r your concerns through reverence for the Almighty
God. And we shall not find that this guardianship and protection
of your Order, assumed by us, has been borne for so long a
period by us without any fruit.

Those things which the Reverend Prior of our Kingdom, and the
person who brought your Reverend Lordship's letter to us, have
listened to with attention and kindness, and returned an answer
to, as we doubt not will be intimated by them to your Reverend
Lordship.

May all happiness attend you.
From our Palace at Westminster,
The 17th day of November, 1534.
HENRY REX.

From the date and superscription of the above truly Catholic letter, it
will be seen that it was written about the period of the Reformation in
England, and addressed to the Grand Master of an Order, which for four
centuries had been at all times engaged in Paynim war; and won for
itself among the Catholic powers of Europe, by its many noble and daring
achievements, the style and title of being the "bulwark of the Christian
faith." Bound as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem were in all ages
to pay a perfect obedience to the Roman Pontiffs, it is not surprising
that this should be the last letter which we have found filed away in
the archives of their Order, bearing the autograph of Henry VIII.

WILLIAM WINTHROP.

La Valetta, Malta.

[Footnote 5: H. M. Henry VIII. was certainly labouring under an error,
when supposing that the islands of Malta and Gozo "were strongly
fortified by nature, and excellently adapted for repelling the attacks
of the infidels;" as in truth nature had done nothing for their defence,
unless it be in furnishing an abundance of soft stone with its yellow
tinge, of which all their fortifications are built.

When L'Isle Adam landed at Malta in October, 1530, it was with the rank
of a monarch; and when, in company with the authorities of the island,
"he appeared before its capital, and swore to protect its inhabitants,
the gates of the old city were opened, and he was admitted with the
knights; the Maltese declaring to them their fealty, without prejudice
to the interests of Charles V., to whom they had heretofore been
subject." Never, since the establishment of the Order, had the affairs
of the Hospitallers appeared more desperate than at this period. For the
loss of Rhodes, so famed in its history, so prized for its singular
fertility, and rich and varied