A letter from Glenluce to the right Hon. Lord Glenelg, on the crisis of Malta

Abstract

My Lord: Feeling convinced that a commission of inquiry must be appointed to proceed to Malta, and that its result, if under proper direction, should be, to settle (and that for ever) all grievances complained of by Mr. Mitrovich for the Maltese, against supposed misrule, induces me to address your Lordship. Having been at Malta from the early part of 1809, and connected with it unto the present day; a witness of acts prejudicial to the interests of most classes, but particularly so to all that were commercial obliged to succumb to an intolerant power, that was daily ruining, both unnecessarily and unadvisedly, its mercantile relations, and this at a period when (although great changes were occurring in surrounding countries) other proceedings would, during the last twenty years, have secured for that island a commerce of more than treble extent, and also would have assured to a strong and working population of fully one hundred thousand souls, both success and contentment. [Excerpt.]