Washington telegraph., 1856-11-19
INCREASE OF JEWS.

iSdu IecNIcW SuppOScS tnsit 10 cidSS OI IN
migrants has increased more rapidly in this
country than the Hebrew In 1850 a man
might count upon his fingers all the syna-
lgOgues In the land; now there are at least
a quarter of million Jews, from eigiity to
ninety synagogues, and multitude OF
smaller communities where "a nucleus ex-
lists which will soon grow into synagogue
The city of New York alone has twenty
lsynagogues and thirty thousand Jews
about One-twentieth part OF the population
being such.
1t may not be inappropriate to add to
the above statement respecting the pro-
gress of the ''ancient people in our coun-
try, the annexed historical and statistical
particulars from an article in Blackwood s
Magazine:
Vast as is the period and singular as are
the changes of European history since the
Christian era, .Judea still continues the
most interesting portion of the world
Among other purposes, it may be for the
purpose of fixing the general eye upon this
extraordinary land that it has BEN parti-
cularly visited by a more striking success
sion of great calamities than perhaps any
other region With less to attract an in
vader than any other conspicuous land of
the East, it has been constantly exposed to
invasion Its ruin by the Romans In the
first century did not prevent its being as
sailed by almost every barbarian, who, in
turn, assumed the precarious sovereignty
of the neighboring Asia. After ages of
obscure misery new terror came in the
Saracen invasion, which, under Amrou, on
the conquest of Damascus, rolled on to Pa
lestine- a siege of four months, which
We may well conceive to have abounded in
horrors, gave Jerusalem into the hands of
the Kaliph Omar. On the death of Omar,
who died by the usual fate of Eastern prin-
ces, the dagger, the country was left to the
still heavier mis-government of the Mos
lem viceroys-a race of men essentially
barbarian, and committing for their crimes
by their zeal in proselytism. The people
of course, were doubly tormented
a new sccurge fell upon them in the in
vasion of the Crusaders, at the beginning
of the twelfth century, followed by long
succession of bitter hostilities and public
weakness After almost a century of this
wretchedness another invasion from the
Desert put Jerusalem into the hands of its
old Oppressor, the Saracen; and In 11S7
the famous Saladin, expelling the last of
the Christian sovereigns, took possession
of Palestine. After another century of
tumult and severe suffering, occasioned by
the disputes of the Saracen princes, it was
visited by still more formidable evil in
the shape of the Turks, then wholly unci-
vilized-a nation in all the rudeness and
violence of mountaineer life, and spread
ing blood and fire through Western Asia
From this date (1317) it remained under
the dominion of the Ottoman until its con-
quest, few years ago, by that most extra
ordinary of all Mussulmans, the Pacha of
Egypt-a dreary period of 500 years, un-
der the most desolating government of the
world 1t is equally impossible to read the
Scriptural references to the future condi-
ton of Palestine without discovering a
crowd of the plainest and most powerful
indications that 1t shall yet exhibit total
| ly different aspect from that of its present
state. Enthusiasm, or even the natural
interest which we feel in this memorable
nation, may color the future to us too bright
ly; but unless language of the most solemn
occasions, and by men divinely commits
stoned for Its utterance, is wholly unmean-
ing, we must yet look to some powerful,
uuquestionable and splendid display of
Providence in favor OF the people OF Is
rael
The remarkable determination of Euro
pean politics toward Asia Minor, Syria, and
Egypt within these few years; the not less
unexpected change of manners Ind Gus
toms, which seemed to defy all change
and the new life infused into the stagnapt
Governments of Asia, even by their being
flung into the whirl of European interests,
look not unlike signs of the times. 1t may
be no dream to imagine in these phenonl-
ena the proofs of some memorable change
in the interior of things-some prepara-
tives for that great providential restoration
of which Jerusalem will yet be the scene,
( if not the centre, and the Israelite himself
the especial agent ofthose high transactions
which shall make Christianity the religion
of all lands, restore the dismantled beau
ty of all earth, and make man what he was
created to be, only ga little lower than the
angels" n. -. .....r.-5
The statistics of the Jewish population
are among the most singular circumstances
of this most singular of all people. I'm
der all their calamities and dispersions they
seem to have remained at nearly the same
amount as in the days of David and Solo
mon, never much more in prosperity, never
much less after ages of suffering Moth
ing like this has occurred in the history of
any other race; Europe in general having
doubled its population within the last hun
dred years, and England nearly tripled hers
within the last half century; the proper
ton of America being still more rapid, and
the world crOwding in constantly incre; s.
ing ratio 49,
Yet the Jews seem to stand still In this
vast and general movement. The popula
ton of Judea in its most palmy days pro
badly did not exceed, if it reached foul
millions. The numbers who entered Pal