Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore Part 26

The dulness of such reasoning defeats its malice. And this is all the evidence for the charge procured by the bastinadoing of one hundred and twenty persons, in several instances to death. I think its meagreness proves the negative, viz., that the poor victims had nothing really to confess; and this in addition to the positive evidence of those who died under the torture, sealing their testimony with their blood.

But might not the accused have brought forward positive evidence in their favour? One person did come forward to prove that he had seen the Friar in another part of the town subsequently to the date of the supposed murder. He was bastinadoed to death--a consummation not likely to encourage other witnesses to come forward; and indeed the Jews a.s.sert that Moslems of the first rank in Damascus, if they dared speak, could have established an _alibi_ for them in many cases.

To have anything like an adequate idea of what these unfortunate people suffered, after the heads of their families had been thrown into prison, you must be on the spot to hear, as one of themselves expressed it, "their hearts speaking." Insults of all kinds heaped upon them by the refuse of mankind, their houses broken into and plundered with impunity, jewels torn from the persons of their female relatives, young children imprisoned and tortured with starvation, the son bastinadoed before the mother's eyes to make her betray her husband's place of concealment, the most exorbitant bribes demanded to permit the common necessaries of life to pa.s.s the gates of the prison for its bruised and wretched inhabitants. These, sir, were some of their sufferings, and of these I had undoubted evidence.

Surely the correspondent of the _Times_, to whom you allude, if he had not confined himself while in Damascus to Frank society, and that, too, of a particular caste, would have seen and heard enough to make him hesitate before he declared his belief in the guilt of the Jews, the mildness of their sufferings, and the mercy of their persecutors!

Had he gone to the house of David Arari, he would have learned that _women_ had been tortured, and in vain. He might have seen with his own eyes the heroic conduct of the poor negro girl, a Moslem and a slave, whom the torture could not force to bear false witness against the Jew, her master. He might there also have learned that if Madame Arari had consented to sacrifice her daughter's virtue, she might have preserved her husband's person from violence, his property from plunder, and her people from slander. He might have ascertained the amount of sympathy and mercy which Madame Lagnado received at the hands of a European functionary, when she visited him on behalf of her husband, who died under the torture. Had he visited Signor Merlato, the Austrian Consul, a man whom all Christendom must respect, he might have satisfied his eyes respecting the barbarity of the torture, and that the sufferers had not at that time recovered from its effects.

Long after that period I saw men who, after the lapse of five months from the infliction of the bastinado, had their feet and legs swelled to a form as if produced by elephantiasis. The correspondent of the _Times_, whose very just description of the state of Syria and Palestine lends an undue importance to his opinion on the case of the Jews, would have been persuaded that there were cases in which foreign influence was used with the Pasha to encourage the application of the torture when some old men, too feeble to survive for a moment the infliction of the bastinado, were subjected a second time to the torment of sleeplessness, under the bayonets of the Egyptian soldiers.

But it is indeed too unreasonable and unjust to lay on the Pasha of Damascus the whole blame of these proceedings, unequalled in atrocity since the days of the fourth Antiochus. The guilt must be equally shared by those who delivered up an innocent people into his hands; indeed, their share is greater. He may plead that he was obliged to do these things by the nature of his office. The persecutors of the Jews cannot even shelter themselves under such a plea as that. Indeed, if they be blameless, then is the Spanish Inquisition blameless also; the Auto-da-Fe being, in the last result, certainly the result of the civil power. In short, the charges and recommendations of the Jews against their persecutors are of such enormity as to make them, it is to be hoped, if they be conscious of their innocence, anxious that the whole matter should be sifted to the bottom by a process more rational than the bastinado, and before a judge less suspected of foreign influence than Sheriff Pasha. Although I trust you will persevere in your meritorious exertions for the sake of humanity and truth, yet, as you ask my opinion as to the practicability or prudence of proceeding at once to Damascus, I must say that I do not think it advisable. Though Damascus may have submitted to the Sultan, and the Emir Beshir would be happy to grant you, if necessary, an escort through the mountains, yet I am afraid a short time must elapse before the people of Damascus can be made aware of the important changes in their social condition, when the Hatti Sherif of Gulhane shall be no longer to them a dead letter, when violence shall no longer usurp the place of justice, nor men endanger their lives by bearing witness to the truth. You will be able to return to Syria in a few months under better auspices, and cover the slanderers of your people with confusion.

