The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1860.

THE MASSACRES IN SYRIA.

will be best attained by the display of vigour and mercy
combined.

We trust that the day may come when a land so dear to
Jews and to Christians of every name, will attain to a state
of permanent tranquillity, and I need not say how glad we
shall be if the sympathy now bein; evinced by the people
of this country, and of Europe, conduce, by the blessing of
God, to that desired end.

" I have the honour to be, sir, on behalf of Sir James
Fergusson, M.P., and myself, your faithful and obedient
servant, C. E. EiRDLEY, Honorary Secretary.
" N. Moore, Esq."

The following letter has bees addressed to a con-
temporary

Sir,—The enclosed particulars of the origin and
causes of the Syrian outbreaks may yet be found
useful to your readers. Unchristian and false ac-
counts, laying the whole blame on the Christians,
having found their way into many of the English
and foreign papers, not without prejudice to the
public mind, induced me to seek for the real causes
at the best-informed quarters. My informant, not
being actuated by sectarian prejudice, favoured me
at my request with the under-mentioned details, to
which, as an advocate of truth and justice, you will
give publication in your columns. I beg to enclose
my card, and remain, sir, yours respectfully,
A SYRIAN MERCHANT.
14, South Castle-street, Liverpool, Sept. 3.

"In reply to your inquiries concerning the origin
and cause of the disturbances that have occurred in
this country this year, I beg to state that much, if
not all, I am sorry to say, is to be placed to the
debit of the Ottoman Government, whose endeavour
is to govern people through a cunning and intrigu-
ing policy, and not by the exercise of legitimate
control, and who since the last arrangements made
made by Shekeib Effendi (which established that
the government of the mountains should be
intrusted to native princes) directed its best
efforts in order, as they say, to maintain
an equilibrium of power between Christians and
Druses, to assist the latter and strengthen them, lest
through their weakness and scarcity of number they
should be overcome and the Christian element pre-
dominate, and the consequence of this assistance
gave birth to many evils, as the Druses are by na-
ture lovers of murders, highway robberies, and
seizures of property ; so they began to perpetrate
these things with impunity, and in none of their
misdeeds (well known to the Government) were
they ever punished or interfered with, except very
seldom, and when such things had any connexion
with Europeans, and justice was demanded with
power. Things remained in such a state until
Nlohamed Kurschid Pasha was intrusted with the
government of Beyrout, with his Wehnya and others
of his suite, like Atta Bey and Ahmed Effendi, and
also Ahmed Pasha, Seraskier of Damascus, and
similar officers ; then the insubordination of the
Druses and their aggressions were redoubled, and
ceased on the part of the Government every atten-
tion and consideration to the remonstrances made
by the European Consuls, and treated with dis-
dain was every European intervention, until
this state of things caused the outbreak between
Druses and Christians last year at Beit-Mery, in
the district of Metten, where the Druses not having
been successful, but rather beaten, they nursed at
heart the intention of revenge, and all means were
employed by them to arrive at this purpose ; they
forged letters from the principal chiefs and nobles,
forged their seals to this effect and sealed them
without any foundation, the purport of which let_
ters is that the Christians have resolved to call the
French into Syria and exterminate from the land
all the other sects. In the interval, through the
aggressive policy and injustice of the Kaimakan of
the Christians, Emir Beschir Ahmed (who is of
Druse origin), and the cowardice of the family
Kazin, some agitation was caused among the people,
which ended in their expelling them, and the tem-
porary appointment of other people in their place.
Then amid this agitation the Druses took advan-
tage, and with their forged letters and other means
(as the vile machinations of the Emir Beschir Assaf
and similar unworthy chiefs, whose object was to
attain power), enlisted almost all in their favour.
They enlisted the Government from their jealousy
against allowing any power to the Christians,
whom they hate religiously. They enlisted tne
Moslems, first, because their religion commands
them to shed the blood of all those who differ from
them, take their property and violate their women
every time they deviate from the conditions laid
on them by Omar Ben Kattab—as not to ride
horses, or wear green stuffs, or pass to the right
of any Moslem ' • secondly, they having been de-
ceived by the forged documents that the Chris-
tians intend to exterminate both them and their
