unable to perform this interesting ceremony, as his stock of money had become exhausted, and there was no banker in the city to honour his credits; he was compelled therefore to give the authorities drafts on Beyrout. One of the happy results of this importation of ready money was, that in Safed and Tiberias the price of a measure of corn fell immediately from five piastres to two.

His enquiries completed, Sir Moses made all haste to lay his plans before Mehemet Ali. He reached Alexandria on July 13th, and was cordially received by the Pacha, who listened attentively while he unfolded his schemes. Mehemet Ali promised every assistance, and expressed himself anxious to improve the condition of his Hebrew subjects. "You shall have any portion of land open for sale in Syria," he said, "and any other land which by application to the Sultan might be procured for you. You may have anyone you would like me to appoint as Governor in any of the rural districts of the Holy Land, and I will do everything that lies in my power to support your praiseworthy endeavours." He further gave instructions to his Minister of Finance, Burghos Bey, to confirm these assurances in writing.

A new era seemed dawning for the Jews of the Holy Land. Sir Moses returned to England with a light heart, and prepared to put his plans into execution. But

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men,
Gang aft a-gley."

CH. VI.]

Disappointment.

79

He was still conning over the voluminous data he had collected, and was constructing in his mind the foundation of a new commonwealth for Palestine, when he was suddenly called upon to proceed again to the East-this time, not as a peaceful reformer, but as the champion of his people, charged to vindicate their honour in the face of a foul conspiracy. He cheerfully laid aside his agricultural schemes, and girded up his loins for the new enterprise. When he returned home in the following spring, crowned with laurels, and hailed on all sides as the deliverer of Israel, his triumph was clouded by one sad thought—the projects to which he had devoted the whole of the previous year were no longer possible. Mehemet Ali had ceased to be lord of Syria, and his improving rule had been replaced by the asphyxiating authority of the Stamboul Effendis, under whom questions of social well-being could expect little furtherance.

CHAPTER VII.

THE DAMASCUS DRAMA.

The "Red Spectre" of Judaism-Its history and origin-Revival of the Blood Accusation at Damascus in consequence of the disappearance of Father Thomas-The fanaticism of the monks and the designs of the French Consul-M. de Ratti Menton sets himself to manufacture a case against the Jews-Secures the co-operation of the Governor of the city-Arrest, torture, and confession of a Jewish barber-A Jewish youth flogged to death -Further arrests-The prisoners submitted to terrible tortures— Wholesale seizure of Jewish children-Ratti Menton's mouchards -Another confession-The bottle of human blood-Two of the prisoners die under torture-Protests of the Austrian Consul—A mass over mutton bones-Attempt to excite the Mussulman populace - The prisoners condemned to death - The "Red Spectre" at Rhodes-Anti-Jewish risings.

SOME eighteen centuries and a half ago the city of Alexandria was distracted by an agitation against the Jews, which, in many of its features, was a perfect type of the anti-Semitic movements we have witnessed during the present century. The charges against the Hebrew people were then the same as now. One writer discovered that they were an unsociable tribe; another affirmed that their religion was a danger to the State. The Rohling of the day was an Egyptian named Apion, who declared that the Jews were required by

a secret tradition" to make use of human blood in

their Passover ceremonies, and that, consequently, they were obliged to sacrifice annually a certain number of Gentiles. The public mind became inflamed, and Flaccus Aquilius, the Roman Prefect, desirous, like many a modern functionary, of ingratiating himself with the people, took no measures to prevent the riots and massacres that eventually occurred.

No circumstance of this ancient anti-Jewish agitation has been more frequently repeated than the charge of the ritual use of human blood. This "Red Spectre " of Judaism has haunted the whole history of the Hebrew dispersion, and has written the larger portion of its martyrology. It clung even to the skirts of Christianity in the early days of its temporal impotence, when its Hebrew origin was still fresh in men's minds. Athenagoras found himself compelled to appeal to Marcus Aurelius for protection against the calumny; and Origen, in his reply to Celsus, was obliged to cite from the Old Testament the many prohibitions of the use of blood as evidence of the impossibility of the alleged practice. In course of time, however, Christians themselves adopted the fable, together with many other of the superstitions of paganism, and, by a triumph of prejudice, fastened it on the very people whose traditions they had relied on to rebut it when it was related of themselves. Notwithstanding that the post-Biblical legal codes of the Jews worked out into elaborate detail the Scriptural laws on this subject, the Church obstinately persisted in repeating the charge. No Christian ever disappeared about Easter time but

G

the cry immediately arose that he had been murdered by the Jews. The calendar bristles with saints who are supposed in the flesh to have been victims of this "damnable practice of Judaism." Miracles were wrought by their bodies and their reliques; and their shrines have been visited by thousands of pilgrims. To this day the accusation is persisted in, and there are still people in Europe who believe that ritual murder is a practice of orthodox Judaism.

The origin of this extraordinary delusion has perplexed many historical scholars. The most probable theory seems to be that it was only a natural corollary of the vague impression of the Pagan world that Judaism was a form of sorcery. In the supernatural medicine chest blood has always occupied an important place. Even in Biblical times its magical virtue was the burden of a vulgar superstition; for we read of harlots washing themselves in Ahab's blood, no doubt under the impression that some peculiar beautifying property attached to the blood of a king. Homer, Horace, and Pliny speak of the magical use of blood. Gower in his De Confessione Amantis states it to have been prescribed to Constantine for the cure of his leprosy; but that he refused to try it, and for his piety was miraculously healed:

"The would him bathe in childes bloode,

Within seven winters' age;

For as thei sayen, that shulde assuage
The lepre."

It is very likely that the superior healthiness of the