212 On the Soil, Productions^ §fc. of Palestine. 



beyond that of multiplying the race of sheep and shearing their fleeces. 

 The average price of sheep is now seventy piasters, nearly four dol- 

 lars, though they live well throughout the year upon the natural 

 pastures. Large additional tracts might also be tilled in wheat, with 

 no greater labour of preparation and improvement than that of turn- 

 ing up the soil with a plough. The product of cotton and tobacco, 

 which are already articles of export, might be doubled or trebled at 

 once. 



Plantations of vines, olive, fig, and other fruit-bearing trees would 

 require more time, and return slower profits ; but they would be in- 

 dispensable to the complete renovation of the country, and the full 

 development of its resources. All this appears easy enough; and 

 American or English farmers would certainly find their account in 

 emigrating to the plains of Esdraelon rather than to the prairies of 

 Illinois, but for political objections. There is here no security for 

 property. The government is itself the grand robber, in whose pre- 

 sence enterprise and industry cannot exist. No changes which have 

 occurred, or can occur, in the supreme authority will remove, though 

 they may slightly mitigate, this constitutional and incurable vice of all 

 Oriental Governments. European merchants could not live in the 

 east, except under the protection of their own consuls. They never 

 become subjects to the native rulers. If some civilized Christian 

 power would rescue Palestine, by treaty or force, from Mahomedan 

 rule, and establish an enlightened, equitable, and stable government, 

 then might it become a desirable residence for civilized men ; but on 

 no other condition could a residence there be endured by any but 

 barbarians, content to be poor, and tolerant from long habit of oppres- 

 sion and injustice. It fills me with surprise to see some of the best 

 men of England labouring to promote the colonization of Jews in 

 Palestine, and that under existing governments. The Jews are pre- 

 cisely the last people on earth fitted for such an enterprise, as they 

 are a nation of traffickers, and know nothing of agriculture. Besides, 

 the Jews of Europe and America are civilized and wealthy, and would 

 not relish oppression and robbery, even in Palestine. It would be 

 worth while, also, for the Christian philanthropist to inquire whether 

 the probabilities in favour of their conversion to Christianity would 

 be multiplied by this restoration to their father land, where a thousand 

 circumstances would perpetually remind them of the glorious days of 

 their nation and its religion. Thus far the experiment which is now 

 in progress upon a diminutive scale affords little encouragement to 

 more enlarged enterprise. 



Some features, common to Palestine with several other eastern 

 countries, have been noticed incidentally in the foregoing pages, a 

 consideration of which will aid the reader in forming a just conception 

 q{ the general appearance and condition of the Holy Land. One 

 striking peculiarity is its destitution of timber. With the slight ex- 

 ceptions upon Mount Tabor and the neighbouring hills, and those so 