Government; thirdly, the enmity contracted against
the Christians on account of the equality demanded
by the European Powers between Moslem and
Christian. They enlisted all the other sects, Me-
tualis and others, because these have no confidence
in the good intentions and behaviour of their Chris-
tian neighbours; therefore, a conspiracy of all the
enemies of Christians was formed, preparations
completed, and nothing wanted but a motive—then
vexatious questions, revenge, and want of justice,
&e., began. The Druses first of all killed the supe-
rior of the convent of Ammyk, near Deir el Kam-
mer, and pillaged his residence; also another per-
son from Obbadia, on the new French road to Da-
mascus ; afterwards three men at Khan Mohamed
Alitnear Saida ; then a priest and four men from
Jezzin, in the lane of Mezrah ; then another of
Obea. These murders caused great agitation in the
country, and the Christians presented their com-
plaints to the authorities, through some influential
persons like Bishop Tubia and others (of those held
suspected on no foundation to be members of a
committee for the extermination of the Druses),
but no ear was given to their complaints, and then
these influential persons employed to obtain justice
from the Government, not having received any,
told their employers of the ill success of their cause,
and, if they were not satisfied, to obtain if they
could redress themselves ; therefore the Christians,
in their agitation, killed one Druse at Khan
Shayah, near Beyrout, another near the rivers of
Beyrout,andthe Druses killed a Christian of Deir-el-
Kammer in Ainab, and in revenge the inhabitants
of Deir-el-Kammar killed aDruse of the same town.
Things arriving at such a maturity, the Druses
surprised one hour before sunset the village of Beit
Mery, and with the assistance of some Bashi Ba-
zouks, stationed there on the part of the Government
since last year to keep order as it were, remained
fighting until half-past 3, after sunset, when both
parties withdrew, but not before the greater part of
the village was burnt down. Before these occur-
rences the Christians hadsent about 300 men, most
of them from Kount Kesrou an, to Baabda, in order to
protect the district called Sahil against the Druses
of the Garb, and whom the chief Druses of that
place requested not to interrupt the peace existing
between them and themselves. In the meantime,
Mohamed Kurschid Pasha, Governor of Beyrout,
went into Hasbeya, near the village Haddath, and
with him about 800 troops, with some cannon, and
sent some notable persons on his part, both Mos-
lems and Christians of Beyrout, to tell them to dis-
perse, else he would attack them, promising, if they
obeyed, to keep the Druses from attacking them,
and guaranteeing them from all consequences if they
dispersed. This done, on the following day after the
attack on Beit-Mery the Druses surprised the villages
of Hareya, Wadey, Beitshey, Baabda, Haddath, and
adjacent places, and put to fire and sword the deceived
inhabitants and their houses, who, having received
the assurance of the Druse chief, and that of Kur-
schid Pasha, were totally unprepared for the at-
tack. The Turkish soldiers took an active and ap-
parent part against the Christians; however, the
loss of life in this engagment was trifling, as most
of the inhabitants were not at home, but at their
daily labours in the town of Beyrout and other
places. The same day the population of Dedbeya,
intimidated by their Druse neighbours, left their
village about e vening, and with their families walked
on the coast side towards Beyrout. They were met
when near the Damoor River by the Druses of
Shouyfat, and some of the Shahar and Garb, who
surprised them and put them to the sword till morn-
ing, leafing the coast strewed with the dead bodies
of men, women, and children, then seized their
property, and went away. These poor fellows
suffered dreadfully, and the women left their chil-
dren on the sands, exposed to the dangers of hea-
ven, earth, and sea. This massacre was also per-
petrated with the assistance of some Bashi-Bazouks,
placed by the Government to guard the safety of the
road, also some Moslems of Beyrout took part in it.
A few days afterwards other massacres took place
in the district of Jezzin and the villages of Saida.
No less than 3,000 people were butchered, and it
was then, when the remaining Christians were
running for refuge to Saida, they met with their
death by the hands of the Moslems and soldiers in
a more cruel and infamous manner. Afterwards
fights and engagements, massacres and destructions
were carried throughout the entire mountains, The
whole country became unsafe, and communication
between one place and another stopped. Then fol-
lowed the massacres of Hasbeya, Rasheya, Deir-el-
Kammer, and Zahleh, unprecedented even in the
annaltwf barbarous nations. These slaughters and

