THE DRUSES AND MARONITES.

 ONE of the most interesting portions of the earth is at the present time the scene of a religious and civil war, and subjected to all the horrors of the worst calamity that can afflict any people. Syria and the Holy Land must always be regarded with a lively interest by all Christian nations ; and it is almost impossible the " Powers" of Europe can permit the cruelties and ravages of war to ruin and depopulate this region without some endeavour to put a stop to it. They interfered in 1812 to settle with the Porte the form of the government of Syria ; they are not less called on now to interpose to put a period to that state of anarchy which there is some reason to fear has been partly caused by their own former arrangements.

The war is carried on between the Druses and the Maronites ; but as these names do not convey any notion of the differences between them or their relative position, a short explanation of the state of the Syrian population is necessary to render the facts contained in our recent foreign intelligence clear to the comprehension of a great body of readers.

It should be borne in mind that the  population of Syria are of many creeds ; the land, indeed, seems to be the very centre and focus in which religious differences, sects, and schisms contend with the fiercest intensity. It was the home of the Jewish people ; it was the cradle of the Christian faith ; it has been conquered by the Turk, invaded by the Crusader, and is now governed by the ruler of Egypt. The people are of many religions, and those subdivided into sects, which seem to hate each other but the more deeply the nearer they agree.

An idea of the extent of these dissensions may be gathered from the following extract from a writer who long resided among them. " The Jew loathes the Samaritan, though of his own lineage, and has no sympathy in common with any other class. The Greeks and Maronites, and Syrian, Latin, and Schismatic churches, though of one origin in Christianity, and equally oppressed, hate their rulers less than they do each other. The Metowali and the Sonnite alike acknowledge the mission of Mohammed, but are reciprocally regarded as heretics and infidels ; and, with the Druse and Anzary, the Arab, Turk, and European (constituting the masses of that country's population,) all seem to vie in perpetuating the respective virulence and antipathies of their ancestral schisms, and each class lives in distinct and recognised habits of separation from all others."

The acts which are committed by one portion of the people alone, the Christians, from this deadly sectarian hatred, are atrocious. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem is annually a scene of conflict, in which the exertions of a guard of Mahommedan soldiery are often insufficient to prevent bloodshed. It is manifest that a slight cause would suffice to set these passions in a flame, either against each other or the Mahomedan population among whom they live ; and the flame has been lighted, and is now raging with terrible fury. The causes of this war of the Druses and Maronites have been in active operation since 1842.

According to De Lamartine, the Maronites take their name from a hermit, named Marron, who lived about the year 400 : he resided in the desert ; and his disciples having spread themselves over the different regions of Syria, built several monasteries, the chief of which stood in the vicinity of Apamea, on the fertile banks of the Orontes. All the Syrian Christians who were not then infected with the heresy of the Monothelites, took refuge in these monasteries, and from this circumstance received the name of Maronites. Volney, who lived several months amongst them, has collected the best information as to their origin ; it is nearly similar to what I myself drew from local traditions. Whatever it may have been, the Maronites form at present a tribe governed by the purest theocracy which has resisted the effects of time—a theocracy which, perpetually menaced by the tyranny of the Mahomedans, has been forced into moderation, and served to propagate principles of civil liberty, which are ripe for development amongst this people. The tribe, which, according to Volney, was in 1784 composed of 120,000 souls, at present reckons more than 200,000, and is increasing every day. Its territory comprehends 150 square leagues ; but it has no certain limits, for it extends over the sides of Lebanon, or into the valleys and plains which surround it, in proportion as the increased population found new villages. The town of Ziukla, at the mouth of the valley of Bkaa, towards Balbek, which twenty years ago had not above 1000 or 1200 inhabitants, contains now 10,000 or 12,000, and is likely to augment."

As a people, they are highly spoken of by travellers for their industrious habits and skill in cultivation, by which, aided by a fine soil and beautiful climate, they have made much of the district they inhabit a paradise on earth. Their clergy is composed of a Patriarch and Bishops: the Patriarch is elected by the Bishops, subject to the confirmation of the Roman Pontiff; and a Legate of the Pope resides in the country. In some points of discipline, however, they differ from the rules which the Church enforces in Europe; the secular clergy marry ; celibacy is practised only by the Monks, who live in communities, and the Bishops.

The origin of the Druses is more difficult to discover; their tenets are more difficult to define ; opinions are divided as to whether they are Idolaters or Mahomedans : some speculators have traced their descent from the Jews who lapsed to idolatry. The difficulty arises from the fact, that they adopt outwardly the faith of Christian or Mahomedan indifferently, as circumstances may require, practising still a secret worship which they permit no one to observe. It was among this tribe that the celebrated Lady Hester Stanhope lived for so many years, and gained so much influence ; yet she assured De Lamartine, that even to her the belief of the Druses was a mystery. The following is the account given of them by this traveller himself:—

"The Druses, who with the Metualis and Maronites form the principal population of Lebanon, have long passed for a European colony, left in the East by the Crusaders. Nothing is more absurd. Religion and language are the things which are longest preserved amongst people. The Druses are idolaters, and speak Arabic ; they are therefore not descended from a Frank and Christian parentage. What is more probable is, that they are, like the Maronites, an Arab tribe of the desert, who, having refused to adopt the religion of the Prophet, and being persecuted by the new believers, took refuge in the inaccessible solitudes of the high Lebanon, in order to defend their gods and liberty. They have prospered ; they have frequently had predominance over the tribes inhabiting Syria."

