Coleridge and the Rule of Law on Malta: ‘state-craft’ and the ‘depository of the supreme power

The venerable Public Secretary and Treasurer of Malta, Mr Macaulay, died suddenly during a thunderstorm in January 1805. Sir Alexander Ball, the Civil Commissioner, approached Coleridge to act as Public Secretary pro tempore. The British government had already nominated a Mr Chapman, to become Macaulay‟s successor; but this hapless official was at the time absent from Malta purchasing grain in sufficient quantities to feed the Island for a year. Chapman could not be recalled from the Black Sea region until this strategically important mission had been completed.