Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/616

580 addressed to the bailli Camille prince de Rohan, prior of Acquitaine the bailli de Cluguy; the commander de Bataille (representing the langue of France); the commander de Peyre de Chateauneuf (representing the langue of Provence); the commander de Dianne (representing the langue of Auvergue); the commander Bertrand, and the bailli Lasterie du Saillent, prior of Auvergue. It also received the recognition of the king Louis XVIII.

This commission exercised important acts on behalf of the Order in general during a series of years; it negotiated, though unsuccessfully, with the king for the restoration of the property of the institution in France; it treated, in 1814, with the congress of Vienna for a new chef-lieu in the Mediterranean. In an appeal to the French king and chambers it represented the whole Order in 1810, and again at the congress of Verona in 1822. Also, as recorded by Sutherland, “in 1823, when the Greek cause began to wear a prosperous aspect, the same chapter, encouraged by the goodwill which the Bourbon family was understood to entertain for the Order, entered into a treaty with the Greeks for the cession of Sapienza and Cabressa, two islets on the western shore of the Morea, as a preliminary step to the reconquest of Rhodes, to facilitate which arrangement an endeavour was made to raise a loan of £640,000 in England.”

Whilst engaged in these various negotiations for the benefit of the Order at large, the question was mooted of a possible revival of the English langue, and the matter speedily received a practical solution. The commission placed itself in communication with the Rev. Sir Robert Peat, D.D., Chaplain Extraordinary to His Majesty George IV., and other Englishmen of position, to whom were submitted the documents by which it was constituted. These gentlemen undertook to give their aid in the resuscitation of so interesting a relic of the ancient chivalry of Europe. The negotiations, which were continued for some months, resulted in the revival of the English langue of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, for which purpose articles of convention were executed on the 11th June, 1826, and on the 24th August and 15th October, 1827. These documents thus refer to the English people:—

“This brave and generous nation furnished formerly illus-