that of Damascus have been perpetrated upon the
Ottoman Gevernment giving assurances and gua-
rantees of protection to the Christians, disarming
them and then delivering them to their enemies,
who killed them with axes and other horrid in-
struments, and not with bullets and powder, as
they say it is a pity to waste powder on a Chris-
tian. The Imperial soldiers did not hesitate to
help in the perpetration of all these horrid actions,
besides they had robbed the Christians of their
most valuable property under the Fretext of keep-
ing it for them. The number of those saved from
these wholesale butcheries is few, and whenever a
person was saved through the ,*mercy of an enemy
it was a Druse, and not a Moslem or Turk, who
showed compassion.. These are the original causes
of these distnrbances, which will, no doubt, one day
be found out to be correct, and refute all the other
causes ascribed to the Christians, which have been
credited by some, as well as the news of a treaty of
peace having been arranged between the Druses
and the Christians, one of the greatest lies that
was ever invented to deceive Europe. In fine, the
sole cause of these terrible occurrences may be
placed to the Ottoman Government, and it is not
impossible that this very Government may one day
bceome the cause of the ruin of the world."

DISEMBARKATION OF THE FRENCH
TROOPS IN SYRIA.

A letter from Beyrout, dated August 18, says :
In my last letter, desphtched via Alexandria, on
the 16th inst., I mentioned that two vess Is, having
on board a portion of the French expedition, had
that morning anchored in the roadstead. But as
the men were not disembarked until after post
hour, I was unable to furnish any account of their
landing. This commenced about two hours before
sunset, the English, Dutch, Austrian, Sardinian,
Greek, and Russian, as well as French men of war,
lending their boats for the occasion. The number
of men that have arrived amounted to rather more
than 1,700, of which about 500 came in the Messa•
genie mail beat, and the rest in a large steam
transport. In the latter was General Beaufort
d'Hautpoul, who commands the expedition, and
who from the fact of his having served all
through the Syrian campaign of 1840 as aide-
de-camp to Suliman Pacha (Colonel Sevres), the
Egyptian general (a Frenchman by birth) com-
manding the troops of Ibrahim Pacha, seems to be
the right man in the right place. The disembarka-
tion was by no means well managed. The men
were landed at Ras Beyrout, to the south of the
town, the very furthest possible point from where
their camp was to be. Instead of being brought
ashore in large bodies, and directly marched off at
an easy pace to their camp, they came ashore by
driblets, were kept hours in the fearfully hot Syrian
sun, and then marched off at the rate of six miles
an hour along a dusty road, over a very steep hill,
through ankle deep sand, to a second road more
dusty than the first, and so some three miles to their
camp, reeking with perspiration, covered with dust,
overladen with baggage, jingling with mess tins
and canteens slung about them, and having the
most unimposing appearance it is possible to conceive.
It was really almost as if an enemy had done it,
and pained one to see such really fine troops made
to look so little in the eyes of the natives. But
French troops do not embark or disembark well ;
all connected with the sea is their weak point.
Any English colonel of a regiment or staff officer
who had disembarked his brigade or regiment as
these men were landed the other day would have
' received such a wigging as he would not have for-
got in a hurry. Even the first detachment that
marched off did not reach their camping ground
until long after sunset, and the latter could not
have arrived until an hour or more after it was
quito dark. This two in a new country, where
every arrangement had to be made, and where the
men had to pitch their camp before they slept.
Apart, too, from this it was of importance that the
natives of the country should see a body of troops
land and march in a soldierlike imposing manner,
whereas they looked to the mere superficial be-
holder but very slightly removed from the Turkish
soldiers. This, too, is the more extraordinary, as
there had been here for the last fortnight or more
a French staff colonel, vtho came to select the ground
for the camp, and make all arrangements for their
disembarkation. I never saw the most slovenly
English regiment land in so unsoldierlike a man-
ner as did these troops.
_ -

