The expedition of 1860 was made at the instance of France, but according to an international convention all the Powers had to participate in it. A contingent of European troops, which was to be increased to 12,000 men, was to be despatched for the purpose of restoring peace. France engaged to furnish half of these troops at once. If it became necessary to increase the force beyond the stipulated number, a further understanding was to be arrived at among the contracting Powers. The Commander-in-Chief of the expedition was to enter into communication with the special Commissions of the Porte. All the Powers were to keep sufficient naval forces on the Syrian coast to assist in the maintenance or re-establishment of tranquillity there. The contracting parties fixed the term of the occupation at six months, being convinced that this period would be sufficient to ensure the pacification of the populace. These were the principal terms of this important Convention, as laid down in the Protocol by the representatives of Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia and Turkey at Paris on the 3rd August.
“The Plenipotentiaries of, etc., desirous of establishing, in conformity with the intention of their respective Courts, the true character of the assistance afforded to the Sublime Porte, by the provisions of the Protocol signed this day, the feelings which have dictated the clauses of this act, and their perfect disinterestedness, declare in the most formal manner that the contracting Powers do not intend to seek for, and will not seek for, in the execution of their engagements, any territorial advantage, and exclusive influence, or any concession with regard to the commerce of their subjects, such as could not be granted to the subjects of other nations.”
Troops were landed on the 16th of August under General C. M. N. Beaufort d’Hautpoul (b. 1804). Subsequently a Commission representative of the Powers was appointed to investigate the facts. The Druses escaped into the Hauran Desert, and it was found that Turks and Damascene fanatics were really responsible for stirring up the strife, in which the Maronites had acted with a vindictiveness equal to that of the Druses. Punishment was meted out to the Mohammedans who were principally responsible, and among others Achmet Pasha, the Governor of Damascus, was shot. The French occupation continued till the 5th June, 1861, and the French and English squadron patrolled the coast for several months after. In June, 1861, the troops returned to France, and the Commissions drew up a scheme of government for The Lebanon. It provided for the appointment of a Christian Governor, to be chosen by the Porte, and for dividing the region into seven districts, each of which was to be controlled by a chief professing the religion held by its inhabitants. David Pasha, an Armenian Christian, was the first Governor. He was installed on the 4th of July, 1861. In spite of many difficulties, he succeeded in restoring order; and by raising a military force from the inhabitants of The Lebanon he made the presence of the Turkish soldiery unnecessary. The district Council included four Maronites, one Druse, one Orthodox Greek, and one Separatist Greek. The constitution did not satisfy the Maronites, whose revolt, under Joseph Karan, kept The Lebanon in a very unsettled state for several years. The privileged province of The Lebanon was finally constituted by the Organic Statute of the 6th of September, 1864.
The Lebanon was constituted a sanjak or mutessariflik, dependent directly on the Porte, which was to act in this case in consultation with the six great Powers. The province extended about 93 miles from north to south (from the boundary of the sanjak of Tripoli to that of the caza of Sidon), and had a mean breadth of about 28 miles from one fort of the chain to the other, beginning at the edge of the littoral plain behind Beyrout and ending at the western edge of the Beka’a: but the boundaries were ill-defined, especially on the east, where the original line drawn along the crest of the ridge had not been adhered to, and the mountains had encroached on the Beka’a. The Lebanon was under a military Governor (mashir), who had been a Christian in the service of the Sultan (1861–1876), Abdul Aziz (1830–1876), approved by the Powers, and who had, so far, been chosen from the Roman Catholics, owing to the great preponderance of Latin Christians in the province. He resided at Deir-al-Kamar, an old seat of the Druse Emirs. At first appointed for three years, then for ten, his term has been fixed since 1892 at five years, the Porte fearing that the longer term might lead to a personal domination. Under the Governor were seven Kaimakams, all Christians except a Druse in Shuf, and forty-seven mudirs, who all depended on the Kaimakams, except one, in the home district of [♦]Deir-al-Kamar. A central mejliss or Council of twelve members was composed of four Maronites, three Druses, one Turk, two Greeks (orthodox), one Greek Uniate and one Metawel. This was the original proportion, and it has not been altered, in spite of the decline of the Druses and the increase of the Maronites. The members are elected by the seven cazas. In each mudirich there is also a local mejliss. Judges are appointed by the Governor, but Sheikhs by the villagers. Commercial cases, and law-suits in which strangers are concerned, are carried to Beyrout. The police is recruited locally, and no regular troops appear in the province except on special requisition. The taxes are collected directly, and must meet the needs of the province before any sum is remitted to the Imperial treasury. The latter has to make deficits good.
