The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-24 00:00:00

THE Dl2 USES IN SYRIA.

That the Syrian Christians ever became subject
to the Turkish rule, or that they are now being
massacred wholesale by fanatics, they owe to their

internecine contentions. For the Christian popula-
tion of Syria exceed that of the Islahomedan ten
to one. From the following remarks, taken from
Mr. J. Lewis Farley's interesting narrative of
" Two Years in Syria," some idea of the want of
unity which exists among the various sects of
Christians m-ty be gathered :

The fatal weakness which has made this beautiful coun-
try a manacled slave at the feet of its Mohammedan mas-
ters, has been, and still continues to be, sectarianism. Were
the people united, the Turks could not hold the country for
an hour, as they form but a tenth of the population. But
the internecine feuds of the different sects have enabled the

Turks to carry out the policy of most conquerors—"divide
and govern." The Jew detests the Samaritan ; the
Greek hates the Latin ; and the Maronite condemns both.
We have amongst our clerks in the bank a Greek Catholic
and a Maronite. The latter one day said to me, in allusion
to the former, "Do not place any dependence, sir, on —;
he does not know what truth or honour is." The other on

a subsequent occasion said, "You appear, sir, to place con-
fidence in —; but you will be deceived, as he is scarcely
a Christian." Besides the various Mohammedan sects,
there are n ine sects of Christians :—G reeks, Greek Catholics,

Latins, Maronites, Syrians or Jacobites, Syrian Catholics,
Armenians, Armenian Catholics, and, of late years, Pro-

.estants.

In the bazaars, even, this difference of opinion is ap-
parent ; for you never in any one day see all the shops
open, nor arc they st any one time all shut. The shops of
the Moslem are shut on, Friday, their Sabbath; the Jews
close on Saturday, and the Christians on Sunday. Each
day in the week is a holiday, either for the Greek, the
Maronite, or some other of these numerous sects ; and it is
quite a usual occurrence for a man's bill to be unpaid be.
cause he is making kay, awl absent from his office, it being
one of his saints' days. This is considered quite legitimate;
and it is not lawful to protest a bill until twenty-four hours
after it is due.

The Druses were formerly the most powerful, and are
still the most remarkable of all the tribes of Lebanon.
Their origin is a subject of controversy. Some say they
sprang from a remnant of French crusaders, who, unable
to return to their native land, settled in Lebanon under the
chieftainship of a Comte de Dreux, whence their name of
Druse. The celebrated Druex, Fakhr-ed-Din, who was
fourth emir, and in whose family the supreme rule was
vested, previously to the accession of the Shehab family to
power, took care to spread this report of the origin of his
people when he visited Italy in the early part of the seven
teenth century, in order to solicit aid against the Ottoman
Government.

