any time within the period on payment of interest in proportion. The rate of interest now charged is 6 per cent per annum. The unclaimed pawns, at the expiration of the period, are sold by public auction, and the residue of the proceeds, after deducting the sum due to the institution, is payable to the person producing the respective tickets. Of the accommodation thus afforded by the Monte not unfrequently persons in better circumstances have availed for any momentary exigency; and in this way considerable sums have been advanced. Till the year 1787 the operations of this institution were conducted by means of money borrowed at a moderate interest, and by funds acquired by donations, &c. But the Grandmaster Rohan authorized the consolidation of the funds of the Monte di Pietà with those of the Monte di Redenzione, another institution, equally national, founded in the year 1607 by private donations and bequests, for the philanthropic object of rescuing from slavery any of the natives who might fall into the hands of the Mohammedans not having means of ransom. As this institution had larger funds (mostly in landed property) than it actually required to meet all demands, the act of consolidation proved of the greatest advantage to the Monte di Pietà. Thus united the two institutions, with the new

title of Monte di Pietà e Redenzione, conducted their separate duties under the superintendence of a board consisting of a President and eight Commissaries, till the expulsion of the Order of St. John from Malta, which happened in the year 1798. The French Republicans by whom the island was then occupied stripped the Monte of every article whether in money or pawns, and the loss sustained by the institution on that unfortunate occasion amounted nearly to £35,000 sterling, including the share of the proprietors of pawns, in as much as the advance they received on that security never exceeded one half or twothirds of the value of the articles pawned. It is needless to state that not a shilling of this sum was repaid by the French Government after the occupation of the island by the English.

When the British forces took possession of La Valette in September 1800, it was one of the first cares of the head of the Government to see this useful institution resume its operations; accordingly a new board was elected, and about four thousand pounds advanced to them (without interest) from the local treasury. A loan was opened to which individuals did not hesitate to contribute when they were assured that the institution considered itself bound to pay the old loan though forming part of the amount carried

away by the French, and that in the mean time

interest would be paid on it.

The Monte pos

sessing landed property to a much greater amount could never refuse such an act of justice.

Hap

pily the cessation of slavery having put an end to the old charge for ransoms enabled the institution to devote its revenues to the payment of interest on the old loan to the extinction of part of the capital to the improvement of its property, and, for the last fourteen years, to assign a subsidy in aid of the expense of the House of Industry.

The Administration of the Monte di Pietà e Redenzione was by a Minute of the Governor dated the 27th. December 1837, vested, from the 1st. January 1838, in the Committee of the Government Charitable Institutions; instead of the former board consisting of a President and six Commissaries.

GOVERNMENT UNIVERSITY

formerly

THE JESUITS' COLLEGE.

It was during a very tumultuous and seditious time in the era of the Knights of Malta, that the Jesuits were called in by Bishop Gargallo, to support him against the power of the Order. This learned and artful body of men soon gained the same ascendancy in Malta as in every other place where they have ever been established. In order to provide them with a permament settlement in the island, the above prelate erected for them the present church and college, the foundation of which was laid on the 12th. of November 1592, during the reign of the Grandmaster Verdala.

The Jesuits, however, did not long enjoy their power in Malta. Forty-seven years after their introduction, an affair took place which terminated in their expulsion. Some young knights, who had just ceased acting as pages, disguised themselves as Jesuits during the Carnival. This so offended the holy fathers, that they made their complaints to Lascaris the Grandmaster, who immediately gave orders that some of the youth

should be apprehended. This act enraged their companions, who proceeded first to the prison, the gates of which they forced, and after liberating their companions from their confinement, proceeded in a body to the college, threw the furniture out of the windows, and compelled the Grandmaster to send the Jesuits out of the island. Eleven of them were accordingly embarked; but four contrived to secrete themselves in the city where they remained. This event occurred in . the year 1639; their total expulsion did not take place until the year 1769, after which the institution became subject to the Order, and from them was transferred over to the direction of the British Government.

The university and church occupy an extensive site surrounded by four principal streets. The latter is a very regular and neatly ornamented building, containing several paintings by the Cavalier Calabrese. To the left of the southern entrance, over which is the inscription, "In nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur," is the Oratory, where the Jesuits held their secret council. 1803, the Governor Sir A. Ball instituted the Merchants' Bank in one angle of this edifice, which was considered as a great piece of injustice by the Maltese, who perhaps did not esteem the proceeding so much a desecration of the locality,

In