PALESTINE.
“Thou shalt no more be termed, Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed, Desolate.”—Isaiah.
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The following from a London paper indicates that the Land of Promise is looking up. Its relations with England are becoming commercial as well as religious; and nothing, not even protestant-religionism, can make a country’s destiny a vital question in Britain other than the commercial interest of her people in its well-being. Palestine, the desolate, a grain-growing and grain-exporting country is certainly a sign that her redemption is at hand. The London paper says:
“There are lying just now, in Falmouth harbour, forty vessels laden with wheat from Palestine, a sample of the ordinary produce of that country, to be followed by further arrivals of the same character, many more vessels similarly freighted being actually on their way to England at this moment. The wheat, though small, is of excellent quality, weighing 63 lbs. To the bushel. It had to be conveyed to the coast on the backs of camels; but notwithstanding this difficulty it was put on board at Alexandria, free of all expense, at 17s. per 8 bushels. It is offered in the English market at 25s.”
Twenty-five shillings sterling is $6.05; so that the wheat is offered to the corn factor in Mark Lane, London, at 75 cents and five eights per bushel.
This remarkable cheapness must operate ruinously upon the English tenant-farmers and landowners. The average price of wheat for six weeks ending December 14th, 1850, was 40 shillings and one penny per quarter of 8 bushels, or $1.21 and a fraction per bushel. This is forty-six cents per bushel dearer than the Palestine wheat. Now it is evident that the consumer will buy the cheapest good wheat he can get; hence, English grown wheat would find no purchaser so long as there was sufficient cheaper foreign wheat to be got in the market. The English tenant-farmer’s grain therefore remains upon his hands. This being the case, one of two things must come to pass—either his rent must be reduced, or he must become a ruined man. The people in this country have no idea of the enormous money-rents paid for farms in England. They range from about $500 to $12,500, more or less, per annum. These sums must be paid from the produce of the farms, the principal of which is grain. So long as the Corn-Laws existed the farmers had the monopoly of the grain market; so that getting his own price for his wheat he was just able to bear the extortions of the clerical tithe-exactors, of the tax gatherer, and of the law-making landlord, which was really paid by the consumer at last. But the corn-laws being repealed by the commercial and manufacturing majority of the legislature, the consumer refuses to eat dear bread for the sake of lords and parsons; so that for the present the farmer is in a suffering condition. His monopoly is gone, yet the same rent is extorted. The habits of the land-owners are expensive, that is luxurious and extravagant; and they must have large sums to spend upon their lusts. These they derive from their farm-rents, which being often-times heavily mortgaged, cannot be reduced without great economy and self-sacrifice. This the “fatlings of Bashan” have no inclination for, so that the rents must be kept up to the ruin of the tenant; for it is a question of self-preservation between master and man. At present the evil chiefly afflicts the latter; but from accounts received it appears that the day of sorrow is dawning upon the land-owners also; who, finding that their tenants cannot pay, rather than their farms should become tenantless, and themselves absolutely destitute of a rent-roll, some of them have returned from 10 to 20 percent of their dues. Will the land-owners permit their rents to be reduced to a pinching point, and the state-parsons to continue to plunder the farmer of one tenth of all he makes without receiving the least equivalent? The tithe-exactor offers the dissenting farmer a seat in the parish church, and to read old worn out prayers from a book for his soul’s health, and to bury him and the carcases of his family in consecrated ground, as value received for his tithe: but the farmer hates him, and despises his wares. Will such embarrassed landlords and tenants consent to endure their afflictions when the tithe surrendered to the farmer, and turned into cash, would enable him to pay his rent? We shall see. For ourselves we pray that the English market may be inundated with wheat from Palestine, that the wealth of the Gentiles may be turned to it as a flowing stream, even until the ecclesiastical monopoly of England’s parsonocracy shall be superseded by justice, righteousness, and truth.
