Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/685

Rh Paris, 23 Germinal, an VI. (12th April, 1798):—“Considering that the Order of Malta has placed itself, of its own accord, and from the very commencement of the war, in a state of hostility against France; that it has actually made an express declaration of war by a manifesto of its Grand-Master of the 10th October, 1794; that he has even protested by this insolent proclamation that he neither ought, nor could, nor would recognize the French republic; considering also that the efforts which the Order has made both before and since to aid the coalition of the kings arrayed against liberty have always accorded with this expression of its sentiments, and that even quite recently it has attained the culminating point of its action against the republic, by receiving into its midst and admitting to high office numerous Frenchmen universally known as the most determined enemies of their country, disgraced for ever by having borne arms against her. Seeing that everything announces on the part of the Order an intention of yielding its territories to one of the powers now at war with France, and by such means to paralyse the naval power of France in the Mediterranean; that in all respects this Order is, as regards the French republic, in the same position as all the other powers with whom at the time of the establishment of the constitutional régime the nation had found itself in a state of war, without any declaration to that effect on her part, but by the simple fact that they have placed themselves in that position; considering that there is, therefore, no necessity for any enactment on the part of the Corps Législatif to enable the directory to take such steps against the Order of Malta as the national honour and interest demand, the following decree is made:—

“Art 1. The General commanding-in-chief the army of the East is desired to take possession of the island of Malta.

“Art. 2. For this purpose he will at once direct against the island of Malta the forces under his command, both military and naval.

“This decree will not be printed.”

A supplementary decree of the same date ran as follows:—

“Azt. 1. The order given to General Bonaparte, commander-in-chief of the army of the East, by the decree of this day’s date, to obtain possession of the island of Malta, shall not be