remained always equidistant, never to coincide, as the parallel lines Mr Jolter, Peregrine Pickle's governor, alluded to when expanding on youth and discretion.

Here we return, for its substantiation, to the charge, not primarily ours by the way, preferred against the Christians, especially the Maronites, who seemed to think that with the French occupation their hour for revenge and supremacy, i. e. absolute license, had struck. "The childish insolence of the Christians is becoming every day more rampant and their priesthood openly avow their desire to throw off all allegiance to the Porte," writes Lord Dufferin to Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, transmitting a translation of a petition addressed to the European commissioners by the heads of the Christian sects in Damascus, who, "in addition to the demand for vengeance and compensation" [express a vehement desire]. . . . . . ."that the Province should be permanently occupied by an European force." However well taken care of in Damascus after the deposition of Aḥmad Pasha, the Christians in that city, wishing to migrate to Bayrūt, created artificial panics in which a prominent place was given to crosses chalked on their doors, by Moslemin they pretended, to mark the houses first to be attacked at the next massacre. The authors of those pictorial forewarnings could not be discovered, though the Christians were generally suspected of tracing the quasi-ominous signs themselves, until one of them was caught in the act. The story which our author tells of attempts by Moslemin to poison Christians, sounds also very fishy. It was rather from themselves that they needed protection than from Muhammadans, Druzes and Jews, whom they tried to intimidate, overestimating their power since a European army had landed to confound their enemies. The new military commander of Damascus, Khalid Pasha, had the mob well in hand and no officer understood his duty better than he.s The same could not be said of

From Damascus, December 4, 1860.

7 Letter of March 24, 1861, from Lord Dufferin to Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer. Fu'ād Pasha had already written from Damascus, October 10, 1860, to his secretary, Abro Effendy, a Christian: "Un bon nombre de Chrétiens que j'ai questionnés m'ont avoué que les signes de croix que l'on avait fait sur les maisons de Chrétiens, au lieu de provenir des Musulmans, sont plutôt l'oeuvre de quelques uns des leurs qui désirent partir pour Beyrout ou qui voudraient y retenir leurs proches et leurs amis, et qui font des machinations pour répandre la terreur parmi leurs co-réligionnaires et les entraîner à l'émigration." 8 The opinion of Colonel Gessler, a Prussian instructor in the Turkish army, quoted by Mr J. Brant, British consul at Damascus, in a letter, dated October 8, 1860, to Lord

Ibrahim Bey Karamy, a Christian official, left at Damascus by the Turkish commissioner "to superintend the affairs of the Christians, but who pretend[ed] to be his Excellency's representative, [was] most infamous and should [have been] immediately removed," as he was the moment Fu'ad Pasha heard of his malpractices.

Things like these brought about a reversion of feeling. The massacres, after first shocking the susceptibilities of Europe, began to appear a little more in their proper light, at least to the discerning few. "There has been a suspicion all along that European policy was not quite a stranger to those transactions," said the London Times 10-a European policy, namely, apt to inflame religious fury and applauded by unthinking prejudice which clamored for what it called justice, aiming at blind, indiscriminate retribution on Druzes and Turks. At one of the meetings of the International Commission" some recommendations were made to Fu'ad Pasha in compliance with which "his Excellency summoned the Bishops of the various sects and, having communicated to them at large the view of the Commission, requested them to consult with the leading men of the several communities and present him with the names of those who might be considered to deserve Russell. Consul Brant adds: "Only half the troops pass the night in bed, the other half patrolling from sunset to sunrise. The guards are supplied with ball-cartridges and are ordered, on the least symptom of rising, to fire on the mob. The Artillery are always in readiness for action.....

