besieged, and quickly obtained possession of the island, which has ever since remained in the hands of the English.

In this way the ancient Order of St. John ceased to be a sovereign power, and practically its history came to an end.

The last Grand Master, Baron Ferdinand von Hompesch, after the loss of Malta, retired to Trieste, and shortly afterwards abdicated and died at Montpelier, in 1805.

Many of the knights, however, had in the mean time gone to Russia, and before the abdication of Hompesch, they elected the Emperor Paul Grand Master, who had for some time been protector of the