JERUSALEM 531 
I do not think the cKmate of this part of Judaea can 
have at all changed since Jews — safety of Jerusalem lay 
in its position in rugged country without much cultivation 
— if rain has washed soil from hills, as is supposed, why is 
it not in valleys ? Character of country accords well with 
the account in the Bible. These hills of Judah being the 
East slope of a broad range whose West alone is exposed to 
rainy winds, and further being immediately facing the desert, 
the great depression of the Dead Sea must always have been 
very dry. The artificial pools are further evidence. Total 
absence of pubHc works and Jewish remains is most re- 
markable. The Jews never were or will be an agricultural 
people, nor could they have been manufacturers, ^rtisans. 
They were pastoral and great fighters — probably greatly ex- 
aggerated their own numbers and never enjoyed a settled 
Govt, without fighting with one another. The Western 
world owes them nothing in Art, Manufactures, Agriculture, 
Commerce, or Antiquities, and yet they arrogated to them- 
selves the character of the finest people in the world. They 
were one out of many fighters for Judaea, and held it in 
part by fraud and cunning and in part by power of combina- 
tion and bravery in the field. 
Generally speaking, the Jews appeared to be at the bottom 
of the scale among the population of Palestine. The diary 
records : 
Wretched and disgusting appearance of Polish Jews, who 
are very numerous — sallow, with long tress on each side of 
face and Old Clo hats — all squalid in extreme, very fair 
complexioned. Spanish Jews better. Arab Jew best. Of 
the latter there are some families near Safid who boast they 
have never left the country through all dynasties — these 
are wealthy and have splendid cultivation. 
The various agencies for bettering the condition of the 
Jews or converting them to Christianity tried much but 
effected little. ' Rabbis of Jerusalem prevent Jews working, 
but very doubtful if they wish to. Sir M. Montefiore was 
stoned out of the city on last visit.' 
The operations of the Christian Societies had brought their 
representatives to loggerheads over the question of using the 