9 Cf the letter from Consul Brant to Lord Russell quoted in the preceding note: "[Ibrāhīm Bey Karamy] will not be controlled by the Vali Pasha and liberates prisoners on his own responsibility. He is known to receive money as bribes to a large extent and without a bribe justice cannot be obtained. In the matter of the recruiting he issued 300 tickets of exemption at 20.000 piastres (or about 165 £) per head. Out of this number only about 80 or 90 are paid into the Treasury; the holders of the remaining tickets paying smaller sums, which are supposed to have gone into Ibrahim Bey's pocket. The Jewish Rabbis have applied to me in respect to some Jews arrested on suspicion and who have been detained in prison for nearly two months; one having already died there. The Rabbis demand that they should be brought to trial and the Chief Rabbi offered to Ibrahim Karami his testimony that one of the prisoners was, all the time of the outbreak, in his house; to which Ibrahim Bey replied, 'Your testimony is valueless as they will all be condemned to death'." Lord Dufferin wrote of this individual to Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer in a letter, dated Bayrut, November 1, 1860, that he "had abused his [Fu'ad Pasha's] trust in the most flagitious manner. He gave himself out as Fuad Pasha's Vicegerent; he frightened the Governor of the town into obedience; he extorted large sums of money from Christians and Mahometans; and practised in the vilest manner on the women who came to him as suppliants."

10 Issue of September 18, 1860.

"The tenth, held on November 14, 1860.

capital punishment. The result of this invitation was a list of 4.600 persons, 12 whom these ecclesiastics wished, in cold blood, to consign. to death. It is indeed pretended that they were upon this occasion the mere mouth-pieces of the Christian notables; but any one acquainted with the influence exercised by the prelates of the sects in this country must smile at the introduction of such a flimsy pretext."13 Fuad Pasha having rejected this list as utterly unreasonable, the Christians, headed by their clergy, were with the greatest difficulty prevailed upon to be more moderate in their demands and after a good deal of haggling presented a second list of "some 2000 individuals including nearly all the principal persons among the Druzes."'14 Continued haggling reduced the number to 1200, the Christians refusing all the time to enter into particulars regarding the crimes imputed to the accused and to give evidence in support of their accusations, simply insisting on a general slaughter because they considered that all were guilty and deserved death."

12 I. e. more than half "of the total number of 8000 grown-up men who constitute[d] the Druse population of the Lebanon [after the Druze exodus to Ḥauran in consequence of European interference]." Inclosure 9 in Nr 229 of the Correspondence relating to the Affairs of Syria, 1860-61. Cf the despatch, dated Foreign Office, January 16, 1861, from Lord Russell to Mr J. H. C. Fane, secretary of the British Legation at Vienna: "Again when the punishment of the Druses was in question, the Christian sects, through their Bishops, demanded that out of 8000 adult Druses, 4600 heads should be given to them to satiate their vengeance; so little has the doctrine of forgiveness of injuries been imbibed by those Maronite bishops and their flocks. In fact, though nominally Christians, they are in reality a fierce and barbarous race. They seek the extermination of a hostile tribe, See also the letter of March 23, 1861, from Lord Dufferin to Lord Russell: "According to the statistics which have been furnished to the Commission by the French and Austrian Consulates, but which the Austrian Consul and Commissioner tells me are not very accurate, it would appear that in Mount Lebanon Proper, there are no more than 5000 taxable Druses, i. e. males above the age of 15. On referring to the documents appealed to by the Bishops themselves, it would appear that out of this adult male population of 5000, the names of no less than 3.479 persons or about two-thirds of the adult population, have found their way into the lists of the Christians." The result of a careful analysis of the lists furnished to Fu'ad Pasha, which had been repeated twice over, says this same letter, "shows that the total of names sent in was not 4600 but 4946. Out of these 4946 persons, stated by the Bishops to represent a mingled array of Moslems, Metawali and Druses of the Lebanon and the Hauran, it appears that only 632 are Moslems or Metawali, and that only four are inhabitants of the Hauran; the remaining 4310 persons being Druses of the Lebanon."

13 Letter of January 23, 1861, from Lord Dufferin to Major Fraser.

14 Letter of January 10, 1861, from Major Fraser to Lord Dufferin, which seems to have reached its destination after the one mentioned in the preceding note had been despatched. 15 Cf the further contents of the letter of January 10, 1861, from Major Fraser to Lord Dufferin, confirmed in a letter of January 14 from the same to the same: "After many

Meanwhile they were misbehaving everywhere.