The example of Rhodes should give you encouragement. I was there last summer when the atrocious charge of the same malignity which was made against the Jews of that place, resulted in like violence, and which, if tried by a similar process, would have led to the same results as at Damascus.

Justice was done to them at Constantinople, and they triumphed. In the same way will you find the cloud clearing away from Damascus. Indeed, there exists not at present the shadow of evidence against them, except you so call a most unnatural and suspicious ident.i.ty of confession, to be found in all false accusations where torture has been applied, such as in trials for witchcraft. A remarkable instance of this you may have seen recorded in _Chambers' Journal_ a few months ago. It happened in the reign of James I. of England. The accused, if I rightly remember, was the "wise wife of Kent." In the meantime, if this testimony of mine can be of any service in comforting your distressed people, I shall not consider I have visited Damascus in vain.

Accept, Sir, my best wishes and esteem, and believe me to be your very obedient servant, Joseph Marshall.

To Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart, &c., &c., &c.

_Copy of a Letter addressed to Sir Moses Montefiore by Lieutenant Shadwell of H.M.S. "Castor."_

H.M.S. _Castor_, Malta, _December 5th, 1840_.

Sir,--In compliance with your request, I beg leave to submit to you some observations relative to the affairs of the Jews at Damascus, which I was enabled to make in my recent visit to that city, and also to lay before you the general impression on my mind at that time, as to the weight and credibility of the evidence addressed in support of the charges which have been advanced against them.

My visit to Damascus took place in the early part of the month of August of the present year, my fellow-travellers being the Rev. Mr Marshall, Chaplain of H.M.S. _Castor_, and the Rev. Mr Schlientz, of Malta, and his lady.

On the 10th of August, soon after my arrival at Damascus, accompanied by Mr Marshall, I went to the Jewish quarter of that city, and proceeded in the first instance to the house of David Arari, one of the accused persons, who was then in confinement, and at whose house the Father Tommaso is said to have been murdered. We were shown into an apartment where the atrocious deed is said to have been committed. It is a small room to the left of the Divan, with windows in front looking into the interior court, and high windows behind looking into the street. The latter circ.u.mstance is important as tending to throw doubts on the credibility of the accusation, as it is scarcely possible to conceive that any person could submit quietly to the pains of death without uttering cries for a.s.sistance, and that, if those cries had been uttered, they should not have been heard in the street outside.

In the corresponding apartment on the other side of the Divan, we were shown a stain of dirt upon the wall, which the zeal of the accusers branded with the imputation of being blood. This room was in a dismantled state, all the furniture having been removed, and the marble flooring torn up in order to search for bones or other remains of the supposed crime.

We afterwards visited the house of Mourad Farki, Mayer Farki, and Solomon Farki. The two former, being accused of partic.i.p.ating in the murder, were in confinement. We were shown the room where the murder of Tommaso's servant is said to have been perpetrated, and saw the privy and the sewer in the street where the remains of the two are alleged to have been thrown.

We also went to the house of Halil Said Naivi, one of the accusers, and saw that individual. He is the keeper of a low grog-shop of disreputable character. It must be admitted that the nature of the man's calling does not afford any guarantee for the credibility of his testimony.

On the following day, August 11, we went to visit the Latin Convent of the Capuchins, of which Father Tommaso was an inmate. In the chapel is a tomb with an inscription to the following effect:--

"Qui reposano le ossa de Pre. Tommaso da Sardegna Missionano Cappuccino a.s.sa.s.sinato dagli Ebrei il giorno 5 di Febrajo 1840."

I will not be exactly certain whether the above is a literal copy of the inscription, having written it down from memory after my return home, but I can confidently state that it is substantially correct, especially in so far as concerns the use of the obnoxious word "a.s.sa.s.sinato."

By this it will be seen that these enlightened Capuchins, following the example of popular credulity, a.s.sume the murder of their colleague as a fact before it has been proved judicially.

