Heaps of ruins and filth are seen in the public places, and no one frequents them for business; beggars crave an alms, lepers exhibit their sores, vagrant curs snarl over their booty. Camels crouched down await their burdens, and fill the air with a disgusting odour, caused by the ointment with which they are smeared to cure skin-diseases. Disgust, fear, hypocrisy, slavishness and distrust, are the common expressions in the faces of the men, shewing the different races of which they are composed; opposed one to another in religion and fortunes, victors and vanquished, jealous and distrustful one of the other. The women are generally covered with a white cloth, looking like ghosts, or if uncovered, would look better veiled. If wearied with the dullness within, we go outside the walls, we find a few olive-trees on the north-west, a few young plantations on the west, and the rest barren and desolate. Everywhere deep valleys or steep hills, stony and rocky roads, impracticable for carriages, difficult for horses, and painful for foot-travellers. Wherever we go the memorials of the dead are before our eyes; for the cemeteries are the places of general resort. Escaping, however, from the city, from its bad smells and loathsome and importunate beggars, we can ascend the hills, and contemplate a panorama, where every stone is a witness of God's revelation, and every ruin a monument of His wrath. On these bare summits high and ennobling thoughts fill the mind, bringing a calm that is found with difficulty in bustling and crowded cities. He who is careless or unbelieving, he who travels only from curiosity or to kill time, had better take my advice, and avoid Jerusalem. There he will have no amusement beyond taking a ride, or smoking and drinking bad coffee in an Arab café; watching the languid passers by, or listening to Arab songs accompanied on tuneless instruments. He, however, who has a family or business to care for, or is occupied in studying the inexhaustible riches of the soil, will live in Jerusalem as agreeably as in any other place.
There is but little pleasant social intercourse in Jerusalem, owing to the jealousies among the rival sects; so that the conversation generally runs upon the failings and faults of the members of the communities which are not represented at the party; and scandalous stories and ill natured remarks are retailed to the visitor, who is soon wearied and disgusted.
Hence it will appear that Jerusalem offers but slight attractions to one who is not contented with the memories of the past, and the love of archæological research. These, however, supply an unceasing field of enjoyment and constant occupation.
Jerusalem is not inhabited by a people; it is a great field wherein are collected members from every nation, brought there by their religious belief, and about to depart when their end is accomplished. No city resembles less a fatherland, none is more like a place of exile. The Turks, after impoverishing and governing the land after their own fashion, give place to new magistrates, and return home with full purses; the Arabs, who acquire there an idea of civilization, depart in search of a place where they can lay out their property to advantage; while those who remain barbarians, after gaining a moderate sum, retire to the desert to end their days. The European missionaries and travellers, after a long stay, desire at length to die in their native land. The Western and Eastern pilgrims make but a brief sojourn, and though many of them bewail leaving the Holy Places, certain it is they never remain. The Jews replace one another constantly, coming to ask leave to die in that fatherland, which in life they have been unable to regain. The few families established at Jerusalem are not ancient. Each speaks of the date of his arrival, but is uncertain of the length of his stay. In the Holy City, therefore, the population is constantly changing, renewed daily by the pilgrims, and oppressed by a disheartening uncertainty caused by the despotism and incapacity of the Government of the Sublime Porte. This of course tends to prevent the formation of intimate friendships and the fusion of the different races.
The greater part of the land does not belong to its occupants, but is the property of the mosques or of the churches, and is therefore called Wakf. There is the Wakf of the Haram es-Sherîf, the property of the great mosque; the Wakf el-Tekiyeh, the property of the Hospital of S. Helena (as it is commonly called); the Wakf Franji, the property of the Latin convent; the Wakf Rûmi, the property of the Greek convent; and in the same way they speak of the Wakf of the Russians, Armenians, Greek Catholics, Armenian Catholics, English, Prussians, Copts, Abyssinians, and Jews. Another part of the ground falls by law to these public bodies in case of the extinction of the families who possess it, or a failure of the male line. These are called mulk maukuf i.e. mortmain. Hence it comes that the smaller part only of the soil is private property (mulk); so that, owing to these restrictions, a single small estate belongs to several owners, and there are many difficulties and much danger of being cheated in buying land.
