ed emblems,
ancient Phoenician, Arabic, and Maltese coins, with curious church
paraphernalia which were in constant use centuries ago, each article
forming a page, as it were, in the history of those Knights of the
church. Among the treasures preserved in the armory was the costly and
artistic sword given to the Grand Master, La Vallette, by Philip II. of
Spain. The golden hilt was set with large diamonds of purest water, and
the workmanship was of exquisite finish. This sword Bonaparte stole and
appropriated to his private use, wearing it ostentatiously when he
departed from Malta on his way to Egypt,--a mean and petty sort of
thieving which this man constantly practiced.

Among other valued curiosities, one sees in a glass case the deed of
perpetual sovereignty granted to the Order of St. John by Charles V.,
dated March, 1530. Nothing upon earth endures for long. The formal deed
of gift is here, but the title is extinct, and so is the order of the
Chevaliers of St. John.

The English government have stored in the palace a large collection of
firearms, including some twenty thousand muskets, which were
manufactured in the Tower of London. Such have been the improvements
made in this weapon, however, that these guns would hardly be considered
suitable arms with which to furnish a body of infantry in time of war.
The old smooth-bore, muzzle-loading firearm is now entirely obsolete.
Even the African tribes, who have so lately fought the French in
Dahomey, were supplied with, and used effectively, breech-loading
rifles.

It appears, as we have felt it our duty to make plain, that these
church-robed warriors were very human in their instincts, and by no
means exempt from the average sins that flesh is heir to. Some outspoken
historical writers have recorded acts of debauchery perpetrated by them
which we should certainly hesitate to reprint. All this, too,
notwithstanding their pretended sanctity and discipleship, together with
the stringency of their priestly vows. We may be sure that there are no
saints on this mundane sphere, and that those who pretend to the
greatest degree of sanctity are mostly those who possess the least.
Experience never fails to furnish proof of this. Our most cherished
idols have feet of clay. Nothing known to civilization is more debasing
to morality, truthfulness, honor, and chivalrous manhood than the
holding of slaves. The Knights of St. John were open and undisguised
slave traders,--slave