This prince introduced a great amount of civilisa
tion among the tribes of the mountains, " But most
historians make the Caliph Hakam Bi—Amr Allah,
the founder of the Druse religion. When quite a
boy he attained the Caliphate of Cairo in the year of
the Hej ira 386 or AD,996, and his reign was marked
by the absurdities of a madman, and the cruelties
of a monster. He caused himself to be proclaimed
a divinity and the founder of a new religion which
was entirely to set aside that of Mahommed. Fear
of his barbarity made some sixteen thousand people
acknowledge his divinity, which, however, assisted
him nothing as his mortality was very emphatically
established by his being murdered by his Vizier
llanzsi." Subsequent Caliphs persecuted the fol-
lowers of the Hakem religion, and in this, as in
almost all such cases, persecution but served to sti-
mulate zeal and provoke resistance. Some, how-
ever, fled to Syria, where the somewhat similar
doctrines of Hakem Burka, the veiled prophet of
Rhorasson had been disseminated, and they soon
became a powerful people.
The southern portion of Lebanon is inhabited by the
Druses. Their religious doctrines are very little known
out of their own tribe ; but their code of morals, and the
good faith that prevails in their dealings, might afford a
good example to those sects who are supposed to take the
precepts of Christianity for their guide. Their word is as
binding with them as a legal contract with others, and their
hospitality is unbounded. When once bread is broken with
a guest, the ties and obligations of hospitality become
sacred ; and many instances aro upon record where a Druse
has suffered serious loss of property rather than be-
tray those who had thus become entitled to the shelter of
his roof.
People when excited by religious fanaticism will
go to extreme lengths and commit great enormities,
but it is only a few and those in general mad beyond
all control of reason, who will rush upon certain
destruction. Were the Christians at all united
there would be little fear of molestation from the
Druses, but the perpetual petty contests going on
amongst them gives strength and confidence to their
enemies. Public feeling is naturally exasperated
against the barbarity of the conquerors, and the
cowardice and treachery of the Turks. But w e
have as yet but one version of the story. Certain
letters from Syria state that the Christians were
the aggressors, that they had sown the whirlwind
and are now reaping the storm. Be this as it may
we opine that both parties are to blame, but most
of all the Ottoman Government. Indolence and
intrigue are fast completing what weakness and
neglect have commenced. At the present time the
Ottoman empire is too extensive, and composed of
too many barbarous tribes, antagonistic in nearly
every respect, both civil and religious, to be go-
verned peaceably by the corrupt and imbecile
court of Constantinople. Without giving prepon-
derance to any European power, these states
might be placed under a separate rule. Why
should not Syria and part of the adjacent
count; be united to Egypt, since annexa-
tion is the order of the day, and Egypt so enlarged
be constituted an independent State, As civilisa-
tion now exists wholsale murder and rapine are
not to be tolerated. Crusades against infidels,
whether conducted by Christians, Mahomedans, or
Druses, might have been all very well in the 12th
century, when ignorant and superstitious zealots
were the dupes of designing priests and would-be-
prophets ; but now-a-days religion is not be forced
down peoples' throats at the point of the bayonet.
Toleration is now the order of the day ; every man
should have liberty to go to heaven or elsewhere
his own road, but at the same time be prevented, by
stringent laws strictly enforced, from interfering
with the religious opinions and forms of worship of
his neighbours. If the Turkish Government do
bestir itself in this matter, let it do so with a deter-
mination to do justice. Let it not wreak its ven-
geance on the unthinking and misguided multi-
tude, but search out the real responsible parties
in high places, the first instigators of these de-
plorable occurrences, and visit with condign
punishment its own representatives, who, not
content to look on and see murder done
before their eyes without interference, basely
persuaded a foolishly confiding crowd of
Christians to surrender their arms, guaranteeing
their security, and then treacherously betrayed
them to those thirsting for their blood. Only by a
bold, fearless, and straightforward course, resulting
in the punishment of the guilty, can the Govern-
ment at the Porte hope to palliate its reprehen-
sible conduct in neglecting to guard its subjects
against the machinations of knaves and fanatics.

LONDON'S TRUE LINE OF DEFEII'CE,

A Staff Officer, in a letter to a contemporary,
says:--
The most effective and economical line of defence
which London could possess would be a circular
railway, forming a complete cordon round it at an
average distance of 15 miles from its centre ; and
having for its interior lines of operation the nume-
rous railways which already intersect the space in-
dicated, anct which would form radii and chords to
the proposed circle.
First, during war such a railway; with its electric
telegraph, would permit of an overwhelming num-
ber of men and guns being concentrated at any
given point in an incredible short space of time ;
and, as the whole science of war may be briefly
summed up as consisting in " the art of placing in
the right position at the right time, a mass of troops
greater than the enemy can there oppose to you,"
—arguing upon such premises, which, according to
all past history are sound, it follows that, by the
adoption of this scheme, a successful defence of Lon-
don would be rendered a certainty, and placed so
far beyond the shadow of a doubt that—

" Came the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shoCk them."

To adapt this railway to the special purpose it is
intended to serve, it would only be necessary to
carry a parapet along the entire length of its outer
edge, to have numerous " sidings" and " switch-
in.'s" at regular distances—to have Armstrong and
Whitworth ordnance mounted upon large iron-
plated trucks, in the manner suggested some time
since by Mr. W. Bridges Adams, in an able article
contributed to Once a Week,—and to have those
trucks fitted with traversing platforms and shot-
proof shields of the kind recently described in
public by Captain Coles, R.N. :—" The great
economy of this scheme is worthy of remark. One
gun transportable would do the work of 20 which
are fixtures in forts, and there would be no men to
take prisoners, for no forts would be captured." It
must in truth be admitted that in these days of
steam locomotion stationary forts and batteries,
which can only act with their guns in one direction
or locality, are obsolete anachronisms and an utter
waste of power.
Second.—During peace such a railway would be
available for purposes of traffic and passenger loco-
motion, and so yield, at least, some return for the
Woolwich,lord, ou
capital sunk in its formation. Moreover, by thus
uniting thesuburbanlndistricts of f
on toi
and I
Bromley, Norwood, Wimbledon, Chiswick, Aefon,
Hendon, Finchley, r
metropolitan thoroughfares would be relieved from
a very considerable portion of that prodigious car-
riage-work by which they are at present oppressed.
The more this system is thought of, the more the
conviction will grow that it is the simplest mode
of rendering London and its suburbs impenetrable
to invaders at a
trustthat
you w
comparativelytriflingillgive
my
cost.
i therefore
idea"
publicity, if only with the hope of its meeting the
eye of some one more qualified than myself to elabo-
rate it and bring the subject to a practical issue.