ten
to twenty per cent., and paying the whole in money annually at
Alexandria, but the land and villages to be free, during the whole
term, from every tax or rate either of Pasha or governor of the
several districts; and liberty being accorded to dispose of the
produce in any quarter of the globe. This grant obtained, I shall,
please Heaven, on my return to England, form a company for the
cultivation of the land and the encouragement of our brethren in
Europe to return to Palestine. Many Jews now emigrate to New South
Wales, Canada, &c.; but in the Holy Land they would find a greater
certainty of success; here they will find wells already dug, olives
and vines already planted, and a land so rich as to require little
manure. By degrees I hope to induce the return of thousands of our
brethren to the Land of Israel. I am sure they would be happy in the
enjoyment of the observance of our holy religion, in a manner which is
impossible in Europe."

The scene we witnessed yesterday amply repaid us for the fatigues of
the journey. We saw nearly every individual inhabitant of Safed. Sir
Moses gave to each at least one Spanish dollar, and some fathers of
families received eight or ten dollars. To those persons who came to
meet him and Lady Montefiore at Nahr el Rasmiyah, fifteen hours'
journey from Safed, and who, when invited to sleep in the tent,
preferred, from their intense love to the country, to sleep in the
open air of the Holy Land, he made handsome presents. "I hope," said
Sir Moses in the course of conversation, "that the money I have had
the pleasure of distributing yesterday, will produce some comfort and
give assistance to the Jews in Safed, especially in their present
forlorn situation. Their sufferings during the last five years must
have been truly deplorable. First the plundering of the inhabitants,
then the earthquake, and finally the attack by the Druses, to fill the
cup of their misfortune. At the present moment the ruins of the town
present an awful spectacle of destruction; the few miserable hovels
they have erected are for the most part little better than caves, more
fit for the beast of the field than for human beings. Many are merely
four mud walls, with a mat for a roof. I think the poverty of the Jews
in Safed to be great beyond anything that can be imagined either in
England or on the Continent of Europe; it must be seen to be credited.
I am informed, and do believe, that many are actually starving,