§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether any order, emanating from any authority at home or at Malta, is in existence, requiring the Troops of the Garrison to salute the Host; or whether there is any such order to salute the Archbishop of Malta, or any other Roman Catholic dignitary, by the operation of which such salute is rendered to him while carrying or accompanying the Host in public procession?
§ SIR EDWARD BULWER-LYTTONSir, in answer to the first part of my hon. Friend's question, I have to say that there is no such order as that to which he alludes emanating from any authority at home. I believe that there are old garrison orders at Malta by which the Host was to be saluted, but all such orders are superseded by a Circular of Lord Hill, dated 26th June, 1837, and addressed to all general officers in command of stations at Roman Catholic dependencies or colonies. That Circular restricts the practice which had hitherto prevailed as to military honours paid to Roman Catholic ceremonials. It forbids the troops to take any part in religions processions or ceremonials, hut sentries are to salute the procession as it passes their posts, and all guards and other bodies of troops that happen to be under arms in the direct line of the procession are to salute it as it passes them; but are not to remain under arms for the procession after it has passed them, nor to await its return. Nothing in that Circular refers to saluting the Host, and it is quite clear that such military salute was 331 not intended to be a recognition of any Roman Catholic tenet or symbol, but was only an evidence of that protection and respect which, in Malta at least, by the terms of the capitulation, the Sovereign promised to observe towards the religious sentiments and the religious establishment of the community. I am at this time in correspondence with the Governor of Malta to ascertain clearly whether there is any misconception as to the relative effect of the old garrison orders and Lord Hill's Circular which superseded them. I do not speak with any great certainty on the matter in question, but I was informed the other day by a Roman Catholic friend of mine, a prelate of great eminence, attached to the Church at Malta, that in point of practice and custom, he himself has constantly passed by troops, carrying or accompanying the Host, and neither himself nor the Host has been saluted. With regard to the second part of the question, there certainly is no order to salute any other Roman Catholic ecclesiastical dignitary at Malta, except the Roman Catholic Archbishop. That salute is rendered not so much on account of his ecclesiastical character as of the peculiar rank which he holds in the island. In the time of the knights he was Commander of the Order of St. John. He was the first dignitary of that order, and as such, had precedence in rank after the Grand Master or Sovereign Prince, and now he is only second in rank to the representative of the British Sovereign. The military compliment has been paid to him ever since the capitulation of 1800, and was, in fact, agreed to at the time of the capitulation. That the House may see how little the salute has to do with his ecclsiastical character, the order runs that he is to have the same honours as are given to a brigader-general. In point of fact, I am told it is only on a few occasions—once a-year or so—that the Archbishop does accompany the Host, and it is not because he is carrying the Host that he is saluted, but solely because he is entitled, as the highest dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church in the Island, to the honour, wherever he appears.