Minister in Rome
Giuseppe Elia, the son of Francesco Pace and Paolina née Debono was born in Valletta. Giuseppe became a lawyer and in 1780 started his legal practice in the Maltese Law Courts. The last time Giuseppe Elia Pace appeared in court was on 6 August 1785, in an appeal filed against Giuseppe Dingli.
Eleven days later, Pace together with Gaetano Schembri were arrested on order of the Grand Master, because he expressed himself against the Order. On 5 September Schembri was set free but two days later, Pace was condemned to row on the galleys. On 8 September 1785 he was exiled from Malta after he had been declared ‘infamous’ and his name struck off the lawyers’ registers.
When he was exiled, Pace first went to Naples, where he befriended some Jacobins who later accompanied him to Rome. Four years later he succeeded to return to Malta on the recommendation of Queen Carolina of Naples. After less than three years, the Grand Master again exiled Pace, who this time headed for Rome. Here he joined a relative of his who was living there – Alberto Pace, son of Giovanni Battista, also born in Malta.
In order to discover the real reason for Pace’s exile one has to look through the correspondence between Michele Benedetto Grimaldi, Naples’s ambassador in Malta, and Lord John Acton, Prime Minister of Naples. Grimaldi used to keep Acton regularly informed of the events developing in Malta during that critical period.
On 11 October 1792, Grimaldi asserted that Grand Master Emmanuel De Rohan was very sensitive about those who could not restrain themselves from expressing republican ideas and spoke publicly against the government of the Order. It seems that Giuseppe Elia Pace had expressed his ideals and he was considered a suspect and a threat to peace and tranquility, ‘which were so much needed in this island’, wrote Grimaldi. In fact, in this same letter, the ambassador gives a list of six people who were exiled and the first one was Pace.
It was during this second exile and his stay in Rome, that Pace met Mikiel Anton Vassalli* and welcomed him at his house in Palazzo Spinelli, in Piazza Venezia. It is known that Pace was in a ‘good’ financial position. His relative Alberto was also financially in good position. So both of them could offer some financial help to Vassalli’s literary projects.
While Vassalli was very active in an academic career of teaching, research and preparing the publication of his Mylsen and Lexicon, for which he was in dire need of money, Pace who was living in exile was dreaming of higher political achievements. During these years Vassalli was engaged in some commercial activities in cotton yarn and imported sugar to sustain himself and his publications.
On 10 February 1798, the French arrived at the gates of Rome, led by General Louis-Alexander Berthier. On that day Pace led two other Jacobin friends, one of them from Naples, and erected the Pole of Liberty in three major squares of Rome; but Pace glorified himself by planting one on the Campidoglio. This immediately made Pace a public figure, and he was called a ‘Maltese’ from the very start.
As soon as the French took over Rome and proclaimed the republic on 15 February, Pace’s name was mentioned in contemporary newspapers. When the Republican Constitution was then promulgated five weeks later, Pace was appointed one of the judges of the republic. After serving about nine months as a judge, on 15 November 1798, Pace was appointed Minister of the Interior in a cabinet of four. The ministry was considered highly important, and his portfolio included national security, health, education and heritage, agriculture and food provision, and above all, the republic’s relationship with the Church authority.
Pace had a very difficult task but evidence showed that he did his best from day one to see that he complied with advancement of the republic, and his honesty was admired by one and all. As Minister for the Interior he also had to face the lack of provisions in the city, and in fact he personally visited the public bakeries to see that everything was in order and prices were affordable for ordinary people.
On 12 January 1799 Pace resigned from his post as minister and was appointed on the same day as administrator of the Luoghi dei Monti. This was a task ‘which was coveted by many others’, but it was only Pace who, at that moment, merited such a post.
Giuseppe Elia Pace by now was 52 years. As financial administrator of this important region of the republic, he was responsible for the administration of the loans made to the government and to check whether the loans were honoured.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand IV was preparing to take Rome again. He sought the support of Austria, and in mid-September 1799 attacked Rome. The French could do nothing in the face of such a powerful army, so they all fled to Marseilles or Corsica. Pace joined them. In Marseilles they met several of their counterparts who had fled from the Cisalpine Republic.
Pace’s whereabouts after his stay in Paris are not known. What is known is that Pace came to Malta and lived close to his relatives in the vicinity of St Paul’s church and the Porto Salvo parish in Valletta. We also know that Pace married a lady named Rosaria and he died on 18 November 1720 and was buried in the Porto Salvo Parish in Valletta.
In 2014 Carmelo Bonavia* published a biography entitled: L-Avukat Giuseppe Elia Pace 1742-1820, Ħabib ta’ M.A. Vassalli f’Ruma. The author says that this biography was inspired not mainly by what Pace achieved in his political career, as a judge and minister in the Roman Republic (1798-1799), but mostly by his friendship with Mikiel Anton Vassalli.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.