London: Printed For The Author, ... 1804. (Entered at Stationers-Hall.)
(8º. xx. + 511 _pp._) [I. S.]
¹ The pagination is consecutive, but Part II. is dated 1803.
XLVI.
“OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BICHENO’S BOOK,” BY THOMAS WITHERBY
Dedicated to the Jews.
Observations on Mr. Bicheno’s Book, Entitled The Restoration Of The
Jews The Crisis Of All Nations:
Wherein the revolutionary Tendency of that Publication is shewn to
be most inimical to the real Interest of the Jews, who are not to
expect the Restoration to their own Land until they are, by the free
Grace of the God of their Fathers, enabled to acknowledge his Justice,
Righteousness, and Mercy, in their long-continued Dispersion, and in
the Preservation of their Nation amidst those awful Sufferings which
they have endured under his righteous Judgments.
Together With An Inquiry Concerning Things To Come;...
London: Printed For The Author ...
(8º. xx. + 323 _pp._) [I. S.]
Page iii.: (Dedicated) “To The Jews. Distinguished Nation.... Thomas
Witherby. Enfield, _Middlesex_, Aug. 22, 1800.”¹
¹ _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1801, vol. lxxi., _pp._ 830‒836.
XLVII.
“LETTERS TO THE JEWS,” BY JOSEPH PRIESTLEY
Letters To The Jews; Inviting Them To An Amicable Discussion Of The
Evidences Of Christianity.
By Joseph Priestley, LL.D., F.R.S....
Birmingham, ... MDCCLXXXVII. [Price One Shilling.]
(8º. 2 _ll._ + 54 _pp._ + 1 _l._ (Catalogue.) [I. S.]
Letters To The Jews. Part II. Occasioned By Mr. David Levi’s Reply To
The Former Letters.
By Joseph Priestley, LL.D. F.R.S.... Birmingham, ... MDCCLXXXVII.
[Price One Shilling.]
(8º. iv. + 56 _pp._) [I. S.]
_Page_ 56: “Your brother in the sole worship Of the one only true God,
Joseph Priestley. Birmingham, _July_ 1, 1787.”
XLVIII.
“AN ADDRESS TO THE JEWS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE WORLD,”
BY JOSEPH PRIESTLEY
A Comparison Of The Institutions of Moses With Those Of The Hindoos And
Other Ancient Nations;
With Remarks on Mr. Dupuis’s Origin of all Religions,
The Laws and Institutions of Moses Methodized,
And An Address to the Jews on the present state of the World and the
Prophecies relating to it.
By Joseph Priestley, LL.D. F.R.S. &c....
Northumberland:¹ ... MDCCXCIX.
(8º. xxvii. + 428 _pp._ + 2 _ll._ (catalogue).) [B. M.]
_pp._ 393‒428: “An Address To The Jews.”
¹ Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
XLIX.
“LETTERS TO DR. PRIESTLEY,” BY DAVID LEVI
Letters To Dr. Priestly, In Answer To Those He Addressed To The
Jews; Inviting Them To An Amicable Discussion Of The Evidences Of
Christianity.
By David Levi, ... London, ... MDCCLXXXVII.
(8º. 2 _ll._ + 99 _pp._) [I. S.]
Second Edition MDCCLXXXVII. (103 _pp._) [I. S.]
Third Edition, M,DCC,XCIII. (2 _ll._ + 99 _pp._) [I. S.]
L.
“A FAMOUS PASSOVER MELODY,” BY THE REV. F. L. COHEN
“... Isaac Nathan, a fashionable singing master of London ... conceived
the idea of imitating the ‘Irish Melodies’ of Thomas Moore (batches
of which had been published since 1807, with the greatest success)....
Less fortunate than Moore, Byron’s verses were not wedded to melodies
of the national type they professed, because even before Nathan had
thus exhausted his choice, he had made a most superficial search
through the repertory of the Anglo-Jewish synagogues of his day, which,
by the way, had not yet experienced the inspiringly melodious influence
of ‘Polish’ _Chazanuth_.... The opening poem, ‘She walks in beauty,’
for example, he set to a tawdry _Lecha Dodi_.... But among the six
actually ‘Hebrew’ melodies, there were one or two exceptions to the
general inferiority of the music; and prominent among these was the
tender and expressive air to which, by a happy inspiration, Nathan set
the verses:――
‘O weep for those that wept by Babel’s stream.’
Here, at least,
‘Music and sweet poetry agreed,
As well they should, the sister and the brother’;
and the result became world famous as a type of what Hebrew melody
might be. It has often been republished; and has also appeared in other
settings, as by the Rev. M. Hast to Ibn Gabirol’s hymn:――
‘At morn I beseech Thee,’
or by Ernst Pauer in his Traditional Hebrew Melodies. But what is
more especially known to and prized by musicians, it forms the only
pianoforte composition of Robert Franz, the great songwriter, under
the title
‘Beweinet, die geweint an Babel’s Strand,’
and as such, it has become famous.... The origin of the melody is ...
simply the old chant of the _Cohanim_ on the Festivals, as it used to
be sung in London synagogues on the Passover a hundred years ago, with
a joyous touch of Pesach tune....”¹
¹ _Jewish Chronicle_, 1st April, 1904, page 21.
LI.
“REMINISCENCES OF LORD BYRON ... POETRY, ETC.,
OF LADY CAROLINE LAMB,” BY ISAAC NATHAN
FUGITIVE Pieces And Reminiscences Of Lord Byron:
Containing An Entire New Edition Of The Hebrew Melodies, With The
Addition Of Several Never Before Published;
The Whole Illustrated With Critical, Historical, Theatrical, Political,
And Theological Remarks, Notes, Anecdotes, Interesting Conversations,
And Observations, Made By That Illustrious Poet: Together With His
Lordship’s Autograph.
Also Some Original Poetry, Letters And Recollections Of Lady Caroline
Lamb.
By I. Nathan, Author Of An Essay On The History And Theory Of Music,
The Hebrew Melodies, &c. &c....
London: ... 1829.
(8º. xxxvi. + 196 + 11 _pp._) [I. S.]
LII.
“SELECTION OF HEBREW MELODIES,” BY JOHN BRAHAM AND ISAAC NATHAN
A Selection of Hebrew Melodies Ancient and Modern with appropriate
Symphonies & accompaniments.
By I. Braham & I. Nathan.
The Poetry written expressly for the work By the Right Hon. Lord
Byron....
Published & Sold by I: Nathan Nᵒ 7 Poland Street Oxford Strᵗ. and to be
had at the principal Music and Booksellers. [Price One Guinea. (1815.)
(_4to._ 4 _ll._ + 133 _pp._) [I. S.]
A second edition was published in 1861.
(_4to._ 2 _ll._ + 218 _pp._) [B. M.]
LIII.
EARL OF SHAFTESBURY’S ZIONIST MEMORANDUM SCHEME
FOR THE COLONISATION OF PALESTINE
_Lord Ashley¹ to Viscount Palmerston._
“ST. GILES HOUSE,
“_September 25th, 1840_.
¹ Succeeded his father in 1851 as the seventh Earl of
Shaftesbury.
“MY LORD,
“The Powers of Europe having determined that they will take into their
own hands the adjustment of the Syrian Question, I venture to suggest
a measure, which being adopted will promote the development of the
immense fertility of all those countries that lie between the Euphrates
and the Mediterranean Sea.
“The consideration of the person or the authority to whom these
territories may be assigned by the award of the contracting Powers
is of no importance. The plan presupposes simply the existence of a
recognised and competent Dominion; the establishment and execution of
Laws; and a Government both willing and able to maintain internal peace.
“These vast regions are now nearly desolate; every year the produce of
them becomes less, because the hands that should till them become fewer.
As a source of revenue they are almost worthless, compared, at least,
with the riches that industry might force from them. They require both
labour and capital.
“Capital, however, is of too sensitive a nature to flow with readiness
into any country where neither property nor life can be regarded as
secure; but if this indispensable assurance be first given, the avarice
of man will be a sufficient motive, and it will betake itself with
alacrity to any spot where a speedy or an ample return may be promised
to the speculator.
“An inducement such as this is sufficient to stimulate the mercantile
zeal of every money-maker under Heaven, and it would be advisable
that the Power, whoever he may be, to whom these provinces may fall,
should issue and perform a solemn engagement to establish, in his
laws affecting property, the principles and practices of European
civilisation: but, in respect of these regions now under dispute, there
are, so far as a numerous, though scattered, people is concerned, other
inducements and other hopes, over and above those which influence the
general mass of mankind.
“Without entering into the grounds of the desire and expectations
entertained by the Hebrew Race of their return ultimately to the land
of their fathers, it may be safely asserted that they contemplate a
restoration to the soil of Palestine. They believe, moreover, that
the time is near at hand. Every recollection of the past, and every
prospect of the future, animates their hope; and fear alone for their
persons and their estates represses their exertions. If the Governing
Power of the Syrian provinces would promulgate equal laws and equal
protection to Jew and Gentile, and confirm his decrees by accepting
the four Powers as guarantees of his engagement, to be set forth and
ratified in an article of the Treaty, the way would at once be opened,
confidence would be revived, and, prevailing throughout these regions,
would bring with it some of the wealth and enterprise of the world at
large, and, by allaying their suspicions, call forth to the full the
hidden wealth and industry of the Jewish people.
“There are many reasons why more is to be anticipated from them than
from any others who might settle there. They have ancient reminiscences
and deep affection for the land;――it is connected in their hearts with
all that is bright in times past, and with all that is bright in those
which are to come; their industry and perseverance are prodigious; they
subsist, and cheerfully, on the smallest pittance; they are, almost
everywhere, accustomed to arbitrary rule, and being totally indifferent
to political objects, confine their hopes to the enjoyment of what they
can accumulate. Long ages of suffering have trained their people to
habits of endurance and self-denial; they would joyfully exhibit them
in the settlement and service of their ancient country.
“If we consider their return in the light of a new establishment or
colonisation of Palestine, we shall find it to be the cheapest and
safest mode of supplying the wants of those depopulated regions.
They will return at their own expense, and with no hazard but to
themselves; they will submit to the existing form of Government, having
no preconceived theories to gratify, and having been almost everywhere
trained in implicit obedience to autocratic rule; they will acknowledge
the present appropriation of the soil in the hands of its actual
possessors, being content to obtain an interest in its produce by the
legitimate methods of rent or purchase. Disconnected, as they are,
from all the peoples of the earth, they would appeal to no national
or political sympathies for assistance in the path of wrong; and
the guarantee which I propose, for insertion in the Treaty to be
carried out by the personal protection of the respective Consuls and
Vice-Consuls of the several nations, would be sufficient to protect
them in the exercise of their right.
“The plan here proposed may be recommended by the consideration that
large results are promised to the application of very small means; that
no pecuniary outlay is demanded of the engaging parties; that while
disappointment would bring no ill-effects except to those who declined
the offer, the benefit to be derived from it would belong impartially
to the whole civilised world....
“I have the honour to be, my Lord,
“Your Lordship’s most obedient, humble servant,
“ASHLEY.
“THE VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, M.P.
Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.”¹
¹ The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G.,
by Edwin Hodder, 1866, vol. i., _pp._ 313‒315.
LIV.
RESTORATION OF THE JEWS
[The annexed documents have just appeared in a periodical entitled
_Memorials concerning God’s Ancient People of Israel_, and are probably
as yet but little known to the world at large:――]
MEMORANDUM.
To the Protestant Powers of the North of Europe and America――Victoria,
by the grace of God, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland; Frederick
(William) III. King of Prussia; William (Frederick), King of
Netherlands; Charles (John) XIV., King of Sweden and Norway; Frederick
VI., King of Denmark; Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover; William, King
of Wurtemberg; The Sovereign Princes and Electors of Germany; The
Cantons of the Swiss Confederation professing the Reformed Religion;
and the States of North America, zealous for the Glory of God; grace,
mercy and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!
“High and Mighty Ones,
“The Most High God, who ruleth in the kingdoms of men (Dan. iv. 32),
by whom kings reign and princes decree justice (Prov. viii. 15), having
in these days granted a season of repose to his witnessing church
(Acts ix. 31; Rev. xii. 16), planted in the lands whereof ye are kings
and governors (Isaiah xlix. 23); the vine of His planting among the
Gentiles (Acts xxviii. 28) hath extended her boughs unto the seas and
her branches unto the rivers (Isa. xlix. 6), that now in nearly all
the world the gospel of the kingdom is being lifted as a witness unto
all nations (Matt. xxiv. 14), and in the isles afar off. The days are
drawing near (Rev. xxii. 20) when the dominion, and the glory, and
the kingdom, with all people, nations and languages, shall serve Him,
who cometh in the clouds of heaven (Dan. vii. 14, Rev. i. 7), whose
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom that shall not
be destroyed (Psalm xlv. 6). Blessed be He! He hath given his waiting
people to hear the sound of His approaching footsteps, and to mark the
signs of His drawing near (1 Thess. v. 4). The fig-tree putteth forth
her leaves again (Matt. xxiv. 32). Israel’s sons are asking the way
to Zion, by which we know that summer is at hand. Blessed are all they
that wait (2 Thess. iii. 5), and hold fast (Rev. iii. 11), for quickly
He cometh. Amen.