But here all fault-fin-ling must end. The sol-
diers had no sooner got to their ground than they
commenced pitching their small tentes d'abris (each
of which is divided into three parts and carried by
as many men), preparing their soup kettles, and
otherwise making themselves comfortable. I vi-
sited the camp the following day, and went all over
it ; the men looked as comfortable and as perfectly
settled down as if they had been a year in the
place. Their commissariat arrangements, packing
of stores, &c., appear most admirable. Every two
bags of flour, every two barrels of wine, every two
cases of ammunition, form together exactly a load
for a mule or horse. Everything connected with
the whole economy of the force seems to fit due into
another, like the pieces of a child's puzzle ; there
seems to be a place for everything, and everything
is in its place. What a difference from our mar-
vellous Anglo-commissariat mismanagement, waste,
and ignorance ! Who that has ever landed with
English troops in a strange country, or even in a
well-known country with troops new to it, can
forget the utter disorder, discomfort, and muddle
which prevail in every civil department of our ser-
vice I have seen an English regiment, in times
of profound peace, land in an Indian Presidency
town where the authorities had been expecting
them for six months, and there was nothing more
ready for the men than if they had arrived at one
of the Feejee islands. How the French exceed us
in this ! Had the troops which came here the other
day landed at Marseilles or Toulon, they could not
have been better cared for in all that regards their
eating, drinking, and general comfort.

The detachments which have already arrived
consist of the 16th battalion of Chasseurs 5. Pied—
a corps which distinguished itself greatly at Sol-
ferino—a portion of the sth and 11th of the Line,
and a complete company of Engineers. They are
all young—but not too young—men, and appear
healthy, hardy, and well-trained. The 16th Chas-
seurs, in particular, is a very fine regiment, and
on parade, as I saw them early this morning, look
the very picture of what a rifle corps should be.
Some few, very few, of the men have been
drunk about the town, but the great civility they
show towards all who go near their camp, and the
individual intelligence of even the privates, are
very striking indeed. All ranks of the detachments
speak in raptures of their first reception in Pales-
tine. The French mail steamer, having about 500
of the 16th Chasseurs on board, reached Jaffa on
the 15th instant, the Emperor's birthday. The
English line-of-battle ship Victor Emmanuel, 91,
Capt. Clifford, was at anchor before the town. The
moment the steamer cast anchor, Capt. Clifford sent
on board to know whether he could be of any
use
to the officers or men, at the same time manning
yards and firing a salute in honour of the Emperor's
fete. When the steamer left Jaffa for Beyrout, in
the afternoon, the Victor Emmanuel manned yards
again, and gave the French troops three parting
cheers. This little piece of cheap civility has cresteda
most wonderfully warm feeling towards us, both
amongst the French troops and French navy here,
and they declare that we are the least jealous and
the most braves Bens in the world. Well, better by
far this than the everlasting song of " French in-
trigue" with which some men try to account for all
that has happened in Syria. I
met a Frenchmen
the other day who tried to make out that English
intrigues amongst the Druses were the cause of the
recent massacres. Wickedly stupid as is such a
creed, and doubly criminal as it is to ventilate the
same, it is not more so than the doltish repetition
of French intrigues in Syria. Why, what in the
name of common sense has either one or the other