[¹] Emir Bechir Shehaab (late), Prince of The Lebanon. Fraˢ Halpen, Lith. M. & N. Hanhart, Imp. Saunders & Otley, 1853.
This portrait is the frontispiece of Mount Lebanon.... Colonel Churchill, vol. i.... 1853.
In 1860 the lasting feuds of the tribes in The Lebanon suddenly burst into a furious attack, on the part of the Druses, on their Maronite neighbours. The Turkish authorities connived at the massacres which were committed. On the 9th of July, 1860, riots broke out in Damascus in consequence of the punishment inflicted upon a few Mussulmans who had insulted the Christians. These Mussulmans rushed, armed to the teeth, to the Christian quarter, and began slaying, burning and pillaging. The Turkish soldiers came to their assistance on the pretence of quelling the disturbance, made common cause with the rioters, and joined in the killing, robbing and plundering. A few old Mussulmans attempted to stop the massacres, but the Turkish officers had no desire for peace; on the contrary, they spurred on their soldiers to further aggression against the unfortunate Christians, and the soldiers were assisted by hordes of looters of every sect. This state of things lasted two days, during which the rioters did not cease to massacre the Christians, to whom the Governor did not afford any help. The number of the victims was estimated at 3300. The places where their houses had stood were not recognizable, all their dwellings having been reduced to ashes.
The Sultan sent Faud Pasha (1815–1869) as an Extraordinary Commissioner with a military force. Faud Pasha issued a Proclamation to the inhabitants of Syria, in which, after alluding to the grief felt by the Sultan on hearing of the outrages, he said:—
“According to the Imperial commands, invested with a special and extraordinary mission, and possessing full powers, I have arrived, accompanied by a military force, to punish the guilty authors of so many crimes.
“The Imperial firman will inform you what is my mission, and enable everyone to judge of the extent of the Imperial justice, which accords refuge to the oppressed and punishes the oppressor.
“All may remain here in safety; the condition of the families driven from their homes will be taken into consideration, and I undertake to reassure them, and to extend to them the protection of the Imperial justice.
“I command, above all, that from this day forth dissensions cease; whichever nation dares to use violence against the other shall be attacked by the military force which accompanies me, and every person who forgets his duty will undergo immediate punishment.”
But Faud did not succeed in removing the difficulties, and each new account added to the horrors of the massacre. It appeared that the country had almost been swept clean of its Christian inhabitants. In The Lebanon not a Christian village had been spared; all the commerce of the region was interrupted; a journey from one village to another was no longer safe.
To put an end to these excesses and to restore peace and safety to the province, the “Protocol of the 3rd of August” was signed. In August the first French troops were landed on the Syrian Coast. It was a gratifying sign of the unanimity prevailing among all civilized Powers that although the state of Europe was at that time far from tranquil, the European nations were yet capable of unison in the cause of justice. It was certainly in the cause of justice that the forces of the Western world were brought to the Syrian coast, though political intrigue was busy circulating rumours such as are bound to be spread abroad when an expedition of this kind is undertaken by European Powers. That France should send troops to a country which, according to popular belief, she had coveted for years was, indeed, enough to excite world-wide attention. But opinion that mattered was inclined to assert that France had acted generously and loyally. It was, indeed, too absurd to profess the belief that intrigues in the East had given rise to these disturbances, and that the Christians themselves had caused the massacre so that France should achieve glory and influence. Undoubtedly there was in every Levantine town a host of Catholic emissaries, Jesuits, Lazarists, and the like, and it was only natural for Roman Catholics to use the name and invoke the protection of the Power which had once been the only Catholic Power known in the East.