th~ Central Bank of Malta hosted a high level symposium in Valletta on the occasion of the launch... more th~ Central Bank of Malta hosted a high level symposium in Valletta on the occasion of the launch of the first in a series of five €2 coins commemorating landmarks in Maltese constitutional history. The speakers comprised Chief Justice Emeritus John J. Cremona, who had drafted the Malta Independence constitution of 1964, and President Emeritus Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations to modify this constitution essentially by changing its model from that of a Constitutional Monarchy to one of a Republic in 1974. Both these distinguished panellists, therefore, spoke to a large extent from direct personal experience. The two other speakers were necessarily more academic in their presentations because they very validly discussed earlier constitutions, well beyond living memory. Dr Sergio Portelli, a university lecturer who holds a doctorate in Italian, spoke about the 1849 constitution, its Risorgimento associations and its aftermath, drawing to some extent on his doctoral thesis on a history of Italian language journalism in Malta. Dr Albert Ganado, a former president of the Malta
In searching for Malta through her language question over the past two centuries, this comparativ... more In searching for Malta through her language question over the past two centuries, this comparative study posits a theory of the margins: where empires meet, periphery reaches out for mainstream, both revealing and transforming itself in the process. Accompanying this painful confrontational engagement, there are assimilation-resistance paradigms peculiar to the culture clash in colonial politics; these tend to be more pronounced and risky on the geographical fringes , in outposts between boundaries. Responses to divisi"8 colonial policy on language status demonstrate how there is no simple historical or psychological correlation between native language and national identity, and no de rigeur monolingual nationhood. Discourse on language, culture and nationality can be a statement about what people think and feel about themselves rather than about a particular language per se. English snuggled Maltese to oust Italian, would the nest-builder now become a cuckoo? Or had the vernacular's buttre.ssed emergence as an official language mirrored the nation's own growing-up, the language anguish having been, like a soul in purgatory, its catharsis? I. Here I make liberal use of my Malta writings, published and unpublished (1968Malta writings, published and unpublished ( -1973Malta writings, published and unpublished ( , 1975Malta writings, published and unpublished ( -1980, l985-l992), l985-l992).ln preparing this festschrift chapter during Trinity Term 1992 I benefitted from informal discussions with, among others, Professor
the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dream... more the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dreamy idealist and irredentisthas now documented for us the basic goings-on in the so-called 'treason' or 'sedition ' trials of 1946-47. His book is entitled: Mixlija b'Kongura u Tradiment [P'E.G., 1996] and contains 223 pages of text, including a name index. It is important for this story to be told because of the many and varied ramifications of 'italianita' we have had over the decades. In war-time, sympathies and sentiments take a different turn, not less because they risk being caught up in an almost uncontrollable web of emotions, militarism, survival and intrigue. No sooner had Italy surrendered and the Allies' advance was assured that senior members of the Malta police force -Axisa, de Gray, Calleja -were despatched to Italy by British Field Security to ferret out Maltese nationals who had supported the Italian war effort. They netted in all seventeen Maltese who were in Italy during the war, and dragged them to Malta for trial on grounds of disloyalty to the British king. In the case of eleven of them, the Maltese prosecuting officers, who served the Crown, asked for death by hanging. In four jury trials, however, all the accused were acquitted, many of them returning to Italy. The biggest catch of all would have been Or Carlo Mallia, a former Nitionalist minister who like some other Nationalists suffered at British hands in the mid-1930s; he went to Italy and became a confirmed Fascist official, who pressured the Maltese in Italy to hand in their British passports in return for a monthly allowance and, more importantly, being saved from the POW 'concentration' camps. However, Mallia escaped the net -he stayed in Italy and was never tried. Practically all those who were Italian scholarship holders in universities would automatically have been regarded as members of the GUF [Gioventu' Universitaria Fascista] while those Maltese who had traded in their passports rather than go to jail out ofloyalty to the Btitish king, <,;nded up members of the CAM [Comitato d;Azione Maltese], led by a Foreign Ministry offIcial, Prof. Umberto Biscottini, aided however by Or Mallia and some others. Some Maltese, like Or Carlo Liberto and Or Camillo Bonanno, had taken Italian citizenship before the war, so they were free to serve the regime as they liked, and as they did, but they could not be arrested for it. A few
