The Camden Weekly Journal

PALESTINE MORTGAGED.

It is said abroad, that Palestine has been mortgaged to the Rothschilds, as security for a loan advanced to the Sultan. The rumor further asserts that, among the possibilities of the future, is the erection of Palestine, on the conclusion of a peace, into a Jewish Kingdom, under the dynasty of the Rothschilds. That serious territorial alterations will grow out of the pending war, is incontestable; and this suggestion regarding Palestine, however visionary it may seem, is, therefore, not quite absurd.

That Palestine should fall into the possession of some other people than the Turks is desirable on many accounts. Situated as it is, at a distance from the central government and liable continually to the exactions of Pachas, or the indifference of Governors, it offers no sufficient inducement for capital to settle there or industry to remain. It is consequently in a state of progressive decay. Agriculture is neglected, trade finds little to support it, and ignorance, superstition and vice predominate over the land. From the furthest shores of Nazareth to the southern waters of the Dead Sea, a curse seems to hang over the country, blighting it like a pestilence or a flight of Egyptian locusts.

There was a time, however, when Palestine was the most flourishing region, perhaps, on the face of the globe. Its valleys were filled with the low of cattle—its terraced hill sides glowed with golden crops, the vine dotted the landscapes with purple grapes; and an almost continuous line of villages crowned the acclivities in sight of each other, from the Desert of Idumea on the south to Mount Libanus on the north. There is reason to believe that at the beginning of the Christian era, the whole land was like a vast suburb. The four Gospels are full of allusions which warrant this conclusion. But now desolation broods over the entire prospect. The footprints of successive invaders have deeply dented the surface of the country. The round, battlement towers of the Crusaders rise amid the ruins of old Roman works, while the modern Turkish fortresses lift themselves above the blackened walls of Roman castles. The axe and fire have gone over this once fair region in repeated surges of blood and conflagration. Centuries of war and oppression have exhausted the spirit of the people, have destroyed the old improvements; have turned what was once a continuous garden and vineyard into a comparative desert.

No man can remember what Palestine once was, and recall what it is at present, without wishing that equal laws and liberal institutions might restore it to its former splendor.

The creation of a Jewish Kingdom promises the speediest method of arriving at this. There are millions of Hebrews scattered over Europe, who would avail themselves of such a restoration, to return to the lands of their fathers. Poland and Russia, especially, swarm with them. The oppression under which they suffer, wherever the Czar holds sway, would be an additional inducement for them to emigrate to Palestine. A Jew in Russia cannot wear a beard as he wishes, cannot appear in certain garments, cannot import even the Hebrew Scriptures, cannot enjoy the common rights of a citizen. When we consider the adventurous character of the race, and recall the great Jewish Exodus which is even now going on, we cannot see any difficulty in the way of a Jewish emigration, such as would repopulate Palestine in a very few years.

There are difficulties in the way, however, and serious ones. A small kingdom like Palestine proper would be, would hardly sustain itself against its mightier neighbors. But if, as appearances begin to indicate, the present war will end in the re-construction of Turkey; and if that re-construction should be based on a federal union, under the Sultan, of various independent provinces, then we see no reason why a Hebrew principality may not take its place in such a union, side by side with a Servian, a Russian or an Albanian one.—Public Ledger.