To quote from the London Times of October 2, 1860: "Each [Christian] interprets the punishment of the Moslems as the beginning of Christian ascendancy;. it appears that not only do the Christians, by order of Fuad Pasha, occupy a great number of Moslem houses in Damascus, but throughout Northern Syria they are venturing to satisfy old grudges by the plunder of their late persecutors." This was perfectly true. Major Fraser wrote from Mukhtāra to Lord Dufferin: "The Druzes further state, in bar of heavy punishment, that their loss of life has been very severe, amounting to upwards of 1000 killed, besides very many wounded, not only during the continuance of hostilities but also since, by Christians, who have utterly pillaged their villages and murdered, in cold blood, such inhabitants as they could lay their hands upon."'16 Maronites followed the line of march of the French troops "and when they lit upon a helpless Druse old man or woman alone, murdered them without mercy. A special correspondence of the London Times, 18 dated from the French camp at Bārūk, says: "Yet advantage is taken [by the Christians] of French troops passing through Druze and mixed villages to plunder and murder and even do worse." A Druze petition19 stated that the Christians were making the roads insecure; that since the French had gone into the mountains, the Christians who accompanied them slew upwards of one hundred Druzes openly before their eyes, 20 not to mention the horrors perpetrated out of sight and the wanton destruction of property. It

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vague replies [the Christians] always returned to the same that they could not give the evidence required, nor point out any individual more guilty than their [his?] neighbours, referring to the long lists formerly sent in as the only aid they could give. The Mufti then requested them to make that statement in writing; this they declined to do. He asked them to allow their reply to be written in Court and to affix their signatures; they refused this also. They were willing to speak it, but not to write it or to allow it to be written."

16 Nr 258 of the Correspondence relating to the Affairs of Syria, 1860–61.

17 Letter of January 16, 1861, from Lord Russell to Mr Fane.

18 Issue of October 19, 1860.

19 See the London Times of November 17, 1860.

20 Particulars concerning the atrocities committed by Christians who accompanied the French column on its march to Dayr al-Qamar and farther to the Buqa'a, can be found in a letter, dated October 7, 1860, from Lord Dufferin to Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, Nr 160 (Inclosure 3) of the Correspondence relating to the Affairs of Syria, 1860-61.

was hardly an excuse that the French soldiers, cradled with their historic song, Partant pour la Syrie, were no angels either.21

"It is clear, indeed, that the French forces at present in Syria rather increase than allay irritation," wrote Lord Russell to Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer.22 Though British irritation at the reluctantly sanctioned French expedition was behind these words, they hardly exaggerated the situation. Fu'ad Pasha very adroitly turned this feature of the French occupation to his account when thwarting General Beaufort d'Hautpoul's ultimate design. The French column under that gallant commander with Bayrut and a Turkish column under Farik Isma'il Pasha23 with Sidon as base of operations, were to co-operate in rounding up the Druzes. When the French column reached the confines of the Lebanon, Fu'ad Pasha, in an interview with General de Beaufort at Sughbin, objected very strongly to its farther advance "which, he maintained, would render the pacification of the country next to impossible, while the crimes committed by the Christians [in its wakej would create blood-feuds that would embarass the Government for years to come."24 This brought the operations of the French column to a standstill in the Plain of the Buqā'a25 and finally it had to turn back. Its commander-in-chief, rather sore at the polite request not to overstep the limits set by the Convention of August 3, 1860, intimated that Fu'ād Pasha's real motive was to give the guilty Druzes an opportunity for escape to Ḥauran. Defending himself, the Turkish commissioner slyly hinted at secret plans the French sought to pronote by their expedition in the interest of humanity: "Si j'ai rendu

21 Especially, it seems, the Zouaves who, says a special correspondent of the London Times, writing from the French camp on the Liṭāny, near Jib Janin, September 20, 1860, were nicknamed "jackals from their unerring scent for plunder."

22 Despatch of January 1, 1861.

23 General Kmety, a Hungarian by birth, who, after entering the Turkish service, had distinguished himself as one of the defenders of Kars. He held a command under Halim Pasha in the army sent to support Fu'ad Pasha's mission to Syria on the military side and, though known for his pro-Christian proclivities, was received, says a special correspondent of the London Times, issue of October 19, 1860, in the Druze villages he passed through with his Turkish troops, with expressions of good will and perfect submission to the Porte, whereas in those traversed by the French, the Druzes had fled and the chances of tranquilising the country were rendered all the more remote.

24 See the special correspondence from the French camp on the Litany, dated September 20, in the London Times of October 20, 1860.

25 See the special correspondence, dated Tannin, October 7, in the London Times of November 1, 1860.