The first part consists of an essay written by Barry Hough and Dr Howard Davis discussing the nature of the legal authority exercised in Malta by British officials prior to 1813, the date of the first appointment of a British official with the title of 'governor'. The second, and majority, part of the book consists of an edited reprint of the acclaimed work by Hilda I. Lee, Malta 1813-1914: A Study in Constitutional and Strategic Development, published in 1973. Here, the many typographical errors originally found in Lee's book have been corrected and the text conformed. This is the first time Lee's book has appeared in print in over 30 years. This book is the first volume in the Whitelocke Series of Commonwealth Constitutions.