y him. He said
the Jews would not allow their poor to beg from others; by which I
thought he meant to give a pretty intelligible hint that his flock
ought to be ashamed. But his rich hearer only said, "The Lord is
merciful, and he will provide." On this side the desert, the
professing Christians are not certainly priest-ridden as they are in
most Roman Catholic countries, or even on the other side of the
desert, in consequence of there being no powerful and wealthy
communities like the monasteries in Mount Lebanon, to bring down the
heavy arm of the Turks upon them; for without the Turks they can do
little, and these petty governments joyfully interfere in their
strifes to extort money from both parties, though in this respect,
Bagdad has been better off than most Pashalics for nearly sixty years
past, since the time of Suliman Pasha, whose slave the present Pasha
was, but liberated on his death. Since him there have been Ali Pasha,
Suliman Pasha the younger, Abdallah Pasha, and Seyd Pasha, all of whom
have been murdered after a longer or shorter period. Daoud Pasha has
now been fourteen years in possession of the power he obtained by the
murder of his predecessor, and seems now not far from sharing the
same fate.

_Sept. 10._ _Saturday._--The evening before last the thieves broke
into the house of one of the sons of the Pasha, and killed three of
the servants: if they serve the Pasha so what have others to expect?
Instead of being surprised that things are so bad, my surprise is that
they are not worse, seeing the city is entirely at the mercy of those
who are capable of every abomination and cruelty; and there is no
other restraint upon them than what God puts into their hearts by the
undefined fear of possible retribution. The most valuable articles
known to belong to the Pasha, from whom they had been stolen, were
sold openly in the streets, without the least notice being taken, and
thus also they shoot individuals when they please, in the open day and
in the public thoroughfares, and no one stops to see who it is or why
it is, but every one hastens off as fast as he can lest he should
share the same fate. And the passengers in the streets are not only
exposed to be shot at by those prompted by deliberate enmity, but this
armed rabble is continually drunk, and, without the least provocation,
fire at men or women. I seem to think, if it did please the Lord to
put an end to these scenes of sorrow and trial, my heart