[¹] Stirring Times, or Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles, of 1853 to 1856. By the late James Finn, M.R.A.S.... Vol. i.... London, 1878, pp. 106 ff.
Then came the atrocities of the Passover of 1840 in Damascus, inflicted on the Jews there during the Egyptian régime. A few months later the bombardment of Acre and the restoration of Syria to the Turks took place. The episode of the Egyptian hold upon Syria from 1832 to 1840 came to an end. The Turks were restored at the end of 1840, being then rather more liberal in disposition than they had been before leaving the country, and in the following year the Sultan promulgated the Hatti [♦]Sheerif of Gulharch, which conceded equality in theory (but by no means in practice) to all classes of subjects.
[♦] “Shereef of Gulgarch” replaced with “Sheerif of Gulharch” for consistency
The British Government at once brought before the consideration of the Porte the condition of the Jews “already settled, or who might afterwards settle themselves in Palestine.” This was evidently a direct encouragement towards the colonization of Palestine by the Jews, made officially by the British Government. In April, 1841, Lord Palmerston forwarded a circular to his agents in the Levant and Syria, which began by stating that, as far as documents could avail, the law of Turkey had by that time become as favourable as might reasonably be expected to the Jews, but that there remained the difficulty of enforcing an honest administration of that law. The Porte, however, being at that time entirely under the beneficial influence of British diplomacy, had declared its determination that the law should be righteously administered, and had even promised Her Majesty’s Ambassador that “it will attend to any representations which may be made to it by the Embassy of any act of oppression practised against Jews.” The Consul was therefore to investigate diligently all cases of oppression of the Jews that might come to his knowledge, and report to the Embassy, and although he might only act officially on behalf of persons actually by right under British protection, he was on every suitable occasion to make it known to the local authorities that “the British Government felt an interest in the welfare of Jews in general, and was anxious that they should be protected from oppression.” He was also to make known the offer of the Porte to attend to cases of persecution that might be reported to the Embassy.
In 1842 a bad case was represented as occurring at Hebron through acts of violence on the part of Shaiki Baddo and others. In 1847 again it seemed probable that Christian fanatics were about to reproduce the horrors which occurred at Rhodes and Damascus in 1840. The British Consul, James Finn (1806–1872), then interfered and protected the Jews. In the same year he was again obliged to interfere on behalf of the Jews. In consequence of various occurrences of this kind in Jerusalem, another instruction was issued by the Foreign Office, to the effect that whenever any Austrian, French, or other European Jew was suffering from persecution or injustice, and was repudiated by his own Consul, the English Consul might take up the case, unless the repudiating Consul, when applied to, should assign some strong and sufficient reason for his objection. The spirit underlying this instruction, notwithstanding the establishment, since 1839, of other European Consulates, was in conformity with the rule laid down in that year, “to afford protection to Jews generally.”[¹]
[¹] Ibid., p. 112.
One out of many tokens of gratitude from the people so benefited will be found in an address in Hebrew to Her Majesty Queen Victoria (1819–1901), received from Jerusalem in July, 1849 (Appendix lxii).
There were, as usual, many cases in which the Palestinian Jews needed the official aid of the British Consulate, and numerous documents refer to the instances in which active official intervention with the Turkish Government was exercised on their behalf. Notwithstanding the just jealousy of the Turkish Government, says Finn,[¹] there were many individual ways of ameliorating the condition of Jewish Ottoman subjects, as well as of the Jews under British protection.
[¹] Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 55–56.
During the first case mentioned above no other Consul took part in the business, except that the Sardinian Consul assured Finn in private conversation that there could be no doubt about Jews using Christian blood in the Passover rites whenever they could get it, or, at any rate, they did in the Middle Ages.