PREFACE.

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more necessary, since all the authors who have treated ofthis unhappy event have either expressed themselves withan indecent virulence, disgusting to a reader of taste, orgiven way to a decided spirit of party offensive to all loversof truth.

I have therefore added to the particulars taken from theworks quoted in the following catalogue, others which havebeen communicated to me by persons of the most respectablecharacters and the strictest veracity, who were themselveswitnesses of most of the facts related in this History, andwhose names I extremely regret that I am not permitted atpresent to make public.

A principal part of my design in the following work hasbeen, to give to the world an exact relation of the cruel cata-strophe of Malta, unfold the guilt and atrocious injustice ofthe most dangerous government hitherto known; and prove,that the order of Malta has for years past distinguished itselffor piety and military exploits in as illustrious a manner asduring the most renowned ages of ancient chivalry.

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