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THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [ B00K lv '

galleys were of no mean repute even so late; forwhen Spain, that possessed ono hundred sail ofvessels of war, thought it necessary to withdraw itsfleet into harhoiu’ in winter, off the coast of Algiers,it requested the grand master to instruct his galleysto keep the sea there; as indeed they did during thewhole winter, to their excessive danger and notrivial detriment.

The Code Rohan appears to have displeased thepeople of Malta , 1 perhaps reasonably, though partyexaggeration may not have been wanting; but at allevents the knights were nowise identified withthese laws, and Rohan must have been deceived,for he was a good man; and that he had no despoticdesires is proved by having convened a chaptergeneral, that surety of the order’s ancient liberties,and of which it had been deprived above a century,the chapter general being to the grand masterpretty much what the parliament is to a Rin g ofEngland. Only it is more like a republic in the

1 Appeal, &c. Kohan is dear to freedom ; for lie restored themainspring of our ancient liberties—the chapter general, a centuryand a half out of use, from De Paul in 1631 to Kohan in 1776.That nothing very remarkable happened during that long intervaland the chapter general’s restoration at such a momentous juncture,proves liberty is best suited to great circumstances: and thatequality ■within its own body, and the most free liberality in itspolitics, are as characteristic of the commonwealth of St. John ofJerusalem as valour and discipline in the field; where alone wepermit of a dictatorship.