I will now offer a few remarks upon the condition of the different religious sects, premising that they entertain the bitterest feelings one towards another, and are only restrained from greater excesses by the fear that the Turks will profit by their quarrels, and listen to the highest bidder. The Consuls of the different nations have hard work to keep the peace, finding themselves of but little power in allaying strifes; not for want of will and moral courage, but because their authority only extends to small matters, and they are not properly seconded by the spiritual heads of the communities, who rather stir up the disputants and increase the difficulty of restoring peace.
The most wealthy and powerful, and, in times past (and sometimes even now), the most distinguished in these contentions are the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians; and the Turks are never sorry to see them at strife, as they reap a harvest from both the losers and the winners. Scarcely had the tempest of war caused by the Crusades passed away, when these communities began to struggle at the court of the Sublime Porte for the possession of the Holy Places. Each produced firmans given by Mohammed, Omar, Saladin, or various Sultans; and the ministers at the court always decided in favour of the highest bidder, so that the same place was assigned by different firmans to the Latins, the Greeks, or the Armenians. In consequence it has happened that one party, believing itself to be the true proprietor of a particular Sanctuary, has declared the other an impostor, until the sight of a firman of older date has shown the vanity of its claims.
The enmity of the clergy has descended to the people, and frequently, upon the most futile pretexts, the churches and Holy Places have been the theatres of fatal encounters between rival nations. The Pashas of former times (now it is different) gladly interfered on these occasions, to impose heavy fines upon the weaker party, and to sell impunity to the strong, who were quite ready to begin fresh disturbances the next day. At one time the Greeks were driven from the Holy Places by order of the Porte; now the Latins were subjected to the utmost annoyance; while the Armenians profited by the discord to establish themselves in the Sanctuaries belonging to one or other of the disputants, whose claims they pretended to be supporting. The Catholic Governments lacked the means, and perhaps the inclination, to interfere directly in such questions. The ministers of France, Spain, Venice, and Austria, in Constantinople, sometimes listened to the complaints of the religious fraternities, to whom the custody of the Holy Places had been confided. But whether their own governments failed to support them, or whether that of the Sultan was not found tractable, certain it is that their applications were seldom heeded; and, in fact, cases occurred of even personal violence being employed against the French Ministers and the Venetian Baili, or still more frequently, against their subordinates. Until within a few years past, money was the only way of succeeding in negotiations with the Porte. Hence it may be understood, as regards the Latins, how it is that the guardianship of the Holy Land has been so expensive to Europe[898]. The Franciscans had also the privilege of acquiring real property and disposing of the alms of the Faithful; until the Propaganda began to view with dislike such large sums removed entirely from its control; so in order to inaugurate a fresh system, a Patriarch was established at Jerusalem in 1847, and assigned as his revenue the fifth part of the alms received by the Guardians. This arrangement gave him the right of examining the accounts, and to the Propaganda upon the management of affairs. He was, however, so obstinately opposed by the monks, that he was obliged to make a compromise with them, in which the interests, if not the minds, of the two parties were somewhat reconciled. The Greeks also were reduced to the same situation as the Latins; for a community which is obliged to support its influence at the Turkish Court by the aid of money alone, is compelled to have recourse to expedients of every sort in order to obtain it. Consequently, either from the piety of the faithful or the activity of the monks, the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem has amassed a very large property, consisting of possessions in Wallachia, Bessarabia, Greece, and other countries, besides its estates in Palestine, and especially in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, which are being continually augmented. The secretary of the Greek convent of S. Constantine, the Archimandrite Nicoferus, has purchased in the last few years a number of estates, the value of which is not less than 6,000,000 piastres, or about £48,000. The property of the monasteries is almost entirely derived from the legacies left by the monks, who purchase in their own names, to leave to the convent, which always inherits their possessions, except a small allowance to the parents of the deceased, if they are living. The purchase-money, however, must come from the common chest of the convent, for it is of course impossible that a poor monk should have the means of buying land to such an amount. However this may be, the convent ultimately obtains the property, and thus its rent-roll increases. It still keeps on receiving the offerings of the faithful, which it lays out in the purchase of real property. This the Franciscans are now forbidden by the Propaganda to acquire; they are therefore obliged to subsist, maintain their Sanctuaries, and entertain pilgrims, on the alms which, to a greater or less amount, are sent to them from Christendom.