[♦] “Dier” replaced with “Deir”
This constitution has worked well on the whole. The only serious hitch that occurred was caused by the attempts of the Governor-General and the Kaimakam to supersede the mejliss by autocratic action, and to impair the freedom of the elections. The attention of the Porte was called to these tendencies in 1892, and again in 1902, on the appointment of new Governors. The railway is French, and a precedence in ecclesiastical functions is accorded by the Maronites to the official representatives of France.
Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert (1831–1890), the fourth Earl of Carnarvon, wrote: “In estimating the past, and in taking security for the future, it must never be forgotten that for generations the policy of the Turkish Government has been eminently hostile to the maintenance of Druse nationality. As charity obliges us to believe that no state in Christendom would deliberately instigate the massacre of several thousand Christians, so the common instincts of humanity, and even self-interest, oblige us to acquit the Imperial Government of Constantinople from planning, or recommending to the execution of others, a policy of such detestable iniquity towards the subjects for whose protection they are responsible. Both suppositions are too monstrous to be entertained. But as it would not be the first time that Christian rulers have fostered the disputes or exasperated the irritation of other nations, and have set the rock in motion, unforeseeing and to a great extent reckless of the course which it will take, or the misery which it will inflict; so the local authorities in Syria might not unreasonably count upon a favourable interpretation in Constantinople of conduct, which might result either in some moderate spoliation of the Christian population, or in a humiliation of the Druse mountaineers, or in a convenient opportunity for intervening in the affairs of The Lebanon. It is a natural expedient, it is doubtless the wish of the Turkish Government, to divide and rule the tribes of The Lebanon;... The desire to break down Druse independence enters at least equally into these schemes.... It is equally clear that it is not for the advantage of England, as far as she has an interest in these questions, to consent to the annihilation of Druse nationality.... Again whilst convents and schools, ... have long laboured to create a French party among the Maronites, and to establish a French influence in The Lebanon, a strong connection of gratitude on the one hand, and of good offices on the other, has existed between the Druses and England; at all events, The Lebanon has to be relieved of Turkish administration, because it would be indifferent statesmanship to stimulate still further the centralizing policy that threatens Turkey equally with every other nation in Europe, and to allow the independent strength of local institutions and a peculiar race to be confounded in the ruin of an empire now tottering to its fall.”
This was a sound political opinion, clear, logical, based upon justice. It is to be regretted that the same policy was not applied to other provinces and other distinct races. As regards British interests, we find again the old and indisputable truth expressed as follows:—
“Territorial extension, indeed, need never enter into the dreams of English statesmanship; but it would be an act of infatuation to overlook the vast importance of Syria in any present or future distribution of European Power, which either the weakness or the crimes of other nations may necessitate. The country which now, not less than in the reigns of the Ptolemies and the Mamelukes, guards and therefore governs the northern frontier of Egypt—which now, as in the days of Alexander [(III.) the Great] (356–323 b.c.e.), commands one at least of the great approaches to India—is no petty principality, to be surrendered to the love of ease or the importunities of allies.”[¹]
[¹] Recollections of the Druses of the Lebanon, and Notes on their Religion. By the Earl of Carnarvon. London:... 1860, (pp. 117–120.)