Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/363

Rh MALTA 341 and forts, towards the sea, towards the land, and on every available point, taking advantage in every particular of the natural rock and of the marvellous advantages of situation, rendering it then almost impregnable. The work of fortify ing the place with modern armament is carried on by the British Government, which possesses there the finest naval hospital in Europe, a military prison, and other necessary institutions, including immense subterranean stores of grain. New sanitary and water works and dwellings for the over-crowded poor have lately been undertaken by the local authorities. The city is clean and well-regulated, gay with the motley throng of all nations that continually come and go, and presenting many features common to the East ; the influx of winter visitors attracted by the mild climate and social gaieties has of late years proved a source of wealth to the inhabitants. A railroad from Valetta to Citta Vecchia,the first in the island, is now nearly completed. The importance of Malta lies, as of old, in its harbours, which render it a splendid port of call, repair, or refuge, as well as a fine naval station, in its capabilities as a depot for coals and stores, in its hospitals, and in its strength as a military station. Its position in the Mediterranean is of the utmost value towards keeping a clear highway to the East and to India. During the eighty-two years of British, occupation the population, trade, and produce have largely increased. The government, created by royal letters patent of llth May 1849, consists of a council of eighteen members, eight elected by the Maltese (about two thousand three hundred electors), nine chosen by the crown, and the governor, with a salary of 5000, who is usually a military officer. To these were added by letters patent of May 1881 an executive council of three members to advise and assist the governor. The council have powers to make laws and to vote money ; this last was restricted by the British Government in 1875, leading to a protest in the following year by the elected eight. The government of the islands presents peculiarities owing to the combina tion of military and civil duties. Several recent inquiries on taxation, education, &c., have led to important changes during the last two years. The consolidated revenue is at the disposal of the crown through the governor and council ; Malta is self-supporting, costing the imperial exchequer little beyond the military and naval establishments, and even contributing 5000 annually towards the former. The revenue arises chiefly from import duties (of which a large proportion accrues from a tax of 10s. a quarter upon grain) and tonnage dues. Revenue. Expenditure. 1879 183,794 185,946 1880 190,661 169,318 The tonnage of vessels entering and clearing equals that at Gibraltar; in 1878 it amounted to 6,503,859 (5,669,046 of which was for British vessels), and in 1880 it was 6,147,234. In 1879 the value of imports actually landed was 794,565, and of exports 216,050, a value of about 18,700,000 merely touching at the port. The figures fluctuate ; in the following year they fell considerably. In 1837 the revenue was but 95,600, while but one steam ship, of 137 tons, entered the harbour; in 1879 2894 steamers, with a tonnage of 2,781,806 entered. In the naval yard numerous vessels are repaired yearly; in 1876- 77 these amounted to 39 ironclad and other ships and 43 smaller vessels. One arm of the harbour is devoted to a coaling station, where enormous quantities of coal are annually imported and sold (384,272 tons in 1880). The British Mediterranean fleet is stationed there for six months of the year, the strength of the naval forces being usually about 5000 men. The strength of the military in the island is usually about 6500, the largest garrison in any British colony. The population, which in 1837 was 115,570, was 154,892 in 1880, exclusive of British troops and their families, about 24,000 being English and foreigners; it is rapidly increasing, and is unequally distributed, the greater part being settled in the large casals or villages on the eastern half of Malta, including the densely populated Valetta; large tracts to the west are bare and but sparsely inhabited ; about one-third of the island is rocky and uncultivated. Malta has now 1510 inhabitants to the square mile, Gozo 962. In 1879 there were 9868 children (about two-fifths of these at school age) attending elementary schools, in cluding 768 students at the university and two lyceums ; in 1880 the total was 9595. All the casals of Malta and Gozo (with but one or two exceptions), besides Valetta and the Cities, have schools, which are now placed on the same system, as the board schools in England ; great efforts are being made to extend the acquisition of the English language, which till recently was neglected in favour of Italian. The director of public education, besides the elementary, has under his care several secondary schools, two lyceums in Vittoriosa and in Valetta, and the university (founded by the knights in 1768), with faculties of philosophy and arts, law, medicine,&quot; and theology. In Valetta is a large public library founded by the knights in 1760, containing 48,000 volumes, open free daily ; in Gozo is a smaller one. History and Antiquities. Malta (Melita), with its sister Goze (Gaulus or Gaudus), has from time immemorial been a place of importance to whatever race wished to hold the highway of the Mediterranean, whether Phoenician, Punic, Roman, or Arab. Thus even the stories of Homer have a semblance of trnth, for the Ogygian isle where Ulysses took refuge has been supposed to be Malta or Gozo, in both of which tradition (born of the poem) yet points out the grottoes of Calypso. The earliest inhabitants of whose presence we have any actual trace are the Phoenicians, from whom we have several important inscriptions which tell of them and their temples, several curious images believed to belong to their worship, and many specimens of their pottery and glass, chiefly found in tombs, some bearing Phoenician characters and potters marks. Sepulchral caves and clusters of rock-hewn tombs, especially those in the hills of Bingemma, in several of which terra cotta sarcophagi have been found, are referred with reason to a Phoenician or a Punic origin ; Caruana s Report gives a list of these in eight places, dis tinguishing them from numerous Greek and Christian catacombs which also exist in the islands. The most remarkable remains are three rough stone erections, one in Gozo (Torre dei Giganti), and two in Malta, about a milo apart (Hagiar Kim and Mnaidra), which mainly consist of several apsidal chambers side by side, the walls of which are built of enormous horizontal and upright stones. In Malta the ruins show evidence of much skill in stone-cutting ; the entrances to the chambers consist of three large slabs of stone in place of doorpost, each smaller than and at a little distance from the one outside it ; several have well-shaped holes for ropes or other fastening ; other slabs have sharply-squared holes and shelves cut in the solid stone; others again are ornamented with &quot;pit-markings &quot; or little depressions cut evenly all over the surface of the stone. A table or altar is also found in some of the rooms, a massive slab of stone supported on an upright formed like the trunk of a tree ; in one case the two ends of the slab are carefully mortised into the walls at each side, the chamber being very small, and apparently intended specially for its reception. Hagiar Kim was excavated by the Government in 1840, when considerable traces of the action of fire were found on some of the walls, as well as buried ashes. In other rooms were found quantities of bones, many fragments of pottery, lamps, bowls, &c. , nine images, and a small ornamented altar (Archseol., vol. xxix. p. 227). The ruins in Gozo were excav ated about 1827 (Archseol., vol. xxii. p. 294). All these buildings stand on commanding positions, high on the side or the shoulder of steep hills. They have been usually considered Phoenician temples ; and, on comparison of them with what is known of the great temple of Melkart at the south-east corner of Malta, the presumption is strong that these too were built by the same race, at some very early period. The bilingual inscription found there belongs to a later age, the Gneco- Punic time, to which Greek coins found in both islands and a few other remains bear evidence. It is probable that the islands shared in some degree the varying fortunes that followed on the wars in Sicily, which took place as Greek drove out Phoeni cian, as Carthaginian drove out Greek and tried to regain the ancient possession of the mother-land, as finally Rome conquered all. During the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) Malta seems to have