On the same day, in company with Mr and Mrs Schlientz, we repeated our visit to the Jewish quarter, and afterwards, having obtained permission from Sheriff Pasha through the British Consul, Mr Werry, went to the Seraglio to see the Jewish prisoners.

Sixteen individuals were implicated in the charge of murder; of these, two had died under torture, four had absconded. One, Mr Picchioto, being, fortunately for himself, an Austrian subject, was under the protection of the Imperial Consulate, the remaining nine were then in prison, and also a venerable Rabbi.

We were accompanied on our visit by the British Consul's dragoman and a writer in the service of the Pasha. The rooms in which the prisoners were confined were in the second floor of a large exterior building attached to the Pasha's palace, princ.i.p.ally used as a barrack.

The apartment opened into a covered corridor or gallery running round the whole length of the building. None of the doors were closed, but sentries were planted at intervals along the gallery. The prisoners were almost all of them elderly men, and seemed very unhappy. Mr Schlientz, who is both an Arabic and a Hebrew scholar, spoke to several of them on the subject of religion, pointing out to them, in their affliction, the consolations of Scriptures, which appeared greatly to excite the mirth of our attendants and other bystanders.

The prisoners confined here were either six or seven in number, the remainder, amongst whom was the Rabbi, were in custody in another part of the Seraglio, in apartments on the ground floor.

The chambers in which the prisoners were lodged were tolerably comfortable, and s.p.a.cious enough to afford them the means of taking partial exercise. An obvious desire existed on the part of our attendants to represent matters in the most favourable light, and to convince us that the prisoners, in their confinement, were treated with the greatest leniency.

I have been particular, at the risk of being thought tedious, in giving a circ.u.mstantial detail of our various visits, as it will impress upon this statement the stamp of authenticity, and at least serve to show that we were anxious by all the means in our power to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

In the course of these visits we had a great deal of conversation with the families and friends of the accused, persons who, far from appearing desirous of concealing anything, seemed on the contrary anxious to have everything fairly enquired into, and submitted to the most ample investigation. We saw several people who had been subjected to torture, amongst whom was one woman, a female servant of David Arari; we saw their wounds yet unhealed, and heard from their own lips the description of the sufferings they had endured. The tortures to which they had been subjected were of the most cruel and disgraceful nature, and some of them even too disgusting to be mentioned with propriety. We also had, during our stay at Damascus, many opportunities of discussing the question with various people with various shades of opinion, and of canva.s.sing the evidence adduced in support of the charges.

My own opinion, in which I may, I believe, also safely state my fellow-travellers fully concur, is that the Jews of Damascus are NOT GUILTY of the atrocious charges which have been preferred against them.

My grounds for this opinion are simply this, that there is no admissible evidence to support the charge.

I at once reject _in limine_, as repulsive to every principle of reason and equity, and as unworthy to be considered as legal evidence, all the admissions and confessions of the witnesses and accused persons which were extorted by torture or the fear of torture, however plausible they may seem, or however compatible with one another they may appear, particularly when I find them at variance with conflicting testimony on the one hand, and inconsistent with the general probabilities on the other.

Any absurdities, as the annals of witchcraft fully show, might be proved by the agency of torture. It was through fear of the application of this beauteous engine for the elucidation of the truth, that the Inquisition extorted from Galileo the admission that the doctrine of the earth's motion was heretical; yet, notwithstanding this confession, as that ill.u.s.trious man observed on rising from his knees, "e pur si muove." So also might the unhappy Jews of Damascus, whilst yielding to bodily suffering and confessing their guilt, exclaim the moment afterwards, "but yet we are innocent."

The whole of the pretended evidence against the prisoners was obtained either by torture or fear of torture, and the alleged agreement between the statements of the different witnesses, on which great stress has been laid, may easily be accounted for when it is considered how impossible it would be for people writhing under agonies of intense bodily suffering to give their evidence in a clear and connected manner, and how absolutely necessary it would be to extract their confession from them word by word, affirmatively or negatively--yes or no--through the agency of leading questions.

