The ‘Wicked Machinery of Government':1 Malta and the Problems of Continuity under the New Model Administration

Abstract

A full understanding of Coleridge's achievement as acting Public Secretary in Malta 1805 has been constrained by a belief in a greater destruction of relevant materials than may actually have been the case.[2] The purpose of this article is to describe and briefly contextualise a range of pertinent materials available in Malta that may be of interest to scholars interested in Coleridge's Malta period. Preliminary RemarksThe role of the British officials in the early years of the British occupation was at least to keep open the possibility of securing Malta for the British Empire. The broad strategy was a principle of continuity by which the constitution, laws, governmental institutions and administrative practices of the last legitimate government were continued by the new rulers.[3] The system continued by the British was that in force under the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem who had had possession of the Islands from 1530 until the French invasion of 1798. At its head was the Grandmaster who exercised autocratic authority, including the power to enact new laws. Under the Maltese constitution, the Grandmaster's powers were almost completely unfettered: and the British Civil Commissioners, for the purposes of Maltese law, effectively stepped into the shoes of the Grandmaster. Naturally, however, they were subject to instructions from time to time issued by the British Secretary of State for war and the Colonies as to the conduct of their Administrations, albeit that these instructions did not create legally binding limitations on their powers.