Mazzini's influence in the 19th century was so great that it is easy mistakenly to believe th... more Mazzini's influence in the 19th century was so great that it is easy mistakenly to believe that its main tenets emanated exclusively or originally from it, whether that be the bond of family or the right to property. These are important constituent elements of Mazzinian philosophy but what distinguishes its legacy above all must surely be Mazzini's strongly enunciated and propagated belief in the nation. A regard for the nation was rendered indispensable in opposition to the subjection to tyranny, be that foreign occupation or papal rule. It is in Mazzini' s heroic attempts to rally the people, including the working classes, under the guidance of God, to the fundamental belief that duty was the obverse of right, and that a social class could not exist outside of its nation, that Mazzini posited the greatest challenge to Marx, and was at his most inspiring and compelling.peer-reviewe
Publication of a conference held at AZAD Centre, Sliema, on February 17, 1978.Among the new State... more Publication of a conference held at AZAD Centre, Sliema, on February 17, 1978.Among the new States, Malta has one of the longest, almost uninterrupted traditions of press freedom and, for her size, is lucky to have had a variety of newspaper opinion. It was two well-known British liberals, John Austin and George Cornwall Lewis, who responding to appeals by the Maltese leader Giorgio Mitrovich, strongly recommended the grant of press freedom to the colony. That was in 1838, when the first papers and periodicals began to be published. Before that time we can hardly say that there was a journalistic tradition at all. The Order of st. John had a printing press in the eighteenth century, but this was mainly for official works. Besides, censorship always hung over Malta's head: in the mid-seventeenth century the Grand Master had opted to close a printing press instead of having to put up with interference from the Pope and Inquisitor who insisted on nihil obstat rights in any printed ...
Is-successur tal-Gvernatur Fremantle kien il-General (wara sar Field Marshal) Grenfell li dam f&#... more Is-successur tal-Gvernatur Fremantle kien il-General (wara sar Field Marshal) Grenfell li dam f'din il-kariga mill-1899 sa l-1903 . Bhall-ohrajn ta' qablu, kien bniedem imrawwem fid-dixxiplina militari. Il-hatra tieghu kienet tkompli turi kemm Malta kienet titqies bhala Fortizza u ghaldaqstant kemm kien jinhtieg li titmexxa b'mod rigoruz u regimentat. Izda fil-fatt l-amministratur veru baqa' Strickland Ii aktar ma beda jghaddi z-zmien aktar kompla jsahhah il-mekkanizmu awtokratiku tieghu .Malta fi tmiem is-seklu dsatax, ghalhekk, kienet pajjiz mahkum mill-qilla ta' I-Istricklandizmu.peer-reviewe
51 An insight into the production of a cabreo can be gleaned from a comparison of the 18 th -cent... more 51 An insight into the production of a cabreo can be gleaned from a comparison of the 18 th -century cabrei Treas. B 290 and 291, The latter volume consists of the plots of plans drawn from a physical survey carried out by triangulation; the traverse, in pencil, is shown. Templates in thick paper of the property outline survive in the volume. With these were drawn the boundaries of the same properties in Treas. B 290 which were then given watercolour washes.
The Roman Catholic religion - its beliefs, practices, institutions, and localized adaptations or ... more The Roman Catholic religion - its beliefs, practices, institutions, and localized adaptations or manifestations thereof- has long characterized Maltese culture, as moulded by historical experiences. In their long and geographically spread out emigration movements to the Mediterranean littoral and the Americas, Europe, Australia and Africa, Maltese have carried their religious beliefs and practices with them, and as a rule they have clung steadfastly to them with a tenacity that has surprised other Europeans who were more accustomed to anticlericalism, irreligion and secularization.peer-reviewe
Sommario - 1. Malta, fiore del mondo. 2. Al servizio di Sua Maestà. 3. La colonia-fortezza. 4. Lo... more Sommario - 1. Malta, fiore del mondo. 2. Al servizio di Sua Maestà. 3. La colonia-fortezza. 4. Lo scontro si acuisce: nasce il Reform Committee. 5. La visita dei commissari reali. 6. Parola d'ordine: anglicizzazione.
Abstract: This paper traces the origins of the first joint stock banks in Malta and profiles them... more Abstract: This paper traces the origins of the first joint stock banks in Malta and profiles them. These are the Anglo-Maltese Bank (1809), the Banco di Malta (1812) and Biagio Tagliaferro e Figli (1812). Starting during the Continental System, the study includes reference to other banks formed later on, particularly in the 1830s, very much in a colonial context (Josef Scicluna et fils, 1830; the Provident Bank for Savings, 1834). Adopting tonnage statistics as a ‘barometer of Malta’s economy’, it relates banking to naval and mercantile shipping, financial and commercial activity, in and around the Mediterranean until the opening of the Suez Canal and its immediate aftermath. Malta’s role changed. Branches of international banks started being established (the Anglo-Egyptian Bank in 1881, and then others). The paper also shows how other lines of business, such as insurance companies of various kinds, became indispensable subsidiaries to the market, as the currency itself changed and ...