“In the prospect of the Christian Church, of the speedy appearing of
her glorified head, the zeal of the Lord’s servants hath been stirred
up (Rev. iii. 2) to a multiplied diligence in those labours of faith
and love which were devolved upon her (Matt. xxviii. 19), when the
Son of God, as a man taking a journey into a far country, bade his
servants occupy, until he returned again (Luke xix. 13). With other
responsibilities, the circumstances of one peculiar people, whom the
Most High hath separated (Gen. xii. 1) and taken into covenant with him
(Gen. xvii. 7; Exod. xxxiv. 7), and which covenant no act of theirs,
however iniquitous or rebellious, can repeal or destroy (Mal. iii. 6),
whom he hath scattered in all lands as witnesses of his unity and power
(Isa. xliii. 9), connected with whom the welfare of mankind is bound up,
and in the lifting up of whose head the most stupendous consequences
are made to depend (Rom. xi. 15), are presented at this eleventh hour
for the repentance and faith of Christendom, that the blood of our
brethren of circumcision which has been unjustly shed may be atoned for
in the blood of the Lamb (Isa. i. 18), and the fruits of forgiveness
be manifested (Matt. iii. 8) in presenting the children of this people
continually at the throne of grace (1 Pet. ii. 5; Ps. cxxii. 6) for
the atoning sacrifice of Christ to cover them (Joel ii. 17); and as the
Almighty, in his providential appointments, shall make the way plain to
present the children of Israel who may be willing to go up (Ps. cx. 3)
as an offering to the Lord of Hosts in Mount Zion (Isa. xxviii. 7).
“For 300 years the testimony of the churches, planted in the lands over
which Almighty God hath made you rulers, hath been lifted up against
that apostacy which hath usurped the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the earth (Rev. xxii. 5, and xxiii. 5) daring presumptuously to
assert power over nations (Rev. xviii. 7), and over kingdoms, to root
up and to pull down, to build, to plant, and to destroy (Dan. vii. 20,
Rev. xiii. 2, 7). The millstone which shall sink the Great Babylon in
the abyss of an unfathomable perdition (Rev. xviii. 21) when her hour
arrives (and it is very near!) with the judgment under which she hath
long lain, for being drunken with the blood of the saints and of the
martyrs of Jesus (Rev. xvii. 6), shall include the avenging of the
wrongs of God’s ancient people (Isa. li. 22, 23), and a terrible
account it is; and the issue shall be joy and gladness to the whole
earth, for it is written, ‘Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people; for
He avengeth the blood of His servants, and shall render vengeance unto
his adversaries, and will be merciful to His land and to His people’
(Deut. xxxii. 43). ‘Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O
people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help and the sword of thy
excellency? and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou
shalt tread on their high places’ (Deut. xxxiii. 29).
“In the events, on which the eyes of nations are fixed, taking place
around, whilst the continuance and stability of your thrones and sway,
O kings, is the earnest prayer of the Christian church (1 Tim. ii. 2),
she cannot but uphold the witness that the days draw nigh, when, under
the hallowed sway of Messiah the Prince, the now despised nation of the
Jews shall possess the kingdom (Dan. vii. 27), and she directs, with
reverential awe, your eye to that mighty empire in the east which is
crumbling to dust, and drying in all her streams (Rev. xvi. 12) to make
way for the event. Palestine hath been a burdensome stone (Zech. xii.
2) unto the followers of the false Prophet (Rev. xvi. 13), as it was to
the ancestors of many of you, O Princes, when, under the banner of the
Popish Antichrist, their mistaken zeal sought to recover the Holy City
from the Saracen’s grasp. But the fulness of the Gentiles is at hand
(Romans xi. 21) and unto Israel the dominion shall return (Micah iv. 8).
“The apostate Julian sought to plant the children of this people in
the seats of their fathers, in despite of the holy faith, one of the
external evidences of whose trust was, that their house was left unto
them desolate, until they should say ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord’ (Matt. xxiii. 38, 9). But is it anywhere declared in
the word of our God, that the children of Israel, scattered and peeled,
humbled and dispirited, impoverished and broken down, should not be
presented as an offering in faith to Jehovah of Hosts in Mount Zion?
that there they may be pleaded with face to face by the God of their
fathers (Ezekiel xx. 13), that there the veil may be rent (Isaiah xxv.
7) which is over their hearts (2 Cor. iii. 15), that there they may
look on him whom they have pierced (Zech. xii. 10). Your attention,
high and mighty ones, is directed to the recorded fact that such an
offering is expected. And before that full and final gathering which
follows the judgments poured out on all the earth (Isaiah lxiii. 15,
16, 20), a power, and that power a northern one (Jer. iii. 12, xxxi. 6,
9, xxxiii. 7, 8――Isaiah xliii. 6, xlix. 12), shall be employed to lead
a people wonderful from their beginning hitherto――a nation expecting
and trampled underfoot――whose land rivers have spoiled, unto the name
of the Lord of Hosts in Mount Zion (Isaiah xviii.). These designs and
purposes of the Lord God of Israel, King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
are declared unto you, high and mighty ones, his servants (Dan. v. 23),
that you may ponder them, and know His will, from the voice, with which
He is about to speak unto nations and unto men (Haggai ii. 6――Isaiah i.
10), for the time is at hand (Rev. i. 3).
“Your wisdom hath been exercised to mark the boundaries of kingdoms,
and to define the limits of empires; and has not the aggressor
overleaped all barriers, and the strength of treaties snapped asunder
as tow? And why? Because when the Almighty awarded to the nations their
inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of
the people according to the number of the children of Israel (Deuteron.
xxxii. 7, 8). By an unrepealed covenant, the Lord God declared unto
Abram, concerning the land of Palestine, ‘Unto thy seed have I given
this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river
Euphrates’ (Genesis xv. 18). This gift was ratified unto him for an
everlasting possession, and to his seed after him, when the Almighty
gave him the covenant, and changed his name to Abraham (Genesis xvii.
4, 8) . For the purposes of infinite wisdom fast hastening to maturity,
the Lord God hath scattered his inheritance to the four winds of heaven.
But hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the
isles afar off. He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him
as a shepherd doth his flock.
“As the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia was stirred up to build the
Lord’s Temple, which was in Jerusalem (ii Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23), who
is there among you, high and mighty ones of all the nations, to fulfil
the good pleasure of the holy will of the Lord of Heaven, saying to
Jerusalem, ‘Thou shalt be built’ and to the Temple, ‘Thy foundation
shall be laid’? (Isaiah xliv. 28). The Lord God of Israel will be with
such. Great grace, mercy, and peace shall descend upon the people who
offer themselves willingly; and the fire offerings of their hearts and
hands shall be those of a sweet-smelling savour unto Him who hath said,
‘I will bless them that bless thee (Genesis xii. 3), and contend with
him who contendeth with thee’ (Isaiah xlix. 25).
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. Signed and sealed
in London, 8th of January, in the year of our Lord, 1839, in the name
of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, on behalf of many who
wait for the redemption of Israel.”
(Copy 1.)
“LONDON, January 22nd, 1839.
“May it please your Majesty,――I have the high honour of laying at your
Majesty’s feet the accompanying memorandum relating to the present
condition and future prospects of God’s ancient people, the Jews.
Your Majesty’s pious feelings, I doubt not, will be excited to give
the Scriptural hopes and expectations therein set forth your earnest
attention, considering the high station it hath pleased Almighty God
to call this Protestant land to, as the great seat of the church.
“According to the petitions of this peculiar people at a throne of
grace, that in your Majesty’s reign ‘Judah may be saved and Israel
dwell safely,’ is the prayer of your Majesty’s dutiful subject and
servant.
“Her most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of
Great Britain and Ireland.”
(Copy 2.)
“January 19th, 1839.
“MY LORD,――I have the honour of transmitting through your Lordship
a document which it is the desire of some of her Majesty’s subjects
should be laid at her Majesty’s feet, relating to the Scriptural
expectations of the church, connected with the restoration of the
Jews to Palestine, the land of their fathers.
“I am induced to solicit your Lordship’s good offices in being the
medium of communicating this document to her Majesty, as the substance
of it relates to the present rights of an ally of this country――namely,
the Sublime Porte.
“But I would respectfully press upon your Lordship’s attention, that,
in holding forth the Scriptural hopes of God’s ancient people, those
who emanate the accompanying document never for one moment dream of
political force to accomplish the end desired. When the hour comes
of Israel’s planting in, doubtless Almighty God will not fail to
raise up chosen instruments, who, with willing hands and hearts, shall
accomplish the good pleasure of His will.
“If we are wrong in the course we have taken to bring the memorandum
before Her Majesty, we will be happy to be set right. Should your
Lordship undertake the duty, desiring the glory of God in this matter
to be furthered, the Lord God of Israel will not be slack to reward the
labour of faith and love proceeding from a desire to honour His name.
“I have the honour to be, &c.,
“THE RIGHT HON. LORD VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.”
Lord Palmerston’s Answer.
(Copy 3.)
“FOREIGN OFFICE, March 14, 1839.
“I have to acknowledge your letter of the 19th January, enclosing a
letter and a memorandum from some of Her Majesty’s subjects, who feel
deeply interested in the welfare and future prospects of the Jews;
and I have to acquaint you that I have laid those documents before the
Queen, and that Her Majesty has been pleased graciously to receive the
same.
“I am, &c.,
“PALMERSTON.”¹
¹ _The Times_, Wednesday, August 26, 1840, _pp._ 5‒6.
LV.
ANOTHER ZIONIST MEMORANDUM――RESTORATION OF THE JEWS
“To the Editor of _The Times_.
“SIR,――The extraordinary crisis of Oriental politics has stimulated an
almost universal interest and investigation, and the fate of the Jews
seems to be deeply involved with the settlement of the Syrian dilemma
now agitating several Courts of Christendom.
“... The peace of Europe and the just balance of its powers being
therefore assumed as the grand desideratum, as the consummation
devoutly to be wished, I peruse with particular interest a brief
article in your journal of this day relative to the restoration of
the Jews to Jerusalem, because I imagine that this event has become
practicable through an unprecedented concatenation of circumstances,
and that moreover it has become especially desirable, as the exact
expedient to which it is to the interest of all belligerent parties
to consent.
“The actual feasibility of the return of the Jews is no longer a
paradox; the time gives it proof. That theory of the restoration of a
Jewish Kingdom, which a few years ago was laughed at as the fantasy of
insane enthusiasm, is now calculated on as a most practical achievement
of diplomacy.
“It is granted that the Jews were the ancient proprietors of Syria;
that Syria was the proper heart and centre of their kingdom. It
is granted that they have a strong conviction that Providence will
restore them to this Syrian supremacy. It is granted that they have
entertained for ages a hearty desire to return thither, and are willing
to make great sacrifices of a pecuniary kind to the different parties
interested, provided they can be put in peaceful and secure possession.
“It is likewise notorious, that since the Jews have been thrust out of
Syria that land has been a mere arena of strife to neighbouring Powers,
all conscious that they had no legitimate right there, and all jealous
of each other’s intrusion.
“Such having been the case, why, it may be asked, have not the Jews
long ago endeavoured to regain possession of Syria by commercial
arrangements? In reply it may be said, that though they have evidently
wished to do so, and have made overtures of the kind, hitherto
circumstances have opposed their desires....
“Now, however, these obstacles and hindrances are in a great measure
removed; all the strongest Powers in Europe have come forward as
arbitrators and umpires to arrange the settlement of Syria.
“Under such potent arbitrators, pledged to the performance of any
conditions finally agreed on, I have reason to believe that the Jews
would readily enter into such financial arrangements as would secure
them the absolute possession of Jerusalem and Syria.
“I know no reason, under such powerful empires, why the Hebrews should
not restore an independent monarchy in Syria, as well as the Egyptians
in Egypt, or the Grecians in Greece.
“As a practical expedient of politics, I believe that it will be
easier to secure the peace of Europe and Asia by this effort to restore
the Jews, than by any allotment of Syrian territories to the Turks
or Egyptians, which will be sure to occasion fresh jealousies and
discords....
“I believe that the cause of the restoration of the Jews is one
essentially generous and noble, and that all individuals and nations
that assist this world-renounced people to recover the empire of their
ancestors will be rewarded by Heaven’s blessing. Everything that is
patriotic and philanthropic should urge Great Britain forward as the
agent of prophetic revelations so full of auspicious consequence....
“Your very obedient servant,
“F. B.¹
“Aug. 17.”
¹ _The Times_, 26 Aug., 1840, _p._ 6.
LVI.
