Order of MALTA. Manuscrit, Mémoire, [circa 1750]; notebook of 20pages in-fol. "The Order of Malta has learned with the greatest consternation of the orders given for the levy of the twentieth on its Commanderies. It has always been exempt in this Kingdom, as in all other Christian states, from any contribution to any charge or imposition whatsoever; this exemption, as old as the Order itself, has been confirmed from reign to reign"... The memorandum recalls the letters patent of 1716 and calls for a general exemption from all taxation for the Order, to enable it to continue its missions: "it has taken on the defence of Malta, which has become in its hands the azile of commerce for the Mediterranean, the Boulevart of Christianity and the boundary of the Empire and the sect of Mohammed [......] Thus the Order's dearest object in the captures it makes from the Turks, is to free the Christians who are in irons, and to save them from a slavery in which they would most likely have perished, and perhaps their religion would have succumbed"... The memoir goes on to speak of the hospital "where every Christian is received with a charity and generosity that is without example elsewhere", the upkeep of the fortifications, the dedication of the knights "for the defense of the Faith, for the security and advantage of all Christian Princes", Malta's role as a bulwark against the Barbary pirates, etc....