HISTORY OF MALTA.

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bitter draught which was to restore you to health, and whichthey endeavoured to soften by the tenderest attentions; didthey, 1 say, notwithstanding the difference of your faith, andthe ardent desire they must naturally feel to convert you totheir own, ever disturb the dying moments of those their piouscare could not restore? No; the members of the Greek andLatin church received, on their death-bed, all those spiritualconsolations their consciences required. The mussulman him-self, in the last moments of his existence, was equally permittedto consult the book of his prophet; and those of that sect wereallowed the free use of an enclosure, which was as much re-spected as if it were situated in the mosques at Mecca andMedina.

If, then, there exists no country wherein the knights ofMalta may not reclaim some unhappy being restored to lifeand liberty by their charitable care, may they equally, in what-soever nation they fix their residence, still continue to prac-tise that distinguished benevolence, for which they have everbeen so justly renowned ! and may these same nations have noother cause of regret than that Malta had so long deprivedthem of such valuable members of society!

Quocirca vivite fortes,Fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus.

HOR.

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