EXTRACTS FROM AUTOGRAPH AND OTHER LETTERS BETWEEN
SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE AND DR. N. M. ADLER
MY hearty thanks are due to my friend Mr. Elkan N. Adler for giving
me access to his father’s letters. It may be mentioned that, although
Dr. N. M. Adler was never able to visit Palestine, all his three sons
went there. Palestinian activity has practically been a tradition
of the Adler family. Mr. Elkan Adler originally visited Palestine in
1888, 1895, 1898 and 1901, in connection with the Montefiore work. His
first visit was a professional one, undertaken on the instructions of
the Council of the Holy Land Relief Fund. Its object was to clear up
certain legal difficulties which had arisen on the land at Jerusalem
and Jaffa purchased in 1855 by his father and Sir Moses Montefiore out
of the funds of the Holy Land Appeal Fund and the Judah Touro Bequest.
At that time their only buildings in Jerusalem were the Judah Touro
Alms-houses and the Windmill. The vacant land adjoining had been jumped
after the death of Sir Moses Montefiore by about three hundred poor and
desperate Jews, who claimed that it had been originally intended for
the poor, and they were poor.
The journey was successful. The squatters were removed, and their
place was taken by industrious settlers, who, through the agency of the
building societies, financed by the Sir Moses Montefiore Testimonial
Committee, erected hundreds of pleasant little dwellings in the place
of the rude, uninhabited shanties which stood there in 1888.
In 1894 Mr. Elkan Adler became a member of the “Water for Jerusalem
Committee,” of which Sir Charles W. Wilson, K.C.M.G., was Chairman and
Sir Edmund A. H. L. Lechmere, Bart., M.P., and Sir (then Mr.) Isidore
Spielmann, C.M.G., Honorary Secretaries. The Turkish Government and
the Jerusalem Municipality had sanctioned the scheme, but bureaucratic
dilatoriness prevented its ever maturing. Its object was to secure,
under a concession, for purely philanthropic purposes, a modern water
supply for Jerusalem from King Solomon’s Pools.
Mr. Adler was also one of the founders of the London _Chovevé Zion_,
and as Honorary Solicitor drafted its Constitution, which was settled
by the Right Hon. Arthur Cohen, K.C.
* * * * *
“Grosvenor Gate, Park Lane,
“London, 28th Hesvan, 5602.
“12 November.
“My dear and much esteemed Sir,
“.. . I am most highly gratified, my dear Sir, by the very kind manner
in which you have been pleased to notice my feeble exertions in favour
of our unfortunate and persecuted Brethren in the East....
“Believe me to be,
“With sincere Respect and Esteem,
“My dear Sir,
“Your obedient Servant,
“MOSES MONTEFIORE.
“The Reverend
Doctor N. Adler, Chief Rabbi, &c. &c. &c.”
* * * * *
“Alliance Office,
“Bartholomew Lane,
“31 May, 5614.
“My dear and respected Sir,
“... I hope to find the amount of Contributions much increased from
your admirable Letter having at last found its way in the hands of the
several Seat-holders of each Synagogue, and I am sure if they respond
to it with the same liberality as our Christian fellow-subjects have
evinced for our suffering Brethren in the Holy Land I am confident
you will rejoice at the success which has attended your benevolent
exertions....
“I am with great respect and esteem,
“Your faithful Servant,
“MOSES MONTEFIORE.
“The Revd. Dr. Adler,
Chief Rabbi, &c. &c.”
* * * * *
“East Cliff Lodge,
“Ramsgate,
“17th August, 5614/1854.
“My dear and respected Sir,
“... I am obliged to you for the information which Mr. Albert Cohn’s
letter has afforded me and believe me I am most truly thankful to
the God of Israel that my days should have been prolonged to see
the welfare of our unfortunate Brethren in Jerusalem cared for by so
wealthy and powerful a family as the Barons de Rothschild. May the
institutions which they propose diffuse all the advantages we hope
for. I will endeavour to write this evening to Lord Clarendon and will
take the earliest opportunity to communicate the result after I shall
have had an interview with his Lordship. I have requested Mr. Green to
forward all the letters to you that have arrived from the Holy Land.
I shall take no step regarding the Hospital but with your concurrence.
You may rely that there will be no opposition in any way on my part,
and I am only too happy to see that Jerusalem is not forsaken....
“Believe me,
“With the greatest esteem and respect,
“Your faithful Servant,
“MOSES MONTEFIORE.
“To the Reverend
Doctor Adler,
Chief Rabbi.”
* * * * *
“Alliance Office,
“Bartholomew Lane,
“Wednesday Morn,
“23 Augt., ’614.
“My dear and respected Sir,
“... I now beg to trouble you with the enclosed letters which Dr. Lowe
has written to the Holy Land with a remittance of £1200 divided in
the following manner.... I have not thought it proper to send anything
to the Portuguese at Jerusalem as they have not yet complied with
your request in the mode of distribution or forwarded any particulars
whatever. I therefore hope you will be satisfied with the arrangement
that this will bring the Portuguese to a sense of the necessity they
are under to conform to your instructions, or they will receive no more
money from England....
“To the Revd.
Dr. Adler,
Chief Rabbi.”
* * * * *
“Buxton, 15th Septr., 5614/1854.
“My dear and respected Sir,
“... I have felt much vexed at M. Albert Cohn’s having taken the
liberty of using your name as well as mine as having deputed him to
carry out his schemes in the East....
“Believe me to be,
“With great regard and respect,
“Your faithful Servant,
“MOSES MONTEFIORE.
“The Revd. Dr. Adler,
Chief Rabbi, &c. &c.”
* * * * *
“Alliance Assurance Office,
“Bartholomew Lane,
“Monday Evening,
“26 Jany., 5617.
“My dear and respected Sir,
“Having this moment heard from Lady Montefiore that you expressed a
desire to Visit the Holy Land, and well knowing the lively interest
you have ever evinced in promoting the prosperity of Jerusalem, I beg
to assure you that nothing could be more gratifying to my feelings,
than to be honored with your Company during our intended Tour. We had
fixed in our minds the 10th day of February for our departure, but
to enjoy the honor of your Society, we would postpone it to meet your
Convenience to any day that would enable us to reach Jerusalem for
Passover.
“Hoping to have the gratification of a favorable reply from you.
“Believe me to be,
“Your faithful Servant,
“MOSES MONTEFIORE.
“To the Reverend
Dr. Adler,
Chief Rabbi.”
* * * * *
“East Cliff Lodge,
“Ramsgate,
“14th September, 5619.
“My dear and respected Sir,
“... With respect to the Jaffa farm I hope in a few days to have an
opportunity of speaking with you. I think it was your wish that our
co-religionists should be employed on it....”
“Believe me with great esteem,
“Your faithful Servant,
“MOSES MONTEFIORE.
“To the Reverend Dr. Adler,
Chief Rabbi.”
* * * * *
“To the Rev. Dr. ADLER, Chief Rabbi, etc. etc.
“_East Cliff Lodge, Ramsgate, May 15th, 5614‒1854_.
“REVEREND AND RESPECTED SIR,
“For the sake of Zion I cannot remain silent, and for the sake of
Jerusalem I cannot rest, until the whole house of Israel have been made
acquainted with the lamentable condition of those of our brethren who
devotedly cling to the soil, sacred to the memory of our patriarchs,
prophets and kings.
“Thrice having visited the Holy Land, it was my earnest desire to fully
inform myself as to the condition of our brethren there....
“Aware, however, reverend Sir, of your great anxiety for the physical
amelioration of our suffering brethren, and how watchfully you note
their spiritual welfare, I am induced to put you in possession of
the documents and appeals which I have received from the Holy Land,
with the assurance that your powerful co-operation, in the shape
of a pastoral letter addressed to the Jews of Great Britain and
America――or the exercise of the same in any other mode your wisdom may
dictate――will, with God’s blessing, not only tend to remove the present
appalling misery of our starving brethren in Zion, but spare us the
humiliation of its recurrence.
“I have the honour to be, reverend and respected Sir,
“Your faithful servant,
“MOSES MONTEFIORE.”
* * * * *
“TO SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE, Bart., etc. etc.
“_Office of the Chief Rabbi, London, 18th May, 5614._
“MY DEAR AND ESTEEMED SIR,
“.... Although I should have much preferred that the duty of addressing
our co-religionists on behalf of the afflicted had been assumed by
yourself, as you would have made a far deeper impression than I can
hope to do, from the well-known fact that you have devoted a great
portion of your life to the amelioration of the condition of our
brethren in Palestine, and this, too, at the risk of much personal
suffering and danger, yet, to avoid all delay in the present emergency,
I have to-day written a letter to the congregations under my charge, a
copy of which I beg to enclose; and I fervently pray that the Lord may
strengthen my feeble words, and incline the hearts of our brethren to
this good work of charity.
“I am, my dear Sir Moses,
“Yours very faithfully,
“N. ADLER, Dr.”
* * * * *
“PASTORAL LETTER
“To the Wardens, Members, and Seat-holders of the
United Congregations of Great Britain.
“_Office of the Chief Rabbi, London, May 18th, 5614._
“Beloved Brethren,
“... the present condition of our poor brethren scattered through the
four cities of Jerusalem, Zaphed, Hebron and Tiberias, is absolutely
heart-rending. This is no exaggeration but a stern and dreadful reality.
The almost total failure of the last harvest, which raised the price
of all the necessaries of life to an unparalleled height; the present
war and general political disturbances; the diminution of the usual
resources for the poor, especially those derived from Russia, which has
hitherto contributed the most, have brought about an awful famine....
While all surrounding nations make that spot the object of their
deepest concern, expending vast sums thereon, should we be unmindful
of that land with which our past glory and future hope are inseparably
connected? ... It may be thought by some that the unfortunate state of
the Jewish residents of Palestine might have been brought about ... by
their reliance on fixed pensions and casual alms without the exercise
of industry, either in agriculture, commerce or other employments;...
Why, therefore, continue a life of pauperism, which will endure until
the springs of poverty are stopped――and what will be the use of a
collection, which can but mitigate the evil for a moment?
“My dear brethren,――Before you accuse the sufferers of indolence,
and their leaders of neglect, let us assure you that the people are
most anxious to free themselves from the thraldom of dependence;
that the Rabbis and the heads of the Congregations have proved to Sir
Moses Montefiore, who has been at all times the strenuous advocate of
industrial pursuits, the willingness of the people to till the soil, if
only it could be done with security. But hitherto the great impediment
to agriculture has been not alone the want of pecuniary means, but the
want of _protection_ on the part of the Government, it being absolutely
impracticable to labour outside the walls of the cities, owing to
the depredations of the roving and lawless Bedouins, for whatever the
inhabitants sow is speedily seized by others.
“Without, however, alluding to the happy restitution that we anxiously
look for, which lies in the hand of the Lord who commandeth us ‘not
to stir, neither to awake His love, until He please’――the present war
may, by the Divine blessing, bring about a great and beneficial change
in the Holy Land. It is more than probable that the Government of the
Porte will concede to our brethren in Palestine the right of holding
land; and that this right will be placed under secure protection. It
will then become the duty of our leading men to organise a proper plan
of operations, put themselves into communication with the different
Committees abroad, to raise the necessary means, to send men of ability,
properly authorised, to Jerusalem, to bring about a unity of action
among the different congregations there, to purchase land, to establish
farms and factories, and to devote a portion of the money annually
collected, as wages to those who will labour therein under the charge
of the persons superintending those undertakings. The time for the
realisation of such a scheme may not be remote, as the munificent
legacy of the philanthropist Judah Touro, New Orleans, was bequeathed
for this very purpose, which bequest will have an important bearing on
the improvement of the Holy Land.
“... I remain, yours very faithfully,
“N. ADLER, Dr., Chief Rabbi.”¹
¹ An Appeal on behalf of the famishing Jews in the Holy Land.
_Donations will be thankfully received by_ The Rev. The
Chief Rabbi, 4, Crosby Square, and Sir Moses Montefiore,
Bart., Alliance Assurance Office, Bartholomew Lane. Rev.
Aaron Levy Green, Hon. Sec.
London: Printed by Wertheimer and Co., Circus Place, Finsbury
Circus.
1854 (8º. 16 _pp. in printed wrapper_), _pp._ 3‒7.
In February, 1855, Dr. Adler and Sir Moses published their first Report
enumerating the appropriations of money they had made and the sums
set apart for the establishment of institutions designed to relieve
distress, and to encourage and promote industry.
In May, 1856, Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore set out on a mission to the
Holy Land to organize means for the appropriation of the funds “with a
view to the utmost benefit of the supplicants.”
The Trustees resolved to attempt the organization of some industrial
scheme, and, says their Second Report, dated 1856: “In a land naturally
so fertile as Palestine, offering so prolific a return for industry,
but altogether wanting in commercial resources, agriculture must of
necessity be the first object of attention, as likely to prove the
most powerful auxiliary in bringing about a healthful reaction, by
alleviating distress, by promoting industry, and by exciting a feeling
of self-reliance.” The Trustees were confirmed in their views by the
opinion of experienced agriculturists in the Holy Land, and by the
valuable suggestions of munificent donors.
“On the 17th June Sir Moses had an audience with the Sultan, and on
the 27th July the first meeting was held with the representatives of
_Zapphed_.
