8

HISTORY OF MALTA.

vided till the year 1781, when the order of St. Lazarus gaveup to Malta the portion which had been assigned to it; bywhich means the latter became sole proprietor of every thingwhich had formerly belonged to the Antonins.

The conditions of this last division were very advantage-ous to the order of St. Lazarus, which was thus put in imme-diate possession of its revenue free from all incumbrance.This was far from the case with the new purchasers, it beingcalculated that the Maltese treasury would not be entirelyreimbursed the sums it had advanced before the year 1879>when the order would enjoy a yearly revenue of 100,000 Mal-tese crowns*. The knights of Malta entirely neglected theirown interest in this transaction, to oblige the king of France,whose next brother (the comte de Provence) had been justnamed grand-master of the order of St. Lazarus. It was thesame motive also which induced them to enter into an engage-ment to give up the abbey-house of St. Anthony, with theamount of its revenue, to endow the noble chapter of Maltesecanonesses, established in the principal residence of the saidabbey. The queen of France was particularly interested inthe foundation of this chapter.

It was about the same time (1782) that the order made anew acquisition, infinitely more considerable, and of muchgreater importance. Charles Theodore, elector of Bavaria,

* Value about two shillings each.