the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dream... more the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dreamy idealist and irredentisthas now documented for us the basic goings-on in the so-called 'treason' or 'sedition ' trials of 1946-47. His book is entitled: Mixlija b'Kongura u Tradiment [P'E.G., 1996] and contains 223 pages of text, including a name index. It is important for this story to be told because of the many and varied ramifications of 'italianita' we have had over the decades. In war-time, sympathies and sentiments take a different turn, not less because they risk being caught up in an almost uncontrollable web of emotions, militarism, survival and intrigue. No sooner had Italy surrendered and the Allies' advance was assured that senior members of the Malta police force -Axisa, de Gray, Calleja -were despatched to Italy by British Field Security to ferret out Maltese nationals who had supported the Italian war effort. They netted in all seventeen Maltese who were in Italy during the war, and dragged them to Malta for trial on grounds of disloyalty to the British king. In the case of eleven of them, the Maltese prosecuting officers, who served the Crown, asked for death by hanging. In four jury trials, however, all the accused were acquitted, many of them returning to Italy. The biggest catch of all would have been Or Carlo Mallia, a former Nitionalist minister who like some other Nationalists suffered at British hands in the mid-1930s; he went to Italy and became a confirmed Fascist official, who pressured the Maltese in Italy to hand in their British passports in return for a monthly allowance and, more importantly, being saved from the POW 'concentration' camps. However, Mallia escaped the net -he stayed in Italy and was never tried. Practically all those who were Italian scholarship holders in universities would automatically have been regarded as members of the GUF [Gioventu' Universitaria Fascista] while those Maltese who had traded in their passports rather than go to jail out ofloyalty to the Btitish king, <,;nded up members of the CAM [Comitato d;Azione Maltese], led by a Foreign Ministry offIcial, Prof. Umberto Biscottini, aided however by Or Mallia and some others. Some Maltese, like Or Carlo Liberto and Or Camillo Bonanno, had taken Italian citizenship before the war, so they were free to serve the regime as they liked, and as they did, but they could not be arrested for it. A few
th~ Central Bank of Malta hosted a high level symposium in Valletta on the occasion of the launch... more th~ Central Bank of Malta hosted a high level symposium in Valletta on the occasion of the launch of the first in a series of five €2 coins commemorating landmarks in Maltese constitutional history. The speakers comprised Chief Justice Emeritus John J. Cremona, who had drafted the Malta Independence constitution of 1964, and President Emeritus Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations to modify this constitution essentially by changing its model from that of a Constitutional Monarchy to one of a Republic in 1974. Both these distinguished panellists, therefore, spoke to a large extent from direct personal experience. The two other speakers were necessarily more academic in their presentations because they very validly discussed earlier constitutions, well beyond living memory. Dr Sergio Portelli, a university lecturer who holds a doctorate in Italian, spoke about the 1849 constitution, its Risorgimento associations and its aftermath, drawing to some extent on his doctoral thesis on a history of Italian language journalism in Malta. Dr Albert Ganado, a former president of the Malta
In searching for Malta through her language question over the past two centuries, this comparativ... more In searching for Malta through her language question over the past two centuries, this comparative study posits a theory of the margins: where empires meet, periphery reaches out for mainstream, both revealing and transforming itself in the process. Accompanying this painful confrontational engagement, there are assimilation-resistance paradigms peculiar to the culture clash in colonial politics; these tend to be more pronounced and risky on the geographical fringes , in outposts between boundaries. Responses to divisi"8 colonial policy on language status demonstrate how there is no simple historical or psychological correlation between native language and national identity, and no de rigeur monolingual nationhood. Discourse on language, culture and nationality can be a statement about what people think and feel about themselves rather than about a particular language per se. English snuggled Maltese to oust Italian, would the nest-builder now become a cuckoo? Or had the vernacular's buttre.ssed emergence as an official language mirrored the nation's own growing-up, the language anguish having been, like a soul in purgatory, its catharsis? I. Here I make liberal use of my Malta writings, published and unpublished (1968Malta writings, published and unpublished ( -1973Malta writings, published and unpublished ( , 1975Malta writings, published and unpublished ( -1980, l985-l992), l985-l992).ln preparing this festschrift chapter during Trinity Term 1992 I benefitted from informal discussions with, among others, Professor