“The desirability of cultivating land was discussed at this sitting,
and the great probabilities of success in the undertaking were shown by
the mention of numerous well-authenticated facts. The views entertained
by the Trustees having been confirmed by the best evidence, a Committee
of practical agriculturists――men distinguished by their probity, and of
acknowledged skill――was, without further delay, appointed to aid in the
selection of land, and to advise as to the fitness of the parties to
be employed in its cultivation. Assisted by this Committee, Sir Moses
selected thirty-five families from the Holy City of _Zapphed_, provided
them with means to commence agricultural pursuits, and also secured for
them local governors. Some orphan lads were also provided for, by being
placed under the care of the Committee, to be trained as agriculturists.
A district in the vicinity of _Zapphed_, called the Bokea, having
been pointed out as a most desirable spot for agricultural purposes,
sufficient means were granted to give employment to fifteen families,
to be engaged in the cultivation of that fruitful district; the whole
being placed under the supervision of the Agricultural Committee at
_Zapphed_. The claims of _Tabaria_ were next considered ... and means
afforded to thirty families to enable them to engage in agricultural
pursuits. At _Jaffa_ some land, with a house, and well affording an
abundant supply of excellent water, was purchased, and a number of
our poor co-religionists are already engaged upon such land.” An
establishment for weaving was instituted.
“Sir Moses eventually succeeded in purchasing a tract of land to the
west of the Holy City, in a most beautiful and salubrious locality,
within a few minutes’ walk from the Jaffa and Zion Gates. Here a
considerable number of our co-religionists and others at once found
employment on the land and in the building of the boundary wall.” A
windmill was erected on this site to supersede the expensive method
used at Jerusalem for grinding corn.
LVII.
THE FINAL EXODUS
“AND what now is the aspect of Palestine? Still, truly, it is a land
rich in the grandeur and beauties of nature’s handiwork――still, in
some parts, ‘... hills, plains, and valleys, fields of wheat and
barley, vineyards and olive-yards, are spread out before you as on a
map’――still does the benign influence of the sun’s warmth engender in
the bosom of the earth the germs of fruits and flowers, that languish
for want of culture, and never arrive at perfection――still do the hills
uplift their heads amid the clouds, which drop down, as though with
tears of sorrow, upon their barren and exposed sides, once covered with
artificial soil and by the hands of a favoured race rendered fruitful
as the vale beneath. The mountains remain unshaken, but where are the
countless flocks? the stones of the water-course are there, but where
is the limpid stream? Alas! the promised blessing has been withdrawn
from the land; the flocks no longer multiply as heretofore, neither as
in former days do springs and fountains burst forth everywhere out of
the valleys and the hills; and her cities are desolate and forsaken,
and of many even the site is not accurately known; _literal_, indeed,
has been the fulfilment of the prophetic declaration ‘the land shall
be desolate.’ Solitude now reigns where once the busy hum of voices
enlivened many a glad city, ay, even in the wilderness――ruins now
mark the spot where once rose the sound of harp and tabret, and
where heart joined with hand in mocking with merriment the threatened
desolation....”
“... But more than this――Britain! rejoice! it is for you to lead back
to their beautiful land the long-dispersed members of Judah’s neglected
race, and by planting in their native country a colony of whose
attachment to its protectors there could be no doubt,...”
“... Jerusalem shall, indeed, become again the glorious city among
the nations: no longer shall her name be Jerusalem, but ‘the City of
the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel,’ for _there_ shall be
holiness,’ and in the midst of her ‘the King of Israel, even the Lord;’
... Her walls shall be called ‘Salvation,’ and her gates ‘Praise’; and
her children shall enjoy the former and the latter rain; ‘the floors
shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil;
and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall
also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them....’
“Among these there are _many_ whose wealth――... has caused the name of
the Jew too often to be coupled with the idea of sordid gain...: but it
will be well for the _few_, who by ... prosperity, . .. occupy now an
elevated ♦position, ... prepare to head with energy every warrantable
occasion for furthering the restoration of their unhappy people
to Palestine. Providential is it for them, that among them are men
possessing influence and wealth sufficient to become their leaders....”
♦ “postion” replaced with “position”
“Once again――Britain, beware! and hasten to exert the means which,
lying at your disposal, may be made use of as a defence for your
valuable possessions in the East, and for the advancement of God’s
glory, by the return of His people to the land whither He has
said He would bring them again ‘that they might be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.’”¹
¹ The Final Exodus; or, the Restoration to Palestine of
the lost Tribes, the result of the present crisis; with a
description of the battle of Armageddon, and the downfall of
Russia, as deduced wholly from prophecy. London ... 1854.
[8º. 30 _pp._] _pp._ 4‒5, 13‒14, 27, 30.
LVIII.
DISRAELI AND THE PURCHASE OF THE SUEZ CANAL SHARES
THE story of the purchase of the Suez Canal shares by Lord Beaconsfield
has been told many times, but Mr. [afterwards Sir] Henry Lucy, in
“Sixty Years in the Wilderness,” throws fresh light on the subject.
“On a certain Sunday night in the spring of 1875 he¹ chanced to be
dining in Bruton Street with Henry Oppenheim, one of the original
proprietors of the _Daily News_. During a residence in Paris and Egypt
that gentleman, just settling down in London, was brought into close
connection with Egyptian financial affairs. On the previous day he
heard of the intention of the impecunious Khedive to sell _en bloc_ his
holding in the capital of the Suez Canal. Greenwood instantly saw the
opportunity for a great stroke of State. On leaving Bruton Street he
went direct to the private residence of the Foreign Secretary (Lord
Derby) and told him of the rare chance. Lord Derby informed the Prime
Minister, whose Oriental mind glowed at the prospect of so stupendous
a deal. Inquiry secretly made at Cairo disclosed the fact that the
Khedive would ‘part’ for a sum of four millions sterling. But it must
be money down.
¹ Frederick Greenwood, one of the ablest journalists of his day.
“It was, Greenwood told me, on Lord Beaconsfield’s personal suggestion
that the difficulty, at the moment apparently insuperable, was overcome.
The consent of Parliament was necessary to confirmation of the deal.
That involved both delay and publicity, either fatal to success. Late
on the Thursday night following the Bruton Street dinner, the Premier
sent his private secretary, Monty Corry,¹ to call upon Baron Rothschild,
the Sidonia of ‘Coningsby, ’ at the time head of the great financial
house. Even a Rothschild did not happen to have about him at the moment
a trifle of four million sterling. Nor was it possible, in accordance
with the traditions of the house, that such a transaction should be
entered upon without having been considered in family council. Corry
accordingly returned to the Premier without definite reply. It came
promptly on the following morning, the terms being that the money would
be advanced on a commission of 2½ per cent.
¹ Afterwards Lord Rowton.
“These terms were pretty stiff, involving a payment of £100,000.
The City heard of them with envy, and they were discussed with
much severity when the matter came before the House of Commons. The
Rothschilds and their friends defended them on the ground that the
colossal transaction involved a certain measure of risk. There was
absolutely no security beyond the influence of the Premier, still
master of a majority in the House of Commons, and pledged to invoke its
aid in order to obtain Parliamentary sanction. The whole thing happened
between two Sundays. On the first Greenwood dined at Bruton Street; on
the second, calling on Lord Derby, he learned that the transaction had
been successfully carried through, and was invited to say what form
his personal recompense should take. He declined to specify a request,
protesting he had done nothing but his duty, and was content that its
accomplishment should be his reward....”¹
¹ Cornhill, January, 1912, _pp._ 64‒65.
LIX.
CYPRUS AND PALESTINE
THE Anglo-Turkish Convention had given a new and unexpected addition
to the already extensive list of British territorial responsibilities.
It is true that a “conditional” element ... enters into the connexion
formed with the Turkish Government; and the claims to interpose between
the Sultan and his subjects, as well as the circumstances which would
render interference necessary, are not very clearly defined. But the
British Government, not only by entering into the Convention, but by
the prominence with which important events invested that treaty, as
also by its positive acquisition of the island of Cyprus, stand pledged
before Europe and the world to secure to the populations of Asiatic
Turkey a deliverance from the corrupt rule which has hitherto burdened
them....
“In the minds of all thoughtful men there is a strong belief that this
country is the instrument by which freedom, peace and true religion
will be carried to the uttermost ends of the world. If that be so,
there is assuredly no portion of the earth’s surface which more needs
the possession of these blessings, or from which can come in keener
despair the cry ‘Come and help us.’ The countries of Asia still
remaining ... include those whereon the earliest progenitors of the
human race appeared, and those which are familiar to us in Biblical
records, or interesting as the platform upon which mighty nations
strove, and empires fell in the strife which was raging then as now
between the powers of Good and Evil.”¹
¹ Cyprus and the Asiatic Turkey, by J. M. London, 1878,
_pp._ v.‒vii.
LX.
DISRAELI AND HEINE
“DEUX noms, dont le rapprochement peut sembler d’abord inattendu, me
viennent sans cesse à l’esprit lorsque j’embrasse d’un coup d’œil cette
physionomie singulière d’homme d’état et d’écrivain, et ils aident,
si je ne me trompe, à en démêler la signification. M. Disraeli me
fait souvent penser à Henri Heine. Chez tous les deux, en effet,
même vivacité d’intelligence, même pénétration, même promptitude
à saisir toutes les idées et à s’approprier pour un instant toutes
les doctrines, même vagabondage d’imagination, même indiscipline de
génie, même mélange bizarre de fantaisie et de pensée, de frivolité
et de profondeur.... M. Disraeli a eu la chance, qui n’échut pas à H.
Heine, de vivre dans un milieu oû certains excès n’eussent jamais été
tolérés.... Il n’a pas connu non plus les souffrances morales, les
âpres soucis, les angoisses, les sérieuses épreuves, qui répandent
l’amertume dans l’ironie du poête allemand, et lui arrachent, parmi ses
éclats de rire, des cris si poignans: mais comme il tranche néanmoins
sur la société anglaise,... Quelle perturbation il jette dans son parti,
quelle inquietude il y sème par les saillies de sa verve goguenarde,...
De quel doigt irrespectueux il lève tous les voiles et touche aux
institutions qu’il prétend défendre! Ici, comme chez H. Heine, on ne
saurait méconnaître l’influence persistante de la race. L’un a fini par
embrasser le catholicisme, l’autre est né dans l’eglise anglicane; mais
ils restent Juifs, et pour sa part M. Disraeli, courageux avocat des
Juifs à la chambre des communes et dans ces livres, n’a jamais désavoué
sa parenté avec eux. L’eût-il essayé d’ailleurs, que le sceau de la
race, vivement empreinte dans son génie et dans son caractère, l’aurait
trahi. Malgré son torysme d’emprunt, on sent, il faut le dire à son
honneur, dans le langage de M. Disraeli une sympathie de cœur pour les
déshérités qui n’est guère une disposition anglaise et aristocratique:
c’est bien plutôt un souvenir de l’égalité juive et un sentiment puisé
dans la législation républicaine de Moïse; mais ce qui est plus juif
encore, c’est ce fonde de cynisme, dernière défense d’une race trempée
de longue date par la persécution et le mépris, bronzée par l’habitude
de l’outrage. M. Disraeli n’est pas plus exempt que H. Heine de cette
audace qui défie le ridicule et qui même sait en tire parti....”¹
¹ Le Roman Politique en Angleterre: Lothaire de M. Disraeli,
par M. P. Challemel-Lacour, _pp._ 445‒447. Revue des Deux
Mondes ... 15 Juillet ... Paris ... 1870.
LXI.
DISRAELI’S DEFENCE OF THE JEWS
DISRAELI supported the emancipation of the Jews in England on religious
grounds:――
“... The very reason for admitting the Jews is because they show so
near an affinity to you. Where is your Christianity if you do not
believe in their Judaism?... The Jew was necessarily a religious being,
but not a proselytising one, and so would support and not undermine the
Christian Church.... What possible object can the Jew have to oppose
the Christian Church? Is it not the first business of the Christian
Church to make the population whose minds she attempts to form, and
whose morals she seeks to guide, acquainted with the history of the
Jews? Has not the Church of Christ――the Christian Church, whether
Roman Catholic or Protestant――made the history of the Jews the
most celebrated history of the world? On every sacred day you read
to the people the exploits of Jewish heroes, the proofs of Jewish
devotion, the brilliant annals of past Jewish magnificence.... Every
Sunday――every Lord’s day――if you wish to express feelings of praise
and thanksgiving to the most High, or if you wish to find expressions
of solace in grief, you find both in the works of Jewish poets.... In
exact proportion to your faith ought to be your wish to do this great
act of national justice. If you have not forgotten what you owe to this
people, if you were grateful for that literature which, for thousands
of years, has brought so much instruction and so much consolation to
the sons of men, you as Christians, would be only too ready to seize
the first opportunity of meeting the claims of those who profess this
religion.”¹
¹ The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, by
William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle. Volume
iii. ... London ... 1914, _pp._ 68‒69.
LXII.
