Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/589

Rh candidates for the various above-mentioned offices, the viceroy selecting from such lists the persons by whom they were to be filled.

When the Order of St. John superseded the government of the emperor, the leading features of the former administration were retained. The assembly, it is true, soon became a dead letter, and the nomination to the various offices was made direct by the Grand-Master in council; still the selection was invariably from among the Maltese, and their ancient customs and privileges were interfered with as little as possible. Their code of laws remained in force, and was recognized by the fraternity, the duty of carrying it into effect being left almost entirely in the hands of the inhabitants. There were three legal courts, each presided over by a native judge, the first for criminal causes, the second for civil causes, and the third for appeals from the other two. A knight was appointed to preside over the entire department, which was called the castellany, but he in no way interfered with the administration of justice. He was replaced every second year by a fresh nomination. No member of the Order was, as such, amenable to the native tribunals, but in cases where the crime rendered it advisable that he should be punished by the sentence of those courts, he was stripped of his habit as a preliminary measure, and then handed over to their jurisdiction as a secular person.

Throughout the residence of the knights in the island, a broad line of demarcation was drawn between themselves and the native population. The Maltese had always been a highly aristocratic community, many of their families having been ennobled at a very remote period, and the whole power of government was vested in the hands of this upper class. No more exclusive or oligarchical a body existed anywhere throughout Europe, and traces of this state of things may still be perceived. The Order of St. John, eminently aristocratic though it was in its own constitution, and naturally jealous of all encroachments upon that privileged class from which its members were recruited, and whence all its power and wealth had been drawn, appeared, in its connection with Malta, to have been actuated by more liberal ideas and views than its predecessors. The Grand-Master and council no sooner