the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dream... more the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dreamy idealist and irredentisthas now documented for us the basic goings-on in the so-called 'treason' or 'sedition ' trials of 1946-47. His book is entitled: Mixlija b'Kongura u Tradiment [P'E.G., 1996] and contains 223 pages of text, including a name index. It is important for this story to be told because of the many and varied ramifications of 'italianita' we have had over the decades. In war-time, sympathies and sentiments take a different turn, not less because they risk being caught up in an almost uncontrollable web of emotions, militarism, survival and intrigue. No sooner had Italy surrendered and the Allies' advance was assured that senior members of the Malta police force -Axisa, de Gray, Calleja -were despatched to Italy by British Field Security to ferret out Maltese nationals who had supported the Italian war effort. They netted in all seventeen Maltese who were in Italy during the war, and dragged them to Malta for trial on grounds of disloyalty to the British king. In the case of eleven of them, the Maltese prosecuting officers, who served the Crown, asked for death by hanging. In four jury trials, however, all the accused were acquitted, many of them returning to Italy. The biggest catch of all would have been Or Carlo Mallia, a former Nitionalist minister who like some other Nationalists suffered at British hands in the mid-1930s; he went to Italy and became a confirmed Fascist official, who pressured the Maltese in Italy to hand in their British passports in return for a monthly allowance and, more importantly, being saved from the POW 'concentration' camps. However, Mallia escaped the net -he stayed in Italy and was never tried. Practically all those who were Italian scholarship holders in universities would automatically have been regarded as members of the GUF [Gioventu' Universitaria Fascista] while those Maltese who had traded in their passports rather than go to jail out ofloyalty to the Btitish king, <,;nded up members of the CAM [Comitato d;Azione Maltese], led by a Foreign Ministry offIcial, Prof. Umberto Biscottini, aided however by Or Mallia and some others. Some Maltese, like Or Carlo Liberto and Or Camillo Bonanno, had taken Italian citizenship before the war, so they were free to serve the regime as they liked, and as they did, but they could not be arrested for it. A few
Mazzini's influence in the 19th century was so great that it is easy mistakenly to believe th... more Mazzini's influence in the 19th century was so great that it is easy mistakenly to believe that its main tenets emanated exclusively or originally from it, whether that be the bond of family or the right to property. These are important constituent elements of Mazzinian philosophy but what distinguishes its legacy above all must surely be Mazzini's strongly enunciated and propagated belief in the nation. A regard for the nation was rendered indispensable in opposition to the subjection to tyranny, be that foreign occupation or papal rule. It is in Mazzini' s heroic attempts to rally the people, including the working classes, under the guidance of God, to the fundamental belief that duty was the obverse of right, and that a social class could not exist outside of its nation, that Mazzini posited the greatest challenge to Marx, and was at his most inspiring and compelling.peer-reviewe
Publication of a conference held at AZAD Centre, Sliema, on February 17, 1978.Among the new State... more Publication of a conference held at AZAD Centre, Sliema, on February 17, 1978.Among the new States, Malta has one of the longest, almost uninterrupted traditions of press freedom and, for her size, is lucky to have had a variety of newspaper opinion. It was two well-known British liberals, John Austin and George Cornwall Lewis, who responding to appeals by the Maltese leader Giorgio Mitrovich, strongly recommended the grant of press freedom to the colony. That was in 1838, when the first papers and periodicals began to be published. Before that time we can hardly say that there was a journalistic tradition at all. The Order of st. John had a printing press in the eighteenth century, but this was mainly for official works. Besides, censorship always hung over Malta's head: in the mid-seventeenth century the Grand Master had opted to close a printing press instead of having to put up with interference from the Pope and Inquisitor who insisted on nihil obstat rights in any printed ...
Is-successur tal-Gvernatur Fremantle kien il-General (wara sar Field Marshal) Grenfell li dam f&#... more Is-successur tal-Gvernatur Fremantle kien il-General (wara sar Field Marshal) Grenfell li dam f'din il-kariga mill-1899 sa l-1903 . Bhall-ohrajn ta' qablu, kien bniedem imrawwem fid-dixxiplina militari. Il-hatra tieghu kienet tkompli turi kemm Malta kienet titqies bhala Fortizza u ghaldaqstant kemm kien jinhtieg li titmexxa b'mod rigoruz u regimentat. Izda fil-fatt l-amministratur veru baqa' Strickland Ii aktar ma beda jghaddi z-zmien aktar kompla jsahhah il-mekkanizmu awtokratiku tieghu .Malta fi tmiem is-seklu dsatax, ghalhekk, kienet pajjiz mahkum mill-qilla ta' I-Istricklandizmu.peer-reviewe
51 An insight into the production of a cabreo can be gleaned from a comparison of the 18 th -cent... more 51 An insight into the production of a cabreo can be gleaned from a comparison of the 18 th -century cabrei Treas. B 290 and 291, The latter volume consists of the plots of plans drawn from a physical survey carried out by triangulation; the traverse, in pencil, is shown. Templates in thick paper of the property outline survive in the volume. With these were drawn the boundaries of the same properties in Treas. B 290 which were then given watercolour washes.