A HEBREW ADDRESS TO QUEEN VICTORIA (1849)
TRANSLATED Extract from an Address of Russian Jews in Safed on their
coming under England’s protection, 1849.
(After compliments to the Consul in Jerusalem.)
“We acknowledge to the Lord and praise Him that He has put it into the
heart of the Glory the Pity of the mighty Crowned Queen, the pious, the
precious, the upright who reigns over the provinces of England and its
dependencies, to do good to the people of Israel and to succour them
with every kind of aid, for great and small, and to defend them from
those that rise up against them.
“With a perfect heart
Of mercy and loving kindness;
And with the tips of the wings of Mercy
And the grace of her Righteousness
She has extended and caused to shine upon us,
Who dwell in our own land,
The holy (be it established in our days,)
Us, who are burdened with troubles――
Sinking into distress,
Poverty and calamity,
But loving the land of our Fathers,
The place of our honour.
We here are those
Who are the sons of the provinces of Russia,
And this is the day we have looked for:
We have found it, we have seen it――
For she has bent down her pity to receive us
Under the shade of her wings of compassion,
And to comfort us with shade of her mighty rule,
For a name, for a praise, and for glory!
Yea, our souls within us are bound
To implore Him, who is fearful in mighty acts,
With praises and prayers,
That He may prolong her days
In rest and satisfaction;
That the Lord may hedge her in,
And all that are hers:
The princes around her,
With her nobles,
And all those comforted in her shadow
May they rise on wings of elevation, of prosperity,
In fulness of joy;
And may her kingdom be established
Like the Moon, for ever and ever,
Until the coming of Messiah!
May the Lord bless their lives and their substance,
And increase their honour,
And crown their praise!
Amen, so be Thy will!”¹
¹ Stirring Times ... of 1853 to 1856, by the late James Finn
... vol. i. London ... 1878, _pp._ 130‒132.
LXIII.
AN APPEAL BY ERNEST LAHARANNE (1860)
“OH! que de proscriptions, que de larmes, que de sang dans cette
période de 18 siècles, et vous êtes encore, fils de Juda!
“Contre la haîne, le mépris, le dédain, le dégoût vous avez franchi
ces obstacles, sans nombre, que les bourreaux des siècles d’aveugle
foi tendaient à votre passage, et l’éternelle main vous conduisait sans
cesse!
“Mais la France vous a faits libres!...
“Vous avez été citoyens et vous êtes nos frères!
“L’an 1789 a été pour vous la première étape de la réhabilitation, si
la réhabilitation est là où il n’y a pas la honte et infamie, mais là
où il y a eu un malheur!
“Marchez alors sous l’égide sacrée de cette France émancipatrice! Dans
sa mission libérale, son étoile de salut distingua échelonnés, sur la
route des peuples, toutes les races proscrites et tous les parias du
monde. Et vous étiez sur ce grand chemin, et l’opprobre et les malheurs
ombrageaient seuls l’épineuse et brûlante voie!”
“Elle vous appella dans ses assemblées, dans ses triomphes, dans ses
joies, dans ses malheurs; et au jour des délibérations, vous avez parlé,
et au jour des marches triomphales vous avez applaudi, et au jour de
nos malheurs, vous avez pleuré!...”
“Nous nous inclinons devant vous, hommes forts! Car vous fûtes forts
durant votre histoire antique; vous fûtes forts, depuis le drame de
Jérusalem; vous fûtes forts au temps du moyenâge, alors qu’il n’y avait
que deux noires puissances: l’inquisition avec la croix, les pirates
avec le croissant!
“Mais vous ne nous êtes pas arrivés tous jusqu’à nous. Combien n’en
a-t-il pas fallu pour payer l’immense tribu de 18 siècles!
“Mais, ceux qui restent, vous pouvez grandir encore et rebâtir la porte
de Jérusalem.
“C’est votre tâche. Dieu ne vous aurait pas conduits jusqu’à nos temps
s’il n’avait pas voulu vous réserver la plus sainte des missions....”
“Une haute mission vous est réservée. Placés comme un vivant trait
d’union entre trois mondes, vous devez amener la civilisation chez
les peuples inexpérimentés encore, vous devez leur porter les lumières
d’Europe que vous avez recueillies à flots.”
“Vous servirez d’intermédiaires entre l’Europe et l’extrême Asie, et
vous ouvrirez les grandes voies qui mènent aux Indes et à la Chine et
aux archipels encore inconnus, mais qu’il faudra explorer.
“Vous arriverez aux champs de Juda, avec la couronne du martyre et les
cicatrices des longues douleurs, et le monde s’inclinera et les fronts
se découvriront, comme devant un aîné des peuples!...”
“Vous avez assez aidé à civiliser les peuples, en Europe, à faire
avancer le progrès, à faire et à favoriser les révolutions; vous devez
maintenant songer au vallées du Liban et aux grandes plaines de
Génézareth.
“Marchez! Dans votre œuvre rénovatrice, nos cœurs vous suivront et nos
bras vous serviront d’aide!
“Nous le ferons! Vous avez en vous-mêmes de ces hommes si rares en
nos temps, qui out fait appel à vos sympathies, et à vos secours, pour
venir soulager nos frères dans le malheur!¹
¹ “L’illustre M. Crémieux, dont le nom, en ces circonstances,
ne saurait être jamais assez, non pas glorifié, mais
béni....”
“Cette voix que nous entendons encore a retenti d’un bout à l’autre du
monde. Et qui ne serait pas reconnaissant aujourd’hui du généreux élan
qu’a provoqué le grand homme?
“Marchez, Juifs de tous les pays!... L’antique patrie vous appelle, et
nous serons fiers de venir rouvrir vos foyers!”
“Marchez, fils de martyrs!...”¹
¹ La Nouvelle Question d’Orient. Empires d’Egypte et d’Arabie.
Reconstitution de la Nationalité Juive. Paris ... 1860. (8º.
47 _pp._) _pp._ 39‒41.
LXIV.
STATISTICS OF THE HOLY LAND
A FOLDED page with which the Addenda (Extracts from some of the reports,
letters, and addresses on agriculture in the Holy Land received by
Sir Moses Montefiore, F.R.S., etc. etc., during his sojourn there.
Translated from the originals, by Dr. L. Loewe) to Lady Montefiore’s
Notes from a Private Journal, 1844, concludes, is entitled:――
“A form of the lists giving a statistical account of the Children of
_Israel_ dwelling in the Holy Land. In the Year 5599/1839.” _These are
the names of the worthy persons fearing God, who resided in the Holy
City, in the year_ 5599‒1839.
The form is divided into seventeen columnar sections, headed with the
following queries:――
Number in Family――Names――Where born――Age――Date of arrival in the Holy
Land――How Situated――Occupation――Married――Single――Names and number of
children――Age above 13――Age under 13――Names of Widows――Age――Names of
Orphans――Age――Remarks.
Sir Moses, accompanied by his wife, first visited the Holy Land in 1827,
and the urgent necessity and vast importance of statistics must have
deeply impressed him, for we find that on his second pilgrimage, eleven
years later, he caused forms similar to the above, which were also
in Hebrew, to be distributed in the Holy Cities of Jerusalem, Safed,
Tiberias, Hebron, and in other towns and villages. The information
furnished was signed, countersigned and sealed by the Heads of each
_Kahal_.
Forms applicable to synagogues, colleges, schools, and various other
institutions were also circulated, requesting particulars as to
situation, the names of the ecclesiastical and lay heads, and other
officials. The purpose of each organization, its income and expenditure,
and a number of other minor details.
This information――collected for thirty-six years 5599‒5635 =
1839‒1875――was compiled and arranged by Dr. Louis Loewe (the life-long
friend of Sir Moses, whom he accompanied on thirteen of his missions
abroad) and transcribed in fifteen imperial folio volumes, a model of
Hebrew calligraphy.
In addition to these particulars of a personal nature, this invaluable
thesaurus contains information dealing with land, agriculture,
buildings, industries, cotton, oil, fruit-trees, and the condition
of the country in general. The volumes are now deposited at the Jews’
College, Queen Square House, London, but form part of the Library of
the Judith, Lady Montefiore Theological College of Ramsgate.
A wealth of material lies at the disposal of future historians and
statisticians, and it is devoutly to be hoped, that this great work
will find its proper resting-place in the Archives of Jerusalem.
LXV.
AN OPEN LETTER OF RABBI CHAYYIM ZEBI SNEERSOHN
OF JERUSALEM (1863)
“THERE were hundreds of Jews, preferring labour to starvation, to
be seen working for their daily bread at one shilling per day in the
fields of the so-called ‘Industrial Plantations for Jews,’ then under
the auspices of Mr. Finn, late English Consul for Palestine, and up
to the present time there are many Jews engaged in performing even
the most menial offices and doing their best to provide food for
their families. The other day a meeting was held by the Chief Rabbi,
Haim David Hassan, and many other notabilities of the different
congregations, at which I also attended. The subject proposed was
an enquiry to ascertain the number of those who are likely to devote
themselves to agricultural pursuits and to draw up a plan in which way
they could be helped in order to attain the object desired. The result
was that up to the present about one hundred heads of families declared
their readiness to go and till the ground of their fathers. The result
of the preliminary discussion on the plan to be adopted was to get a
_hodjet_, or secure possession from the Government or possession of
cultivated ground, consisting of gardens, olive trees, vineyards and
fields.”
Palestinian Rabbis were quick to recognize the activity of the British
Consul. James Finn was indeed an English pioneer of the idea of
colonization of Palestine and of Britain’s protection of Palestinian
Jews. He was appointed Consul before the death of Bishop Alexander
(who was a converted Jew and the first Bishop appointed by the British
Government in Jerusalem), in 1848, and the chief reason for his
appointment was his known love of the Jewish cause. He was at the
time a member of the London Society’s Committee, had published an
interesting and learned work on the History of the Spanish Jews, as
well as a tract upon the Chinese Jews, had devoted himself with great
zeal and rare success to the study of Hebrew, which he spoke and wrote
with fluency, and was considered on this account to be particularly
well qualified for the post of Consul at Jerusalem (another proof of
the great appreciation of the national Jewish character of Palestine
on the part of the British Government at that time). Finn went out
as a devoted friend to the Jewish cause, and such he proved himself
throughout. Though an ardent Christian, he won the sympathy of the most
orthodox Jerusalem Rabbis, and their moral support for the colonization
of Palestine.
Palestinian Jews themselves advocated the establishment of Jewish
agricultural colonies in 1863:――
“Behold, we are now awaking to a sense of the profound degradation
which systematic dependence on charity must produce and to the
awful demoralization which must be the necessary consequence of its
precariousness. The increasing prosperity of those around us makes
us the more deeply feel our own unutterable misery: while European
ideas, gradually penetrating to us, are rousing us from our apathy
and inspiring us more and more with the wish to wipe away from us the
disgrace of sloth, with which we are but too often stigmatized. We want
to work, and to work hard, in order to support ourselves by the sweat
of our brows. But there is in Palestine no other source of employment
capable of giving bread to a community consisting of thousands of
individuals, save agriculture. You dole out to us annually thousands
of pounds, just enough to keep us, year after year, on the brink of
starvation. This has now been going on for centuries, with the result
which we have seen. Now try whether a change for the better could not
be brought about. Lay out, by way of experiment, and on a small scale,
just to begin with, a portion of the funds destined for the Holy Land
in productive labour. Some of us, at least, will, instead of being
maintained in involuntary idleness, see what our handiwork can produce,
whereby you give the mere consumer of to-day a chance of becoming the
producer of to-morrow, and in time you may have the satisfaction of
seeing the country dotted with self-supporting agricultural colonies of
happy Jews――the very same who are now a burden to you, and whose cry of
distress every now and then resounds through the countries of the West.”
Rabbi Sneersohn was on a visit to Melbourne in 1861, and addressed (in
Hebrew) a “Meeting of the members of the Jewish Faith (to which persons
of other denominations were also invited) for the purpose of adopting
measures to assist in building houses of refuge on Mount Zion” (_The
Salvation of Israel_, an address, etc., by Rabbi Hayim Zwi Sneersohn,
Melbourne, 1862).
LXVI.
