GANADO CARITAURES BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

"Malta of gold, Malta of silver, Malta of precious metal" (1)

Dr Albert Ganado and Dr Joseph C. Sammut / MALTA IN BRITISH AND FRENCH CARICATURE 1798-1815 / With Historical Notes / Said International / Valletta / 1989 / ix + 164 pp.

This scholarly work, published with the support of the Central Bank of Malta, guides the reader through a detailed and rigorous study of seventeen years of European history, politics and diplomacy, from 1798, when Malta, 'the Cape of Good Hope of the Mediterranean' (2) was occupied by the French, (3) to 1815, when the island's annexation to the British Crown was officially ratified. (4)

Albert Ganado and Joseph C. Sammut, both keen collectors of Melitensia and who have long been interested in the history of Maltese graphic art, have produced a book which marks a milestone in the study of British, French and Maltese heritage. One is immediately struck by the richness of the sixty-one caricatures and twenty illustrations, the wonderful material unearthed by the two authors, provided with detailed notes to help the reader to appreciate and understand the historical setting.

The book opens with a foreword by Victor Mallia-Milanes, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of London, and lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Malta, who writes that:

... this work is a stimulating piece of teamwork whose approach, handled with steady, professional competence, is one of the very few successful attempts at freeing the history of Malta from its traditional shackles of sterile isolationism. In this book, Malta lies firmly integrated with the wider complex of European politics and diplomacy, and gains, in consequence, a far greater significance.(5)

The introduction deals mainly with the object of the book and describes the 'art of caricature' in Malta, Britain and France within a historical framework:

As lovers and collectors of things Maltese, the authors could not help becoming enthralled by the Malta thread woven into British and French caricatures of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. [...] As the title of the book suggests, the authors have listed, described and illustrated all the known caricatures in any way related to Malta published in Britain and France between 1798, when Malta fell to Napoleon and 1815 when he was sent to another island in exile.(6)

The next section is an introductory page on 'The French Capture of Malta':

The invasion and capture of the island was thus described in the following epigram published in Issue No 3 of Le Courrier de l'Egypte, August 1798:

Malte jusqu'ici pucelle

Ne trouvoit point de vainqueur

BUONAPARTE voit la fleur,

Se présent devant elle;

Au héros sitôt la belle

Rend les armes et son coeur.

Cent fois gloire à sa valeur!

De flêchir une cruelle

Aux Français est dû l'honneur.(7)

The final part of the book is devoted to the caricatures and the authors' annotations which accompany them. As it is impossible for me to list all the caricatures, I have chosen the following four descriptions to give the reader an idea of what this section actually contains:

1. Désespoir des anglais - A la nouvelle de la prise de lisle de Malthe par les Français le 24 Prairal An 6e [12 June 1798]:

According to Pierre-Jean-Louis-Ovide Doublet, who in 1798 was head of the Secrétariat of the Order [of St John], the mere mention of the armée française struck terror in the heart of the simple country people of Malta who had been led to believe by their pastors that French soldiers were 'ferocious beasts'. They used to say: 'If they were Turks we would fear them; but we have been told repeatedly that the French are devils and therefore we cannot but be afraid of them.'(

2. Destruction of the French Colossus, November 1st, 1798, by James Gillray:

James Gillray's first engraving in which reference is made to Malta and one of the numerous prints published in England to commemorate the crippling defeat sustained by the French at the Battle of the Nile ... James Gillray 1756-185, the 'Prince of Caricaturists', produced over a thousand highly popular caricatures many of which portrayed the anti-Gallic feeling during the reign of George III.(9)

3. Buonaparte's Dance of Death! November 1799:

A series of six satirical panels illustrating Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign, from the capture of Malta to his return to France. The first vignette is entitled: Stabb'd at Malta! Bonaparte, held by a grinning skeleton, is shown being stabbed by a Russian soldier. [second vignette] Drown'd at Alexandria!; [third vignette] Strangled at Cairo!; [fourth vignette] Shot by a Tripoline Gentleman!; [fifth vignette] Devoured by Wild Beasts in the Desert!; [sixth vignette] Alive in Paris!. (10)

31. The Bone of Contention or the English Bull Dog and the Corsicn(11) Monkey. [Charles Williams], June 14th 1803.

In this caricature Charles Williams depicts Napoleon as a monkey and John Bull a bulldog both standing on a large Plan for Invading England on which markings show flotillas of invasion barges covering the Channel and the North Sea. A large bone in the dog's mouth is inscribed MALTA. The monkey threatens the dog saying: Ey you Bull Dog, vat you carry off dat Bone for, I vas come to take dat myself, I vas good mind to lick you, but for dem Dam Tooth. The dog in canine fashion and says: There Monkey, that for you.(12)

Mention must be made here of the impressive bibliography of 'Published Works referred to in the Text' and of 'Other Works consulted' and for easier consultation there is a very accurate index of 397 'Names of persons, places, battles, and treaties' quoted in the book.

