Malta is undergoing a paroxysm of &Ionia' Office attention. Happy
the Colonies forgotten for when they are remembered, it is only to be wronged, especially when they are little. The Bri- tish Government has failed to provide a metallic currency for Malta ; which has borrowed some of the laxly-valued coins of the Levant, particularly the Spanish and Sicilian dollar. The Colo- nial Office, performing the behests of some Treasury martinet, will not abide the indifferent coin in British dominions, and straight declares, first, that the Spanish dollar is worth but 4s. 2d., and then, a few, months after, the Sicilian dollar worth only 4s.; thus, with a stroke of the pen, docking about 2d. off every dollar in possession of the inhabitants. Why meddle at all? Perhaps you cannot provide Malta with a metallic currency ? Indeed, it would be difficult ; because Malta, a mere speck of land—an en- trepet for the Levant, can scarcely have an independent coinage : its currency must ebb and flow with every change of wind : if it have a superior currency to that of its neighbours, the coin will only run away: that currency is beyond the controltif any Tree- Bury- ations which cannot embrace all the nations washed
by the editerritnean. Why then impose a tax upon Malts,,to pay for the silly experimmit of making water stay at the top of s hill?
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