THE TRAGEDY OF A MINORITY,
AS SEEN BY AN ENGLISH JEWISH PUBLICIST (1863)
“THE whole Tragedy of our People is to be found in the fact that we
must everywhere _be in the minority_: and no matter how just our cause
may be, we shall always have to complain of slights and insults, of
being overlooked by accident or design, of being scorned by many,
and denounced by zealots or infidels, all for the sake of being a
minority.... But once again blessed with a Government of our own,
though only a small portion of Israelites should be found in their own
land, while the many would prefer to remain in the countries where they
now sojourn, and the advantages of which they might not wish to give up,
the feelings of the world would necessarily undergo a great change, and
the treatment meted out to us would not be what it is now. If we have
our agriculturists, our statesmen, our mechanics, our public teachers,
equal to the best found anywhere, who would dare to insult us by
stating that he knows us only as pedlars, bankers and merchants: and
class us as a whole among petty traders and men of low pursuits? No
effort which we can make, situated as we are all over the world, will
readily change the long habit which was forced on us to depend on
commerce, large and small, in all its branches, in which the meaner
necessarily predominated, owing to the exclusive laws to which we
were subjected: and therefore it will be centuries before the unjust
prejudices against us die out, if ever they can, in case we ever
succeed in divesting ourselves of that habit. If our land be restored
to us, and we to it, how nobly will our character, which is now
concealed and obscure, burst forth in all ancient vigour and beauty,
and we shall naturally present to the world again examples worthy of
imitation, and the harp of Judah, which has so long hung mute on the
willows of many a Babylon, will again resound to the master-touch
of the inspired poet. He will again sing aloud the praises of the
Most High. Our judges will sit on the judgment-seat of our ancient
counsellors, and decide for the lofty and the lowly according to the
demands of the Mosaic legislation: and the wisdom which had its chief
residence on the hills of Jerusalem will evermore be diffused to
enlighten a suffering world, and will prove its strength in contrast
with the failures of antagonistic systems.... Will this dream be
speedily realized? We cannot tell indeed: events occasionally creep
slowly over the face of the world, but at other times they rush rapidly
forward, and one great development follows closely on the heels of
the other. The same may be the case with the now apparently distant
restoration of Israelites to Palestine. The world is becoming rapidly
peopled: the boundaries of nations in the meanwhile are frequently
changed: jealousies of one people against another are constantly
developed: the balance of power, a vain desire to preserve peace among
men, is constantly vibrating to and fro. Is it then so unlikely that
an effort will be made to place in Palestine and the neighbourhood an
enterprising race which shall restore it?”
LXVII.
הברת ישוב ארץ ישראל ודרישת ציון בלאנדאן הבירה׃
LONDON HEBREW SOCIETY FOR THE COLONIZATION OF THE HOLY LAND
PLANS
“THE London Society for the Colonization of the Holy Land intends:――
“1. To collect funds for the purchase of deserted and desolate towns,
and fields and vineyards in the Holy Land, and to prepare Hebrew
Persons able and willing to work, so as to fit them for agricultural
labour in the Holy Land.
“2. All Israelites, expert in sacred scripture and the Hebrew language,
who are members of this society for six years, and prove their ability
in agriculture, honest, and of respectable behaviour, able and willing
to work, will be sent out to the Holy Land by this Society.
“3. On those sent out by the Society the sacred duty devolves to
fulfil faithfully the commandments of the תורה not to work――or cause to
work――on Sabbath, Festivals, Schemita, and Jobal, as well as to observe
לקט שכחה ופאה and all other commandments relating to the cultivation of
the soil in the Holy Land.
“4. All Israelites having lived uninterruptedly for three years in the
Holy Land will be considered as free members, and, after passing proper
examination, can enjoy the same rights as those who have contributed.
“5. A house, with adjoining land, and cattle, implements and all other
requirements for agriculture, and all necessaries for himself and his
family shall be provided by the Society until the soil is fertilised
and productive.
“6. In each colony the Society shall establish a Synagogue with all its
requirements as ס׳ת, etc., schools for children and adults, appoint and
pay Rabbis, readers and the other officials, provide books, &c.
“7. The Rabbi must not only have thorough knowledge of the Hebrew
language and Theology, but must also be expert in other sciences and
languages, especially the language of the country.
“8. Every colonist has the preference, after the stipulated time, to
farm the land fertilised by his labour, which land remains the property
of the society.
“9. The colonists will be placed under the protection of the great
European powers.
“10. Co-religionists trained to the use of arms will be appointed by
the society, to protect the colony from the attacks of the Bedouins;
also police to enforce the laws and to maintain order.
“11. Israelitish co-religionists of all countries and of either sex
will be accepted as members of the society.
“12. Those of other religions can only be accepted as honorary members.
“13. Boys and girls from 13 to 20 years of age, and persons more than
50 years of age can be members of the second class only.
“14. Children under 13 years of age are members of the third class.
“15. Communities forming societies among themselves will be accepted as
branches of this society.
“16. Members, who bequeath money or property, according to their means,
for the benefit of the society will be constituted perpetual members.
“17. Any member desiring to perpetuate the memory of deceased relations
or friends, can do so by paying a certain sum, according to his means,
to have them inscribed as perpetual members.
“18. Each member to pay an entrance fee of not less than 1s. 6d.,
one-third of which fee must be paid at the time of entrance.
“19. This third part will be used to meet the expenses of stationery,
printing, advertising, rent of lecture hall, management, &c., and for
the assistance of those persons preparing themselves for agriculture.
“20. Each member agrees to pay a certain voluntary contribution towards
the funds of the society, which sum has to be paid to the committee
every ראש חדש for which he will receive a receipt.
“21. A public meeting will be held every ר׳ח when the names of the
members and the amount of their contributions will be published.
“22. General meetings will be held three times during the year, at such
time and place as the monthly meetings shall appoint.
“23. Admission of non-members to the monthly meetings by ticket, to be
had gratis.
“24. None but members will be allowed to address the meeting.
Non-members can submit any question in writing, which will be
communicated, and if necessary discussed at the meeting.
“25. To explain and to illustrate the principles of the society,
lectures will be delivered every Sabbath in the hall of the society,
to which members have free admission, non-members by ticket, sold for
the benefit of the society.
“The land will be divided by ballot, for which members of the first
class only are qualified. For assistance and for instruction every
member of six months standing, in the first and second class, has a
claim.
“Members who shall have obtained a plot of land and should not
desire to emigrate, can convey the same to another person, provided he
be qualified as described in Rule 2.”¹
¹ כְּנֶסֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל The Hebrew National. A weekly Journal [Edited by
Herschel Filipowski] ... London, vol. i., No. 2, Feb. 22nd,
1867, _pp._ 29‒30.
An appeal from this Society “By order of the Committee, E. I.
Polak, Secretary (_pro tem._),” appeared in a specimen of a
unique newspaper lent to me by Mr. James H. Lowe, entitled
יידיש דייטשע צייטוננ׃ London Jews’ Weekly Times, No. 4, 31st May
= 26 _Iyar_, but the year is omitted. The advertisements
were printed, but the news was lithographed. The offices
were situated at 4 Sun street, and the paper was published
by Harris Leyserowich of No. 3 Sweedland Court, Bishopsgate
Street, City.
LXVIII.
AN OPEN LETTER OF HENRI DUNANT (1866)
“THE disquieting circumstances in which Europe finds itself should not
let us forget that the Eastern question, which has already troubled
the Governments and peoples, may speedily reappear and complicate a
position grave enough in itself. Instinctively every one feels that the
day when this question will call for a definite solution, all Europe
will perhaps be in inextricable difficulties.
“Diplomatic difficulties can only end in barren expedients, but the
present, which is averse to a system of forcible conquest by fire and
sword, has a much more powerful weapon at its disposal――that of pacific
conquest by civilization.
“What is therefore to be done in order to prevent grave complications,
and regenerate the East by rousing its vital forces and infusing into
it the spirit of Western civilization?
“One of the most powerful means would be the formation of a large
society, having an eminently international character, and which would
have thereby the merit of reconciling the particular interests of the
several European Powers with those of civilization. This Society would
open for the West new and abundant sources of wealth: it would become
for the East an efficient means of moral regeneration: and lastly would
be for all nations co-operating in the matter a great honour and a
great profit.
“The following is the manner in which such an association may be
presented to the European public:――
“Objects of the Eastern International Society:――
“To promote the development of agriculture, industry, commerce, and
public works in the East, and especially in Palestine. To obtain
from the Turkish Government privileges and monopolies, whether in
Constantinople or the rest of the Empire: notably the concession and
the gradual abandonment of the soil of Palestine. To distribute for
pecuniary considerations such portions of the land, the concession
whereof might have been acquired or received by the Company, and to
colonize the more fertile valleys of the Holy Land.
“The Turkish Empire contains virtues of all kinds, which, if they were
utilized by a powerful company, would yield considerable results; but
the Porte neither possesses the resources nor the necessary forces
in order to create and lead to a favourable issue the works of public
utility, which the internal development of the Ottoman Empire so
urgently demands: left to her own resources she can neither augment her
revenues nor form new ones, she is unable to give energetic support to
either agriculture or industry, which are the only means of increasing
public wealth and prosperity.
“It is therefore for the West, which possesses the capital and where
the creative forces are superabundant, to turn to an account the real
advantages presented by Turkey, and to take in hand a work capable of
yielding excellent results. Skilfully conducted, operations in this
new country bring in a very high interest: but new combinations must
be devised, which should enjoy both the approval of the European
Powers, and the support of the Sultan’s Porte. Therefore, in order
not to weaken its forces, the Society must utilize certain special
circumstances in which Turkey is now placed, and Palestine offers
itself at first sight to the mind as the earliest field of activity.
“Palestine, as known, only wants human labour in order to produce
abundantly: it is one of the most remarkable and fruitful countries
on the globe: products of all latitudes are to be met with there,
and emigrants from Europe find there the climate of their country.
Commerce and private industry completing the work of agriculture,
will draw hither in numbers merchants, colonists and capitalists.
This resurrection of the East, uniting with the new rise of religious
sentiment, will be aided by the co-operation of Israelites, whose
valuable qualities and remarkable aptitudes cannot but prove very
advantageous to Palestine.
“Having established commercial undertakings at Constantinople and
other cities of the Turkish Empire, the Society will construct at Jaffa
a port and a good road, a railway from this city to Jerusalem. The
territory through which the railway runs should be granted by Turkey
to the Society, which might sell it to Israelitish families. These in
their turn would create colonies and make them prosperous, with the
help and the labour of those of their Eastern brethren whose love for
their ancient country has maintained itself as ardently as formerly.
Special committees might at their cost send Israelitish emigrants from
Morocco, Poland, Moldavia, Wallachia, the East, Africa, etc.
“The result pursued and obtained by the Society by means of a sincere
international understanding, the co-operation of those interested in
Turkey, and the establishment of Western populations in Palestine, will
infallibly be in a less distant future than might be imagined.
“The reconstruction of Holy Places at Jerusalem, which might be carried
out internationally, and in a manner worthy of Christendom: the end of
conflicts which are being incessantly renewed between the Great Powers
on account of the Holy Places: the transformation of ancient Jerusalem
into a new city which shall rival in importance the finest cities in
the West: the creation of European colonies which in time will become
centres when Western civilization will spread into Turkey and penetrate
the extreme East.
“Under the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan the Society will administer
with intelligence and equity the territories that might develop upon
it. Thus India has long been administered and governed by an English
company. The Sultan, grateful for the financial support which will
be given to him, might, perhaps, grant to the Holy Land a special
administration, which, under the high direction of the Porte, would
offer real security to the populations that might repair thither, and
guarantees for the funds that might be employed there. Thanks to this
combination, which would procure for her valuable resources, Turkey
would not be obliged to contract new loans in order to pay the interest
on previous ones.
“The rising colonies might diplomatically be neutralized, like
Switzerland, and by a treaty which would have some analogy to the
Convention signed at Geneva in favour of the _amboulance_, sanitary
bodies, and wounded soldiers. It would not, moreover, be so difficult
to neutralize Palestine by an agreement among the Powers, since there
exists a remarkable precedent, which is the neutralization of the Lower
Danube officially obtained from the Seven Powers, who signed the treaty
at Paris. Now the Commission of the Lower Danube has created its flag
and a small fleet, it possesses a numerous staff and revenues: it
actually seeks to contract a loan, the same as an independent state.
“In order to prepare the organization of an International Eastern
Society, it is necessary that the minds should be induced to
occupy themselves with these great and interesting questions. It
is indispensable for this purpose to form a committee composed of
influential and honourable men of different nations and different
opinions, having at heart the success of these views in the general
interest. For the rest the elements of such a committee are quite clear.
“Its programme, at the same time economic, humanitarian, scientific,
etc., is also international: it cannot hurt the susceptibilities of
any nation. Influential men in France, England, and elsewhere are
favourably disposed to the scheme.”¹
¹ Société Nationale Universelle pour la Renouvellement de
l’Orient [Henri Dunant] Paris ... 1866.
LXIX.
AN APPEAL OF RABBI ELIAS GUTMACHER AND RABBI HIRSCH KALISCHER
TO THE JEWS OF ENGLAND (1867)
_Appeal to Our Brethren_
THOU shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters
shall plant and shall eat them as common things. Jeremiah, chap. xxxi.
And I will raise up for them a plant of renown and they shall be no
more consumed with hunger in the land. Ezekiel xxxiv.
Hear ye generous people, learn ye who take an interest in holy matters,
show your tender feelings towards our brethren in the holy land!
Think of the abandoned, devastated, sacred soil. Thus voices and
signs urgently warn you, pointing out to you that the time long ago
vouchsafed has arrived to render them effectual help.
Destructive epidemic diseases and famine ravage in that land in the
same awful way this year as they did in the past one and your ever so
abundantly flowing gifts and donations are not efficient to alleviate
the misery, to satiate the hunger; upon us the needy cast their looks
and crave for relief. But there is only _one_ way, _one_ remedy to
prevent a recurrence of such distress, and that is: colonization,
cultivation and improvements of the Palestine soil.
