ose all
enlightenment of the masses." This is not anything new, as it is their
known and admitted policy everywhere; but in the multitude of witnesses
we arrive at the truth.

The school system of Valletta was reorganized a few years ago, but it is
still far behind the general progressive ideas of our times. Education
is not compulsory here.

The popular entertainments of a people form a good criterion for
judgment as to their general character. The amusement which seems to be
most generally resorted to in Malta is that of parading through the
streets in a special garb, while displaying various banners in
celebration of certain church festivals. As in the ritual of the Roman
Catholic Church there are some two hundred such days in the year marked
for similar displays, the festivities of this sort appear to be chronic,
and absolutely pall upon one. The natives are inclined also to make
these occasions an excuse for undue indulgences, and carelessness of
conduct generally. The Carnival is also made much of by the common
people, and indeed it would seem that all classes participate. It begins
on the Sunday preceding Lent and lasts three days, during which period
the populace engage, to the exclusion of nearly all other occupations,
in a sort of good-natured riot, not always harmless. The most ludicrous
and extravagant conduct prevails, the actors being generally masked and
otherwise disguised. Hardly anything that occurs and which is designed
only for diversion, and not instigated by malice, is too absurd for
forgiveness. Ladies are ready to engage in a battle royal from their
balconies, using confetti, dried peas, beans, and flowers, which they
merrily shower upon the passers-by with all possible force. Sometimes,
but this is not often, unpleasant missiles are employed and serious
quarrels ensue. The day after the close of the Carnival, those who have
taken any extravagant part in the revels, or who have been over
self-indulgent, repair to the small church of Casal Zabbar, called Della
Grazia, where they humble themselves by way of penance for their follies
and excesses. It must be admitted that under shelter of the large
liberty which the occasion of the Carnival renders possible, many
otherwise quite inadmissible acts are perpetrated, and that as a whole
this peculiar celebration is terribly demoralizing to all classes of the
community.

A story of a tragic character is told, having a sad local interest, and
which wa