Credit must also be given to the Central Bank of Malta and Said International for undertaking the publication of this comprehensive study which is beautifully presented and very neatly printed.

I would warmly recommend the book to scholars, students and the general public who wish to learn more about Maltese and European history and 'the patriotic sentiment then prevailing in both England and France', (13) through the pictorial propaganda of those bygone years.

Michael A. Riccioli

Footnotes

(1)

'Malta of gold, Malta of silver, Malta of precious metal,

We shall never take you!

No, not even if you were as soft as a gourd,

Not even if you were only protected by an onion skin!

And from her ramparts a voice replied:

I am she who has decimated the galleys of the Turks and all the warriors of Constantinople and Galata!'

A sixteenth century Cypriot ballad, quoted in Eric Gerada-Azzopardi, Malta Revisited: An Appointment with History (Progress Press Publications, Valletta, 1984), p. 167.

(2) Albert Ganado, Joesph C. Sammut, Malta in British and French Caricature, p. 11

(3) 'Early in 1798 France abandoned the idea of invading England because of the latter's naval supremacy. As an alternative, the Directory approved Bonaparte's scheme to strike at England's eastern trade by seizing Malta and occupying Egypt to open for France a safe highway to India.'

Ibid., p.13

(4) 'Under the First Treaty of Paris, which became known as the First Peace of Paris, France renounced all her claims over Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Malta. It was agreed between all signatories, namely, France, Austria, Russia, Prussia and Great Britain, that the island of Malta and its dependencies should belong in full right and sovereignty to his Britannic Majesty. [...] Yet, the actual British sovereignty of the island did not derive from these documents, or from the French Republic, but from the sole will of the Maltese who freely elected for themselves the Government of Great Britain. The Treaty of Paris and the Congress of Vienna merely confirmed the choice previously made by the Maltese themselves.'

Ibid., p. 152

(5) Ibid., p. ix.

See Victor Mallia-Milanes (ed.), The British Colonial Experience 1800-1964: The Impact on Maltese Society (Minerva Academic Publications Enterprises, Malta, 1988). His other publications include An Uneasy Partnership &emdash; Malta 1530-1565, with Louis J. Scerri (No 1 Study Guides to Maltese History, Midsea, Malta, 1985), Louis XIV and France (Macmillan, London, 1987), Descrittione di Malta, Anno 1716: A Venetian Account (Bugelli Publications, Malta, 1988) and Venice and Hospitaller Malta: 1530-1798 (P.E.G., Malta, 1992).

(6) Albert Ganado, Joesph C. Sammut, Op. Cit., pp. 1&4.

George, M. Dorothy. English Political Caricature to 1792. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1959, p. 1.

(7) Ibid., p. 11.

(

Ibid., p. 13.

(9) Ibid., p. 23 (footnote).

(10) Ibid., pp. 32-33.

(11) There is 'a variant in which the word Corsicn was corrected to read Corsican',

Ibid., p. 109 (footnote).

(12) Ibid., p. 107.

(13) Ibid., p. 2.

Other publications by Dr. Albert Ganado include:

- Through the Artists' Eyes: Views of Malta and Gozo before 1900.

- The Officina Della Posta and its Functionaries

- The Growth of the Malta General Post Office 1802-1886. Reprinted from THE PSM MAGAZINE (Vol. 15, No. 3- December 1986) Malta.

- Malta Maps of the 17th and 18th Centuries, Malta 1989

- "Antique Maps and Pictorial Illustrations of Fort St Angelo and Birgu [now Vittoriosa]". Lino Bugeja, Mario Buhagiar, Stanley Fiorini (editors): BIRGU, A Maltese maritime City. Two vols., 869 pp., 319 coloured illustrations, 38 figures: Malta University Services Ltd. for the Central Bank of Malta, Gutenberg Press Ltd.

- A Study in depth of 143 Maps representing the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, Publishers Enterprises Group (PEG) Ltd-Bank of Valletta, 1994, Volume I (502 pages), Volume II (368 pages) (with Maurice Agius-Vadalà).

Dr Albert Ganado B.A., LL.D. (University of Malta) is a lawyer by profession

Other publications by Dr Joseph C. Sammut include:

- The Order's Coinage in Malta (1970), published by the Organizing Committee of the XIIIth Council of Europe Art Exhibition

- Currency in Malta (1986-88)

- Bank and Currency Notes in Malta (1987)

- The Coinage of the Knights in Malta (1977) (with Count Felice Restelli della Fratta)

I would like to thank Professor Christophe Campos, Director of The British Institute in Paris (London University) and General Editor of Franco-British Studies for allowing me to put up my review article on this Malta site.

Publisher: Said International / Valletta-Malta