This proposal, suggested already many years ago, urges now more than
ever upon final realization, the soil must be redeemed. The society,
“Alliance Israélite,” in Paris, so great in its activity, at the head
of which M. Adolphe Crémieux stands as president, has declared itself
in favor of this idea and promised its own assistance and interference
(_sic_) elsewhere, to accomplish the object, as we have seen from that
society’s recently published half-yearly report.
A letter Sir Moses Montefiore addressed to us after his safe return
from Palestine states that the idea has been approved of there also.
Sir Moses in the same letter says that from Zephat alone sixty Jewish
families addressed to him personally the fervent prayer for a grant
of land for agricultural purposes. That the hard tried Israelitish
inhabitants of Schabatz in Servia have declared themselves ready to
emigrate for the purpose of cultivating the Palestine soil, is known
to us already, through the medium of Hebrew periodicals.――To realize
the idea in question, money must be raised before anything can be
done: the funds in hand are not sufficient, the number of Subscribers
must increase, and the subscriptions be permanent. The leaders of
congregations should take the matter in hand and every member of a
congregation in good circumstances ought to join the society, with a
yearly contribution of two Thalers (six shillings), by which they would
be instrumental in the performance of the religious commands attached
to the sacred soil just as if they themselves had been performing it.
To enable members in more humble circumstances to contribute, quarterly
payments might be received. But he whom the Almighty has blessed
with earthly fortunes and who has the heart for the sufferings of
his co-religionists anywhere in the Universe――he should not fail to
join the “Alliance Israélite” of Paris, as a member with a yearly
contribution of 1 Thaler 10 Sgr. (4 Shillings), and thus further
the great aim. Two treasurers have been appointed by us to receive
contributions. The well-known Banker, Mr. Seegall, in Posen, is Chief
Treasurer, and Mr. S. Fuerst, in Schmiegel, Special Treasurer for
amounts up to 100 Thalers (£15). The latter Gentleman has offered to
pay all postages out of his own private pocket, and is resolved to
go at his own expense to Palestine and to make a beginning with the
colonization; perhaps the undersigned Mr. Hirsch Kalischer may take
upon himself the expense and hardships of such a voyage, to see there
after the strict observance of the religious commands connected with
agriculture in Palestine. Were there one at least in every congregation
that would zealously take the matter in hand; we would willingly confer
upon him the diploma of a Governor of the society and give him the
necessary instructions. We are also ready to purchase a priceworthy
piece of land in Palestine on account and in the name of any of our
wealthier brethren in faith that would remit to us a sum for the
purpose, and to have it administered according to their instructions.
We hope that with the proper assistance from the congregations of
Israel and by the aid of the Omnipotent we shall in a very short time
be able to give effect to the idea of Colonization.
Thorn in the month of _Marcheshvan_ 5627. “Be of good courage, and let
us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God” (2 Samuel
x. 12).
ELIAS GUTMACHER, Rabbi in Graetz.
HIRSCH KALISCHER, Rabbi in Thorn.¹
¹ כְּנֶסֶת יִשְׂרָאַל The Hebrew National, vol. i., No. i., Feb. 15th,
1867, _p._ 6.
LXX.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS (_fils_) AND ZIONISM
IN _La Femme de Claude_, pp. 50‒51, Daniel says:
“Nous sommes dans une époque où chaque race a résolu de revendiquer et
d’avoir bien à elle son sol, son foyer, sa langue et son temple. Il y
a assez longtemps que nous autres Israélites, nous sommes dépossédés
de tout cela. Nous avons été forcés de nous glisser dans les
interstices des nations, d’où nous avons pénétré dans les intérêts des
gouvernements, des sociétés, des individus. C’est beaucoup, ce n’est
pas assez. On croit encore que la persécution nous a dispersés, elle
nous a répandus; et nous tenant par la main, nous formons aujourd’hui
un filet dans lequel le monde pourrait bien se trouver pris le jour où
il lui viendrait à l’idée de nous redevenir hostile ou de se déclarer
ingrat. En attendant nous ne voulons plus être un groupe, nous voulons
être un peuple, plus qu’un peuple, une nation. La patrie idéale ne nous
suffit plus, la patrie fixe et territoriale nous est redevenue
nécessaire, et je pars pour chercher et lever notre acte de naissance
légalisé.”
Isidore Cahen writes, Le Daniel de la Femme du Claude “... prévoit
et prédit une restauration matérielle de la grandeur de Juda, la
reconstitution d’un Etat politique juif! M. Dumas va jusqu’à citer
le vœu célébre de la Hagadah: ‘L’année prochaine à Jérusalem....’
“Dans ces vœux qui contiennent nos livres traditionelles il n’y a
qu’une espérance allégorique un vœu mystique: c’est une Jérusalem
idéale, ... et non pas une Jérusalem politique....”¹
¹ _Archives Israélites_, 1ᵉʳ Fevrier, 1873, _p._ 86.
... Il faut que je sois bien maladroit et que je dise bien mal ce
que je veux dire pour qu’il y ait erreur sur mon appréciation des
Israélites. Le jour où j’ai écrit la Femme de Claude, j’ai cru les
glorifier. Je ne vois pas que Daniel et Rebecca ne représentent pas un
idéal supérieur et si Daniel menace un moment ceux qui pourraient se
montrer hostiles ou ingrats de la puissance que ses coreligionnaires
out acquise, il a parfaitement raison. Ce n’est pas quand depuis
près de deux mille ans une race subit l’injustice et la persécution
comme l’a fait votre race, qu’elle va, après de grands services
rendus, supporter l’ingratitude et l’hostilité de ceux qu’elle a tirés
d’affaire. Il n’en est pas moins vrai que lors de l’apparition de la
Femme de Claude, beaucoup de vos co-religionnaires se sont trompés sur
mes intentions et que quelquesuns ont organisé une cabale contre la
pièce. Je ne leur en veux pas. Je ne ferai jamais entrer une question
personnelle dans ce jugement que je puis avoir à porter historiquement
et philosophiquement sur toute une Nation.
... Comme j’assiste pendant le temps que je passe sur la terre
aux évolutions de l’humanité à laquelle j’appartiens, je m’amuse
quelquefois à essayer de prévoir et même de prédire la direction
qu’elles peuvent prendre. Comme j’ai bien étudié celles de votre race,
que je l’ai vue asservie et persécutée de tous temps et en ces mêmes
temps toujours patiente et laborieuse, je me suis, dans mon intérieur,
pris de sympathie pour elle, et si j’avais été capable de pratiquer
une religion c’est à celle de ces persécutés et de ces laborieux que
je serais allé. Quand un peuple a établi toute la morale humaine sur
dix petits versets, il peut vraiment se dire le peuple de Dieu, étant
donné la conception que les hommes les plus éclairés peuvent se faire,
derrière Moise d’un Dieu personnel. Seulement j’ai le tort d’appliquer
à ceux que j’étudie et qui m’intéressent les idées que j’aurais si
j’étais à leur place..., quand j’ai vu les évènements politiques nous
apporter en 1870, en établissant la République et en nous retirant de
Rome, vous apporter la revanche de tant d’injustices et d’humiliations
patiemment supportées, je me suis demandé quelle mission je me
donnerais, si dans les idées où je suis, j’étais membre de ce peuple
particulier. Je me suis dit alors que je n’aurais qu’une idée, ce
serait de reprendre possession de mon sol d’origine et de tradition
et de rebâtir le temple de Jérusalem, sinon sur la place du tombeau
du Christ, du moins en face. C’est cette idée que j’ai incarnée dans
Daniel. On m’a dit souvent depuis, que je me trompais sur les ambitions
des Israélites, qu’ils ne pensaient plus à ces représailles-là, que
leur idéal était de vivre en paix avec les différentes nations qui leur
out donné droit de cité et qu’ils out renoncé à finir leurs jours dans
un foyer à eux. Tant pis pour eux, si c’est vrai. Il est bon d’avoir
un idéal, même quand il est irréalisable. Voilà mon cher ami, aussi
brièvement que possible, mes idées sur vos coreligionnaires. Ils m’ont
toujours inspiré les sentiments que leur courage, leur persévérance,
leurs malheurs, leurs efforts de toutes sortes doivent inspirer à des
esprits de bonne foi et à des consciences désintéressées....¹
¹ The foregoing are extracts from a hitherto unpublished letter
sent by Alexandre Dumas (fils) to a prominent French Jew. It
is dated 1873.
LXXI.
APPEAL OF DUNANT’S ASSOCIATION
FOR THE COLONISATION OF PALESTINE (1867)
PALESTINE COLONISATION
To the Editor of the _Jewish Chronicle_.
“... International undertaking for the Rejuvenescence of Palestine.
――Palestine is a rich and fertile country, although now little
populated, and therefore uncultivated. A soil greatly subject
to a variety of circumstances is the cause of a great variety of
meteorological conditions. Hence a great variety of productions
peculiar nearly to every latitude; hence also a great facility for
every colonist to find in his new country a climate approaching that
of his native land.
“It is not to be feared that the colonisation of the Holy Land,
judiciously carried on, can lack warm sympathies or labour under a want
of colonists. Numerous adhesions from emigrants by the thousand, easy
in circumstances and willing to work, have already addressed themselves
to the founders of the undertaking for the rejuvenescence of Palestine.”
“The new reforms introduced by the Ottoman Government, the law which
authorised strangers to purchase and hold real estate in the Turkish
empire, the road now being constructed from Jaffa to Jerusalem, the
works projected in the port of Jaffa, the improvements effected in the
great lines of communication――all these undertakings and circumstances
united seem to indicate that the moment could not be better chosen for
commencing the colonisation of Palestine....”
“The capital required for such an undertaking would not long remain
unproductive; indeed, the financial operation of the company that
should be formed for this purpose would be one of the simplest.
“The uncultivated land in Palestine purchased of the Ottoman Government
at a comparatively small price, and with facilities for payment, resold
at a higher figure, would bring in an important profit. The increase in
the value of this land――a direct result of the colonisation――would be
an additional guarantee for the realisation of this expectation.
“The supply to the colony of agricultural and industrial tools, a
trade of importation organized on a scale strictly proportionate to the
acknowledged wants of the new settlement, would offer to the company a
field for a second operation, which, presenting neither risk nor peril,
would nevertheless insure from the very beginning undoubted profits.
“The life which begins to stir in the port of Jaffa will take a fresh
rise with the development of agriculture and manufacture in colonised
Palestine. The rejuvenescence of Central Asia, which England on the
one hand and Russia on the other pursue with so much vigour――the
former in the way of peace and the latter in that of war――will not
fail favourably to react on the trade of the coast of Syria, once so
flourishing, and the decline of which only dates from the fall of the
great empire of Persia.
“Ancient Phœnicia, the cities of Tyre and Sidon, the richest of
antiquity, owed their prosperity only to the intermediate trade carried
on between the east and the west. The fall of the empire founded by
Cyrus produced in Central Asia so great a moral and material decay that
the trade and industrial pursuits of these immense regions perished
from inanity. Tyre and Sidon had no longer any basis for existence;
their grandeur accordingly gradually declined. Alexander, after these
splendid and proud cities, succeeded in forming direct relations with
India, which the founder of this empire had brought nigh to Europe. But
Alexandria in its turn had to experience fortune’s inconstancy. Since
the discovery of the route to India to the day when steamers and the
railway to Suez restored to it some life, desertion and oblivion were
its lot. The piercing of the isthmus of Suez will end by restoring
to Alexandria its pristine importance. The trade of India will once
more completely come back to it, but the cities on the coast of Syria
and Jaffa in particular will not the less remain mistresses of every
commercial market of Central Asia, upon which a new destiny is dawning.
“A great economical revulsion in the old world is preparing, and the
coast of Palestine will again become as in days of old, in common
with that of Lower Egypt, the centre of all exchange between the old
continents.
“The Palestine Company has therefore an immense future, which it
is easy to foresee even now, but we must allow events to proceed in
the development of its activity beyond the modest limits which we at
present mark out for it.
“Paris and Jerusalem, March, 1866 and September, 1867.”
The address of the secretary-general of this undertaking is Paris, 24,
Rue de la Paix.¹
¹ _Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer_, December 13, 1867,
_p._ 6.
LXXII.
EDWARD CAZALET’S ZIONIST VIEWS
“IT was through the armed intervention of England, that, in the year
1841, Syria was transferred from Egyptian to Turkish rule. At that time
Lord Palmerston was in office; and his policy, as he explained to the
French Ambassador, M. de Bourgoing, was to turn Syria into a desert
under Turkish rule, and interpose this desert between the Sultan and
his Egyptian vassal. In confirmation of this, which may seem to some
an astounding statement, I can only refer you to ‘Guizot’s Memoirs,’
vol. 2, p. 525 ... to Syria assuredly reparation is due on the part of
England.... To attempt to improve the Turkish Government of Syria is,
for obvious reasons, a hopeless task.... No other country has anything
like the same interest in Syria, that we have; besides which, it is
to the English nation alone that the population of Syria look for
protection and support....