The revenues of the Armenians are chiefly supplied by landed property, by the money which they have out at interest on good security, and by the alms and dues of the pilgrims. They possess the best establishment in Jerusalem, and their revenues are well administered; but in spite of that they would not have so much influence as the Greeks and Latins, were it not for those of their religion who fill high places in the Turkish government.
No part of the population furnishes so many subjects for reflexion as the Jews, who dwell in the land of their fathers, without seeking to imitate their example. A remnant of their nation, they stay in their ancient capital, to pray, to weep, and to die, in the land that should be their own. The greater part live without working, upon the gifts sent by their industrious brethren in Europe and the East. From this circumstance it will be easily understood how it is that misery and indigence prevail among them, because they depend not on labour but on alms, which diminish year by year, on account of the increasing numbers who flock to Jerusalem to share them. When these supplies are distributed slowly, or are scanty, they begin to murmur, and utter the most unreasonable and shameless complaints against their benefactors. The sole source of revenue of the Jewish community is the almsbox; and when its contents diminish, the different congregations assemble and choose persons, who are provided with papers from the Rabbis, countersigned by the Consuls, and start as collectors, returning after long journeys with the fruits of their wanderings. The alms thus obtained are carelessly and thriftlessly distributed, and not applied to any useful purpose, consequently these collections are constantly repeated. Nor are they fairly divided; the truly poor, the sick, the widows and the orphans, too weak to complain or resist, are often neglected and defrauded; they cannot write, and therefore are not feared; but those who can cry aloud and make their discontent heard, who can give trouble or annoyance by complaints and intrigues, are attended to and served. Those too who are appointed to distribute the alms are utterly unfit for the duty, giving no heed and making no endeavours to qualify themselves for it, since they are neither able nor willing to make the best of the means committed to them, and secure its being bestowed on deserving objects. In a word, the Jews at Jerusalem are unfortunate in those who manage their affairs, for they are men who neglect good advice, who are servile flatterers when they hope to gain, and discontented grumblers when they get nothing. Hence it is their own fault that the Jews are degraded and miserable, because they do not attempt to repress the abuses that prevail. If the constant arrival of idle paupers was prevented, the funds would be sufficient for those who really want. Again, most of those who come are aged men, and unable to resist the demands of certain Arabs, who term themselves their protectors. If only the Jews would act with energy against their oppressors, the Government would attend to them; but, rather than claim their rights, they submit to those who rob them of their scanty alms. Formerly they were also oppressed by the Government, which was enough to account for their unfortunate condition; but since 1855 they have had no ground of complaint on this score, for Kiamil Pasha and Surraya Pasha treated them as fairly as all the other religious communities, by affording a ready ear to their complaints, by discomfiting their enemies at Hebron, and making the roads safe which they frequent on their pilgrimage. These Governors have also made laws enforcing cleanliness in the Jewish Quarter, have protected their rights in the purchase of land and houses, have admitted them to their parties, and visited their principal men; so that it is not now the fault of the Pashas if the Jews still live in dirt and degradation. It would be well if there were a Board in Jerusalem, commissioned to investigate the motives which bring settlers into the country, and prevent those from coming whose sole mode of subsistence would be the alms of others. They might also employ part of the money entrusted to them in succouring real misery, and the rest in supporting useful institutions, in purchasing lands, and bringing them under cultivation. Thus might the Jews be rescued from their degradation, and at length rendered happy instead of miserable.