Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/11

 .

of a century has passed away since the first edition of this book was published in the year 1858. Since that date the English langue of the Order of St. John has grown from a very slender and unimportant community to be the powerful body which it now is, embracing within its ranks numerous members, not only of our aristocracy, but also of the Royal Family.

This development has been achieved entirely by the energetic measures of public utility which it has set on foot. Its lusty bantling, the St. John Ambulance Association, is perhaps the institution which has most brought the langue into public notice, but other equally important, though not so generally well known, works of beneficence, have been, and are being, carried on in accordance with the principles which have governed the Order from its first foundation.

Under these circumstances, I have been for some years past pressed to bring out a new edition of my history. Until recently, professional avocations have prevented my acceding to the request, feeling, as I did, that if a new edition were to be produced, it should be rather a new book than a simple revision of the old one. Now, however, that I have ample leisure, I gladly embrace the opportunity of doing what has been demanded. In this edition I have re-written the entire work, and endeavoured to introduce all that has been discovered relating to the subject.

A criticism, and I must confess a just one, was made on my original book, viz., that it was written in too high-flown a style—that it partook too much of what the Americans call "high