But Palestine, the adopted country of the gentile-believer of the gospel, is not only becoming important in an agricultural and commercial, but also in an ecclesiastical, and therefore political point of view. The following, which we extract from the Derby Mercury, copied from the Algemeine Zeitung, is full of interest and significancy to the heirs of the kingdom of God:
“The Austrian Ultramontane party is preparing considerable difficulties for Prince Schwarzenburg, by its zeal for an object which the Christian world of Western Europe has for centuries abandoned—the recovery of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Mahometans. The purpose of the crusades is to be revived; but it is to be pursued by the way of diplomacy, not by war. It is stated that the “Catholic” Powers, with the connivance of Austria, intend to obtain possession of all the sacred spots of the Holy Land, which will be then made over to the “Catholic” Church. The Order of the Holy Sepulchre will be raised to the importance once possessed by the Knights Templars. The Pope is to be the Grand Master, and one Prince of every Catholic State of Europe is to be created Grand Prior.
“The movement, as far as it can be called one, is probably caused by the increasing influence of the Greek Church in the east, under the support of Russia. The church, too, has made the possession of the Holy Sepulchre a special object of its ambition, as well as other localities in Syria, sacred by their associations. During the two past years, while the political power of the Papal government was prostrated, the efforts of the missionaries and agents of the Greek church are said to have made great progress, and are gradually sapping the influence of the Latin Church. The feuds between the two churches have long been of the most bitter kind, and in Jerusalem it is well known, have grown to a scandalous excess; a guard of Turkish soldiers alone keeps peace between them on certain festivals in the Church of the Sepulchre.
“The German state that the Greek Christians have really obtained the preponderating influence in Jerusalem, and that any efforts of the Austrian Ultra Catholics to recover the lost ground will be met by the decided opposition of the Emperor of Russia, practically the Pope of the Greek Church. Prince Schwarzenburg is not over zealous in the cause of the Austrian Pietists, and will probably oppose the whole plan as soon as it becomes politically inconvenient.”
The Ultramontanes are the High Church party of the Papacy, or ignorance, superstition, and despotism incarnate. “The Devil and Satan” belong to this party, and it is well known that mischief is in all their works. Prince Schwarzenburg is the prime minister of Austria, and, therefore, the instrument through whom their policy must find expression. The difficulties he will have to encounter are indeed formidable. To carry out the Ultramontane conception is in effect to take possession of the country, if not by an army of soldiers, at least by an army of monks, who may become combatants at any moment their Grand Master and his political advisers, the “Catholic Powers,” may deem fit. Austria, whose emperor claims to be King of Jerusalem, is to continue at this “aggression!” But will Lord Palmerston and his “faithful ally,” the Turk, connive at it? Will Prussia connive at it? If papal influence, backed by “the Powers,” were permitted to plant itself in Palestine according to the plan proposed, both Mohammedanism and Protestantism would be banished from the land; and the Mosque of Omer, and the Cathedral erected on Mount Zion, under the patronage of England and Prussia, be converted into temples of the Virgin and the Saints. Would England and her allies stand tamely by and witness this triumph of Jesuitism in Palestine? Suppose they did permit Palestine to become a papal province, the conquest of Austria by Russia would transfer the country to the Autocrat, who would respect neither papist nor protestant further than they could work upon his fears. But we have no apprehension of the success of the Ultramontanes. The unclean spirit by which they are animated will create an agitation which cannot fail of being beneficial to Palestine. England and her allies will find that the time is come to bestir themselves in its behalf, beshadowing it with their protection for the benefit of the Jews. Better colonize it with Israelites than to allow it to become a Russo-Austrian province, which it would be in effect if Ultramontanism converted it into a fief of the Catholic church. We are glad to see the move, for out of evil, good is sure to come to Judah at this crisis of their history. Austria nor the Pope will ever possess the land, though Russia will for a short time. The former are bringing destruction upon themselves as fast as a blundering policy can effect it; so that self-preservation, and not crusading, will become the desideratum of their brief and wretched existence. The intrigues of the Greek and Latin Catholic powers will have the effect of cementing the alliance of Turkey with the Protestant; for the religious and political interests of Mohammedanism and Protestantism are essentially hostile to the popery of Russia and the West. February 1851. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Editor.