The Roman Catholic religion - its beliefs, practices, institutions, and localized adaptations or ... more The Roman Catholic religion - its beliefs, practices, institutions, and localized adaptations or manifestations thereof- has long characterized Maltese culture, as moulded by historical experiences. In their long and geographically spread out emigration movements to the Mediterranean littoral and the Americas, Europe, Australia and Africa, Maltese have carried their religious beliefs and practices with them, and as a rule they have clung steadfastly to them with a tenacity that has surprised other Europeans who were more accustomed to anticlericalism, irreligion and secularization.peer-reviewe
Sommario - 1. Malta, fiore del mondo. 2. Al servizio di Sua Maestà. 3. La colonia-fortezza. 4. Lo... more Sommario - 1. Malta, fiore del mondo. 2. Al servizio di Sua Maestà. 3. La colonia-fortezza. 4. Lo scontro si acuisce: nasce il Reform Committee. 5. La visita dei commissari reali. 6. Parola d'ordine: anglicizzazione.
Abstract: This paper traces the origins of the first joint stock banks in Malta and profiles them... more Abstract: This paper traces the origins of the first joint stock banks in Malta and profiles them. These are the Anglo-Maltese Bank (1809), the Banco di Malta (1812) and Biagio Tagliaferro e Figli (1812). Starting during the Continental System, the study includes reference to other banks formed later on, particularly in the 1830s, very much in a colonial context (Josef Scicluna et fils, 1830; the Provident Bank for Savings, 1834). Adopting tonnage statistics as a ‘barometer of Malta’s economy’, it relates banking to naval and mercantile shipping, financial and commercial activity, in and around the Mediterranean until the opening of the Suez Canal and its immediate aftermath. Malta’s role changed. Branches of international banks started being established (the Anglo-Egyptian Bank in 1881, and then others). The paper also shows how other lines of business, such as insurance companies of various kinds, became indispensable subsidiaries to the market, as the currency itself changed and ...
the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dream... more the biographer of the war-time Maltese pro-Italian 'spy' Carmelo Borg Pisani -an artist and dreamy idealist and irredentisthas now documented for us the basic goings-on in the so-called 'treason' or 'sedition ' trials of 1946-47. His book is entitled: Mixlija b'Kongura u Tradiment [P'E.G., 1996] and contains 223 pages of text, including a name index. It is important for this story to be told because of the many and varied ramifications of 'italianita' we have had over the decades. In war-time, sympathies and sentiments take a different turn, not less because they risk being caught up in an almost uncontrollable web of emotions, militarism, survival and intrigue. No sooner had Italy surrendered and the Allies' advance was assured that senior members of the Malta police force -Axisa, de Gray, Calleja -were despatched to Italy by British Field Security to ferret out Maltese nationals who had supported the Italian war effort. They netted in all seventeen Maltese who were in Italy during the war, and dragged them to Malta for trial on grounds of disloyalty to the British king. In the case of eleven of them, the Maltese prosecuting officers, who served the Crown, asked for death by hanging. In four jury trials, however, all the accused were acquitted, many of them returning to Italy. The biggest catch of all would have been Or Carlo Mallia, a former Nitionalist minister who like some other Nationalists suffered at British hands in the mid-1930s; he went to Italy and became a confirmed Fascist official, who pressured the Maltese in Italy to hand in their British passports in return for a monthly allowance and, more importantly, being saved from the POW 'concentration' camps. However, Mallia escaped the net -he stayed in Italy and was never tried. Practically all those who were Italian scholarship holders in universities would automatically have been regarded as members of the GUF [Gioventu' Universitaria Fascista] while those Maltese who had traded in their passports rather than go to jail out ofloyalty to the Btitish king, <,;nded up members of the CAM [Comitato d;Azione Maltese], led by a Foreign Ministry offIcial, Prof. Umberto Biscottini, aided however by Or Mallia and some others. Some Maltese, like Or Carlo Liberto and Or Camillo Bonanno, had taken Italian citizenship before the war, so they were free to serve the regime as they liked, and as they did, but they could not be arrested for it. A few
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