“It was England who handed this country over to the Turks in 1841.
Turkey has ever since abused her charge, and it is only just that she
should be now called upon to transfer it into more capable hands.”
“The Arabs, who form two-thirds of the whole of the population of Syria,
and are for most part lords of the soil, are with very few exceptions
completely illiterate, regardless of truth, dishonest in their dealings,
and immoral in their conduct. In large towns the greater proportion
of the upper classes are both physically and mentally feeble, owing to
the effects of polygamy, early marriages, and degrading vices. Out of
such elements there is no possibility of creating a ruling class. The
other sects are too few in number, and too bigoted and superstitious,
to be of any assistance in the government of the country. If, then,
the regeneration of Syria is to be attempted, it must of necessity
come from without, and can only be brought about by an influx of an
industrious and more enlightened people. Fortunately this last resource
is not denied to us. The restoration of the Jews to their own land,
seems to me the only practicable means by which the regeneration of
Syria can be effected. You must not imagine that this event, important
though it unquestionably must be, need cause any great perturbation in
Europe, or prove in any way a strain upon the resources of England. All
that is required is that England should create the conditions under
which a large number of Jews would gradually migrate on their own
account to Syria and Palestine. The first condition of such a movement
is that law and order should be introduced under our Protectorate....
“But there is another influence which would greatly assist the
colonization of the country. It has long been a cherished project with
the Jews to establish a college in the Holy Land, which would serve as
a centre of Jewish philosophy and science. Such an institution would
readily meet with support, and incalculably quicken the pulses of their
national life. With an extensive literature in their own language,
in which every branch of philosophy and science is represented, the
Jews would be able to make such an institution a genuine centre of
intellectual activity. The leading learned men of the Jewish race would
be naturally attracted to such a national centre, and would form a
nucleus round which all the intellect of the nation would gather, by
means of which the necessary elements of the future government of the
country might be formed. I understand that the most suitable site for
this college has already been generally agreed upon.
“I have still to show you that these attractions would be sufficient to
induce numbers of Jewish families to migrate to Syria. The total number
of the Jews throughout the world is variously estimated from eight
to ten millions. Of those the greater number――probably six millions
――inhabit Russia and the old Polish provinces which now belong to
Austria, Germany and Roumania. The condition of the Jews in Russia
is deplorable in the extreme. They are denied civil rights. They are
forbidden to hold landed property. They are treated as aliens, and
are restricted to limited areas in which they suffer from the evils of
over-population. These conditions have induced no fewer than 250,000
Jews to emigrate to America within the last thirty or forty years,
and it may be confidently predicted that Syria under our protectorate
would offer still greater attractions. The land of Palestine alone,
is capable of supporting ten times its present population. It may seem
strange to say of the Jews who are scattered throughout the world,
that they still consider this to be their fatherland. But, if they are
denied the actual possession of it, they still bear it in their hearts.
Three times a day every Jew offers up a prayer for the restoration of
his race to the land and the temple, from which he has been exiled
for eighteen centuries. It is a remarkable fact that this scattered
and downtrodden people possess within themselves all the elements
which go to form a united nation. They have a code of laws for their
own government; they have a literature, a history, a language and a
religion, which are peculiar to them. Their education is, with some
exceptions, on a par with that of the most civilized nations. Numbers
of them excel in all the different branches of mechanics and art; and
in trade and finance they are, as we all know, unrivalled. Though last,
not least they are a people who would fight bravely in the defence of
their country.
“During the last twenty years of the reign of the Emperor Nicholas,
the military conscription fell heavily upon the Jews. In proportion
to their numbers, for every Russian that was enlisted, five Jews were
compelled to enter the service; and during the late Turkish war they
bore themselves bravely in the face of the enemy. _No one who has any
knowledge of the Jewish character can for a moment doubt that if the
Jews were restored to their country under an English protectorate they
would prove true to our nation, and that Syria would become as firmly
united to England as if it were peopled by our own countrymen._”¹
¹ England’s Policy in the East: our Relations with Russia
and the Future of Syria. By Edward Cazalet. Second Edition.
London: ... 1879. [8º. iv + 32 _pp._ in printed wrapper.]
_pp._ 22‒26.
LXXIII.
A COLLECTION OF OPINIONS OF ENGLISH CHRISTIAN AUTHORITIES
ON THE COLONIZATION OF PALESTINE
1. _General Sir Charles Warren’s Views_
“MY proposal is simply an _arrangement_ by which, ... Palestine, this
unfortunate land may yet be placed in ... a position which may enable
her again to take a place socially among the kingdoms of the earth....”
“It will probably at once occur, ‘And what of the Arabs of Palestine?’
I ask in reply, ‘Who are the Arabs?’ They are certainly not Turks in
any degree; they are for the most part not Arabs of Arabia, of the
Desert. Then who are they? It has long been known, and no person has
thrown more light upon the subject than M. Ganneau, that the people of
Palestine are of a very mixed race: some of Canaanitish descent, some
Jewish, some of Arabia. It is evident that many of them being Moslems
are so for convenience,... We cannot, therefore, look upon the natives
of Palestine as rigid Moslems of one race; but we must recognize
them as descendants of Canaanites, Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Arabs,
and Crusaders, now professing the Moslem or the Christian faith,
according to circumstances, but retaining above everything the ancient
traditions――yes, and in some instances, I have little doubt, their
veritable old religion.”
“Palestine is about the size and shape of Wales, and has now a
population of about one and a half millions. Give her good government,
and quicken the commercial life of the people, and they may increase
tenfold, and yet there be room. The soil is so rich, the climate so
varied, that within ordinary limits it may be said that the more people
it contains, the more it may. Its productiveness will increase in
proportion to the labour bestowed on the soil, until a population of
fifteen millions might be accommodated there.
“Let us observe how the country may be improved. It consists of the
hill country, or mountain districts; the Shephalah or swelling hills,
or _wolds_; the maritime and Jordan plains, and the tablelands of
Arabia.
“All these are most productive naturally; but are, for the most part,
at present enjoying a long Sabbath.
“In the hill country, even now the white skeletons of the old system of
terracing are visible in parts; but the rich loamy soil is washed down
into the wadies, leaving the hillsides bare and desolate, and glaring
in their nakedness. A cultivated strip may be seen at the bottom of
the wady, subject to being swept away by any storm of rain forming a
torrent down the bare hillsides, or withered before its time by the
reflection of the sun from the bare rocks.
“Place the valley in proper hands, and note the results. The earth from
the bottom will be carefully carried up the hillsides, and laid out in
terraces, on which are planted young trees――those of a more delicate
nature being placed on the northern declivity, in order that they may
suffer less from the sun’s rays. The trees thrive rapidly, as they
will do in Palestine; the rain falls, but not as heretofore, rushing
fiercely down the bare rocks, and forming a torrent in the valley.
No; now it falls on the trees and terraces, percolates quietly into
the soil and into the rocky hillside, and is thus absorbed, scarcely
injuring the crops at the bottom of the valley. The rain that sinks
into the rocks will shortly reissue in perennial springs, so refreshing
in a thirsty land. The trees, having moisture in the soil at their
roots, spread out their leaves in rich groves over the land. The
sun’s rays now do not fall on the ground, but on the green leaves and
fruit, by which they are intercepted and absorbed, giving no glare or
reflection. The heat of the sun causes a moisture to rise from the
trees and soil beneath them, which, on reaching the higher and cooler
winds, is condensed into visible vapour, constantly forming as the
breeze passes over the grove, so that each grove, so to speak, supplies
its own umbrella. The climate is thus changed. Where were hot, glaring
sun, dry wind, dry earth, stony land, absence of vegetable products,
are now to be found fleecy clouds floating through the balmy air,
the heat of the sun tempered by visible and invisible vapours, groves
with moist soil, trickling streamlets issuing from the rocks, villages
springing up apace, Palestine regenerated.
“This is no dream. I have seen this change take place in Palestine in
three years, on a small scale. Why is the Lebanon so different to the
hill country of Palestine? In a great measure, because, by reason of
its position and conformation, its woods have not been cut down....
“Again, on the east of Jordan, in Gilead, I have seen the same. After
riding for miles through the ruins in the glaring summer atmosphere,
through a country denuded of trees, nearly choking with the scorching
wind, I came upon a district where the ancient woods had not been
cut down. Immediately a change was felt: clouds were seen hanging
over the woods, the air became soft and pleasant, the sun’s rays beat
less fiercely, flowers were seen under the trees, blackberries on the
brambles, water gushing out from the hillsides, birds chirping in the
shade. This was not due to any change in the atmosphere generally, but
was entirely local, and due to the presence of trees. In fact, there
are spots where you can, on the same level, change the climate in an
hour by passing from the bare land to that which is well wooded.
“This matter I have frequently examined into in Palestine. I mention
one particular instance. During the prevalence of hot winds at
Jerusalem, I noticed two clouds constantly stationary a few miles off,
in an otherwise cloudless sky. On riding over towards them, I found
them to be hanging over two large olive groves about seven miles off,
recently planted by the Greek convents. Although the wind was blowing
briskly, the moisture ascending was condensed as quickly as it rose,
and formed an umbrella over these groves.
“In the wolds of Palestine the same process may be continued. Not so
much terracing is wanted, but much planting of wood, particularly on
the south side――trees of a hardy growth; so that, with a green southern
slope opposite, the delicate fruit trees planted on the northern slopes
may bring their fruit to perfection.
“The water, which will now be found gushing from the rock, from
springs which have long been silent, will be carried in ducts along
the hillsides, and used for irrigation purposes, passing thence into
the plain, where it can still be used for irrigation, or else assist
in filling up the wells near to the surface of the ground――wells which
have hitherto been between thirty to ninety feet deep.
“Now again we shall find a difference in the crops in the plain.
Hitherto there has been but one season, and then a long interval of
desolation, from July to November, when the heaven is of brass and
the earth iron. During this long period, scarcely a green blade can be
seen over the vast plains――nothing but sticks, and stones, and dust;
the monotony relieved only by the noise of the gulgul careering on the
wings of the whirlwind....
“The presence of water brought down on the surface from the hills,
together with the vast groves of trees to be planted, causes a change.
The latter rains of June will be found to fall, giving a second
season――a never-ending succession of crops. The fulfilment of the
Prophecies will commence taking place――when the ploughman shall
overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed....
“The advance of the rolling sand-hills, which is now overwhelming the
fairest of the maritime plains, may now be arrested. The rich ground
between Gaza and Ascalon, which the sand has swallowed up, must
again be recovered. This can easily be effected, by the planting of
_coniferæ_ along the sea coast, as has been done already at Beyrout....
If we examine the Jordan valley, we find even greater changes can be
effected: it can be made far more fertile than it ever was....
“The whole valley, however, may be made one vast garden, not merely
by rebuilding the great aqueducts, remains of which still exist, and
by means of which the great cities were watered, but by means of the
Jordan river itself. The Jordan, out of Tiberias, falls ten feet to the
mile, or 600 feet in sixty miles.... The waters of the Jordan might be
brought out of Tiberias in aqueducts falling one foot to the mile, and
thus be brought over the great plain of Basan and of Jericho, and be
made to irrigate all the lands which the streams have not touched. At
the same time, the streams themselves will have increased exceedingly
from the development of the country in the high lands.
“The country can thus be transformed.”¹
¹ The Land of Promise; or, Turkey’s Guarantee. By Charles
Warren. London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent
Garden. 1875. (8º. 24 _pp._ in printed wrapper) _pp._ 5‒6,
8, 14‒20.
2. _The Rev. James Neil on the Colonization Movement_
“At a moment when all eyes are turned to the East, it cannot be
unimportant to learn that, after the slumber of ages, Palestine is
awakening to new life, and Israel are actually returning to its shores
in such numbers, and at the same time in such a way as they have never
been known to do, or could have done, since their formal banishment
by the Emperor Hadrian, in the year A.D. 135. Many Jews, it is true,
driven ruthlessly out of Spain in 1492, found a home in the Holy
Land. To go still further back, the celebrated Hebrew traveller,
Benjamin of Tudela, tells us in the twelfth century that he found
considerable numbers residing in the various towns of Palestine which
he visited――descendants, perhaps, amongst others, of some of the 30,000
who joined the arms of Chosroes the Persian in his capture of Jerusalem,
A.D. 616, or even of the Jews whom Julian the Apostate restored, A.D.
363, when he vainly endeavoured to discredit Christianity by rebuilding
the Temple. But there is this all-important difference between what
happened in the case of those who then returned, and those who are
now flocking back to the land of their forefathers. While in the
former instances, whether under Pagan, Christian, or Moslem masters,
they were, as all history shows, equally the subjects of extortion,
oppression and contumely: now they are beginning to hold a position of
comfort, independence, and power. This remarkable change is in itself
significant, and the whole movement should surely be watched by the
student of prophecy with eager and expectant attitude....