" The greatest number of travellers who have written upon them, allege that their creed is but a Mahomedan schism. I am perfectly convinced that they are egregiously deceived. There is one thing certain, that the religion of the Druses permits them to assume the creeds of all persons with whom they are in communication, and from this circumstance has sprung the idea that they were schismatic Mahomedans. The only fact that is ascertained with certainty upon the subject is that they worship the calf. Their institutions are in some respects similar to those of the people of antiquity. They are divided into two castes, the Akkals, or those who know, and the Dghaels, or those who do not know ; and, according to his caste, a Druse practises such or such a form of religion. Moses, Mahomet, Jesus, are names which they hold in veneration. They assemble one day in the week, each in the place assigned to the degree of initiation to which he has advanced, and fulfil their rites. Guards are stationed during the ceremonies, to watch that no profane person may approach the initiated. Death is instantly dealt out to any rash invader of the sanctity. Women are admitted to these ceremonies. The priests, or Akkals, are married, and form a hierarchy."

" In my opinion, the Druses are one of these tribes whose origin is lost in the darkness of time, mounting to an antiquity extremely remote. In physical appearance they have a considerable resemblance to the Jews, and the worship of the calf leads me to believe that they are descended from those tribes of Arabia Petræa, who led the Jews to that species of idolatry, or that they have a Samaritan parentage. At present accustomed to a sort of fraternity with Christian Maronites, and abhorring the yoke of the Mahomedans, and being numerous, rich, capable of discipline, and attached to agriculture and commerce, they would easily form a united body with the Maronite tribe, and progress with equal rapidity in civilization, provided their religious ceremonies were respected."

The Druses occupy all the Gebel Sannin, or Southern China of the Lebanon, including the maritime district Kesrouan, as far south as Deir el Kammar. The anticipations of the writer we have quoted as to the ease with which an union between them and the Maronites might be effected, have proved sadly delusive ; they are the two tribes who are now murdering each other and burning villages and crops. But we must confess, whatever the Druses may be—Idolaters or Mahomedans, or both—they show to the most advantage throughout the troubles that have led to this catastrophe. We doubt if the Maronite clergy deserves the high character the French traveller gives them ; they incited their flocks to violence on their neighbours, the Druses, who had no wish for fighting or violence at all. The Maronites commenced hostilities, by a series of assassinations, which were, of course, retaliated, till an open war broke out, in which the Druses obtained at last the assistance of the Turks, and have overpowered the Christian aggressors, inflicting cruelties and atrocities which are too common to civil war anywhere, but especially among the Easterns, those

Sons of fire and children of the sun,

 With whom revenge is virtue.

The political causes of the disturbance seem to have been shortly these : in 1842 the Five powers acceded to the deposition of the powerful house of Shehab from the Government of the Lebanons, where it had had great influence for a recorded period of 720 years—a time reaching as far back as our oldest aristocracies. Instead of their Government, the European Powers recommended the appointment of two Caimakans, or rulers—one chosen from each sect. The proposal was carried into effect by the Porte. During the three years that have since elapsed, the Shehabs have resorted to every artifice and intrigue to make the new form of Government a failure; and their chief allies in this plot against the peace of the country were the Maronite priests and clergy, who thought the division of the Lebanons into two Governments had diminished their influence. This was the result they produced—

The Christians declared that they never would tolerate, in any shape, or with any modifications, the rule of the Druses ; they or the Druses were to be driven from the Lebanon or exterminated. The organization of this war had been long going forward, and Bishops, with the language of religion on their lips, ordered the inhabitants to provide themselves with muskets, and powder and shot ; and the member of the Christian flock who would not arm himself for war against his neighbours, was denounced by his Bishop. The leader of the first attempt to surprise the Druses was the Maronite Bishop, Joseph, of Bait Shehab. The burning of numerous Druse villages marked his way, but the Christians were soon overcome by their more warlike enemies, and Bishop Joseph, the first to lead in success, was the last to turn his hack in reverse. He fled from Gezeyer to Yaleh and Beyrout, taking with him the flower of the garrison of Gezeyer, his late headquarters. This devoted town, thus abandoned, was then taken and sacked by a mixed body of Druses and Mussulmans, and such cruelties were committed as might be expected only from infuriated savages.

Those who first raised the sword have thus perished by the sword ; but it is impossible but that much suffering has been indicted on many ignorantly led astray by those who, from position and knowledge, ought to have been their guides—but not to destruction. It is satisfactory to know that, as far as the efforts of the British Consuls and Agents could go, they were used to prevent the war, and, failing in that, they have done their utmost to relieve the distress that has followed it.

Observer (Hobart) 1845 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62136402