On the other hand, the only two witnesses who appeared in favour of the Jews were conveniently disposed of by being bastinadoed to death. These were a young man, who deposed to having spoken to Tommaso and his servant on the evening of the alleged murder as they were proceeding from the Jewish quarter, and the porter of the gate near the house of David Arari, who stated that he had heard or seen nothing of the priest's remains being thrown into the sewer.

The evidence was awkward, and not at all suited to the wishes of the prosecutors; and it proved fatal to the witnesses who gave it.

But, exclaim those who argue in favour of the guilt of the Jews, even although there is not sufficient legal evidence to convict them of the crimes laid to their charge, surely you must admit that, morally speaking, there can be no doubt that they are actually guilty.

Far from it. Every reasonable consideration appears to my mind to throw discredit on the statements of their accusers, while the whole of the evidence teems with obvious and palpable improbabilities.

For instance, to say nothing of the absence of any rational a.s.signable motive which could induce frontier merchants--men of rank and influence among their own people--men of wealth and consideration among their neighbours--with everything to lose and nothing to gain, to conspire together to commit two such atrocious murders, is it likely for one moment, even if they did so, that they should be so utterly devoid of all common prudence, and so grossly infatuated, as to place themselves in the power of two such inferior persons as a barber and a servant as accomplices?

And again, even on the hypothesis that they had been actuated by some such fanatical motive as has been imputed to them, is it at all probable that they would have selected for their victim an individual so certain to be missed as the Father Tommaso? From his long residence at Damascus, and the nature of his calling, his absence was sure to be noticed. Why not have selected for their victim some more obscure individual, on whom their barbarous fanaticism might have exercised their impious rites with impunity? Bah! why waste time by pursuing the ridiculous absurdities of these suppositions any further?

Then, again, all the accusers, with Halil Said Naivi at their head, were persons of low degree and disreputable character, whose testimony on any ordinary occasion would have been received with extreme caution; while the recollection of the pillaging and extortions to which the Jewish families have been subjected, affords a clue to the motives which have instigated the persecutors.

Considerable importance has been attached to the finding of the bones, but it should be remembered that they were not discovered till twenty-five days after the disappearance of Father Toma.s.so; that the sewer where the bones were found was the common receptacle of all the filth and offal of the neighbourhood, and that considerable difference of opinion existed among the medical men by whom they were examined as to the fact of their being human bones at all; while there are strong grounds for believing in the existence of the most fraudulent collusion with reference to their discovery.

In conclusion, to the reiteration of my already expressed opinion, I can merely add that I conceive the whole charge to be a base and odious calumny, unsupported by any credible testimony; a mere renewal of those disgusting persecutions which disgraced the annals of the dark ages, and one which would not for one moment be tolerated in the present day among a civilised and enlightened people.

It is much to be regretted that the disturbed condition of the East at the period of your Mission to Alexandria prevented Mohhammad Ali from ordering a full and fair judicial enquiry into the whole of the proceedings of the Damascus affair, as there is no doubt that the enemies of the Jews will not be slow to represent the edict which Mohhammad Ali has accorded to your requests, as granted more through pressure of external political embarra.s.sments than freely given as a mere matter of justice and righteous dealing; more as a political compromise of a difficult and troublesome question than as the solemn act of the Government of the country, vindicating the Jews from the aspersions which had been foully cast upon them, and branding with the stamp of official disapprobation those who had dared to utter them.

You have, however, done all that circ.u.mstances permitted you to accomplish. In the present excited condition of these countries, your attempting to reach Damascus would be highly dangerous, if not altogether impracticable; and even if you got there, I do not see how you could accomplish any good while the Government is yet unsettled, and in the absence of any const.i.tuted authority to aid your efforts with the influence of the British Government.

"Magna est veritas et praevalebit." Go on and prosper in your righteous endeavours to protect the cause of innocence and truth. Let us hope for better times, when the advancing tide of knowledge and civilisation will sweep away the last remains of ignorance and fanaticism, and the vindictive spirit of persecution flee at the scowl of the genius of truth.

Trusting you will excuse my having so long trespa.s.sed on your attention, I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

Charles F. A. Shadwell.

The evidence of two such witnesses, given in an English Court of Justice, would surely have been considered decisive.