cially to the blighting and
desolating presence of the Turk.

That short, thick, beetle-browed, bandy-legged, obese man, that so many
fresh tourists find so charming, is a Turkish official. He and his
ancestors have ruled the land since 1517. A Wilberforce in sentiment, he
is the representation of "that shadow of shadows for good--Ottoman
rule." The Turks, whether in their Pagan or Mohammedan phase, have only
appeared on the world's scene to destroy. No social or civilizing art
owes anything to the Turks but progressive debasement and decay.

That heap of stones, in which you trace the foundations of temples and
palaces, where now the owl hoots and the jackal lurks, was once a
prosperous Christian village. Granted that the Christianity was pure
neither in creed nor ritual; yet it had, even in its debased form, a
thew and sinew that brought prosperity to its possessors. The history of
that ruin is the history of a thousand such throughout the empire. Its
prosperity led to its destruction. The insolent Turk, restrained by no
public opinion, and curbed by no law, would wring from the villagers the
fruits of their labour. Oppression makes even wise men mad, and the
Christians, goaded to madness, turned on their oppressors. Then followed
submission, on promise of forgiveness. The Christians surrendered their
arms, and the flashing scymitar of Islam fell upon the defenceless; and
the place became a ruin amid horrors too foul to narrate. No greater
proof of the exhaustless fertility of the soil of Syria and Palestine
could be furnished than this: that the spoiler, unrestrained, has been
in it for 365 years, and that he has not yet succeeded in reducing it
all to a howling wilderness.

II. Those who embark capital in land, with a view to securing a home for
themselves and their children, should look closely to the character of
their title-deeds. The foremost Englishman in the Levant assured me that
he never invested money in houses or land because there was no such
thing as security of title in the Turkish Empire. My own opinion, based
on an experience of ten years, is that it is impossible to know whether
or not you have a title in Syria. Unfortunately this judgment does not
rest on mere opinions as to what might happen, but it is fortified by
the authoritative Commercial Reports of Her Majesty's Consuls throughout
Syria and Palestine, and by a series of facts of daily occurrence.

Vice-Consul Jago, of Beyrout, in a repor