Mayer, sur la Souverainetd tie l’Ordre de Malthe. Brochure, de 15pages.

A message from Lewis XVI. to the Constituent Assembly on the10th of September, 1790, is quoted in this pamphlet; in which theorder is styled—a power to which the trade of the nation ought dailyto acknowledge its obligations.

Mention is also made of a particular occasion, when Lewis XV. de-clared, that, if circumstances required it, he would make the sacrificeof an annual subsidy to ensure the existence of the order.

In all ports and fortified towns the general of the galleys receivedthe same honours as the general officers of the most powerful sove-reigns ; in the siege of Tunis, of Pignon, and, indeed, on otheroccasions.

The standard of the order took place of those of the dukes of Savoyand Tuscany, and the republic of Genoa. (See Bosio, Part Ill-Book vii. Sect. 23.)

Vatel, Droit des Gens. Pr61im. F. 18.

Neither a superior nor inferior degree of power can make any dif-ference in this particular. A small republic is equally a sovereignstate with the most extensive and powerful kingdoms.

Mr. Smitmer, conventual chaplain of the order of Malta, and canonof the metropolitan church (St. Stephen’s) at Vienna, was reputedto have in his library the most curious collection existing of books,maps, and manuscripts, relative to the history of the knights of St.John of Jerusalem. The catalogue has been since printed; once inItalian, in 1781, and the second time in German, in 1802.

I have fortunately had an opportunity of examining this rare col-lection, and the kindness of those persons to whom it was committedhas enabled me to gain information, which 1 might elsewhere havesought for in vain.