Malta

Women and children are engaged in producing Maltese lace. The weaving of cotton by hand-looms survives as a languishing industry. Pottery is manufactured on a small scale; ornamental carvings are made in Maltese stone and exported to a limited ex tent. The principal resources of Malta are derived from its being an important military station and the headquarters of the large Mediterranean fleet. There are great naval docks, refitting yards, magazines and stores on the south-east side of the Grand Har bour; small vessels of war have also been built here. Steamers of several lines call regularly, the Peninsula and Oriental Company connect fortnightly with Marseilles, and there is a daily mail to Syracuse. The railway which ran from Valletta to Notabile, and the tramway services which used formerly to operate, have been replaced by an extensive motor omnibus service. The currency is English. Local weights and measures include the cantar, 175 lb. ; salm, one imperial quarter ; cafiso, 4-1 gallons ; canna, 6 ft. in.; the tumolo (256 sq.ca.).

Legislation.

The laws of Justinian are still the basis of the common law, the Code of Rohan is not altogether abrogated, and considerable weight is still given to the Roman Canon Law. The principal provisions of the Napoleonic Code and some English enactments have been copied in a series of ordinances forming the Statute Law. Latin was the language of the courts until and was not completely supplanted by Italian until 1815. The partial use of English (with illogical limitations to the detriment of the Maltese-born British subjects who speak English) was introduced by local ordinances and orders in council at the end of the 19th century. The Maltese, of whom 86% cannot under stand Italian, are still liable to be tried, even for their lives, in Italian, to them a foreign language.

Education.

There are numerous government elementary day schools, and night schools and schools for emigrants. There is a secondary school for girls in Valletta, and one for boys in Gozo. There is a government lyceum in Malta and a university. The fees in these institutions are almost nominal; the middle classes are thus educated at the expense of the masses. In the i8th cen tury the government of the Knights and of the Inquisition did not favour the education of the people, after 1800 British gover nors were slow to make any substantial change. About the middle of the 19th century it began to be recognized that the education of the people was more conducive to the safety of the fortress than the leaving in ignorance congested masses of a southern race liable to be swayed spasmodically by prejudice. At first an attempt was

made to make Maltese a literary language by adapting the Arabic characters to record it. Various educational schemes were pro posed, but they were easier to propose than to carry into effect : no one, except Mr. Savona, had the ability to urge English as the basis of instruction ; he agitated and was installed as director of educa tion and made a member of the Executive. The obstruction which he encountered alarmed him, and he compromised by adopting a mixed system of both English and Italian, called pari passu, as the basis of Maltese education ; he resigned after a brief effort. His work was continued for some years under an eminent archae ologist, Dr. A. A. Caruana, as Director of Education. He began to give some preference to English indirectly. On his resignation Sir G. Strickland then Chief Secretary established a new system of education based on the principle of beginning from the bottom, by teaching to read and write in Maltese as the medium for as similating, at a later stage, either English or Italian, one at a time, and aiming at imparting general knowledge in colloquial English. A series of school books, in the Maltese language printed in Roman characters, with translations in English interlined in different type, was produced at the government printing office and sold at cost price. The parents and guardians were called upon to select whether each child should learn English or Italian next after learning reading, writing and arithmetic in Maltese. About 89% recorded their preference in favour of English at the outset ; then, as a result of violent political agitation, this per centage was somewhat lowered, but soon crept up again. Teachers and professors who were weak in English, lawyers, newspaper men and others, combined to deprive these reforms of their legiti mate consequence, viz., that after a number of years English should be the language of the courts. An order in council was enacted in 1899 providing that no Maltese (except students of theology) should thenceforth suffer any detriment through in ability to pass examinations in Italian, in either the schools or university, but the small fraction of the Maltese who claim to speak Italian still command sufficient influence to hamper the full enjoyment of this emancipation by the majority. In the uni versity most of the textbooks used are English, nevertheless many of the lectures are still delivered in Italian.