George Walter Prothero

“ When it is remembered, further, that such harbour structures as exist in Syria, and the equipment of principal cities like Aleppo, Damascus, Beirut, and Jerusalem with broad ways, modern buildings, electric lighting, tramways, and other convenient apparatus, are also of Abdul Hamid's time, one is bound to admit that a good deal of beneficent construction-almost all, in fact, that makes Syria as a whole the most civilised province of Turkey at this day-stands to the credit of a Sultan whose energies are popularly supposed to have been uniformly destructive and sinister. ”

“ In 1789 he was made duke of Clarence. When war was declared against the French republic in 1793, he strongly supported it and was anxious for active employment; but, though he was made rear-admiral of the red, he could obtain no command. Thus condemned to inactivity, he amused or revenged himself by joining the prince of Wales and the duke of York in their opposition to the king. He threw himself into the dissipation's of society, and his hearty geniality and bluff, sailor-like manners gained him popularity, though they did not secure him respect. ”

“ The chief merits of the 'History of the Papacy' are width of reading, clearness of statement, soundness of judgment, selection, compression, and impartiality. Creighton chose a subject for the elucidation of which he was, by training and temperament, eminently suited. His independence and intelligent sympathy, his subtlety and his sense of humour, enabled him to deal both acutely and fairly with events and persons too often misrepresented by partisan bigotry. He had thought much about religion on the practical side, and about politics as affected by personal character and religious motives. ”

“ The essence of the Zionist ideal is the desire to found upon the soil of Palestine a revived Hebrew nation based upon an agricultural life and the use of the Hebrew language. Just before the war, a struggle took place between the Zionists in Palestine and a body called the "Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden," over an attempt by the German Jews to introduce the German language into certain Jewish schools in Palestine. The whole secret of British popularity in Palestine depends upon our willingness to give the people freedom to develop their own national consciousness in their own way. ”

“ The root of all the mischief lay in the irresponsibility of the cabinet to parliament and its complete subservience to the crown. To remedy this, Temple brought forward his plan for a reform of the privy council. This body was to consist of thirty members, half of whom were to be the chief officers of the crown, the other half being persons of importance, lords and commoners, chosen without reference to party. Special care was taken to select men of wealth, which Temple considered as the chief source of political influence. By the advice of this council the king promised to act. ”

“ Always working as much for others as for himself, always slow to generalise, and apt to be led on from one field of research to another, he now found the obstacles to publication insurmountable. The superintendence of a great public institution occupied much of his time ; attacks of illness not unfrequently disabled him ; and towards the end of his life he took a larger part in the general affairs of the university. ”

“ As regards home produce, internal trade is most actively occupied in supplying the demand of cities and localities which are not self-supporting, and in concentrating any surplus, as well as articles which have a better market abroad, in the hands of exporters. For example, cereals go in large quantities from Homs and Hama to Aleppo, Tripoli, Beirut and the Lebanon, from the Hauran to Damascus and Haifa, from Gaza and Bir es-Seba to Jerusalem and Jaffa. Among native manufactures, oil, soap, textiles, and leather are the most important articles of distribution ”

“ But perhaps the most valuable qualities in Lecky's historical work are the philosophical character of his summaries and deductions, the soundness of his judgments of men and of events, and the scrupulous impartiality with which he treats all parties and all creeds. There is doubtless some want of colour; but as a truthful picture of eighteenth-century Britain in its most important aspects the book excelled all previous efforts, and will be hard to supersede.
In Irish affairs Lecky always took a keen interest. ”

“ Immediately after his accession the revolution of July broke out in France and gave a great impulse to the reform movement in England. The king, though he called himself an “old Whig,” did not dismiss the Tory ministry which had governed the country during the last two years of his brother's reign; but the elections for the new parliament placed them in a minority. Within a fortnight of the opening of parliament they were beaten on a motion for the reform of the civil list, and resigned. Lord Grey undertook to form a ministry, with the avowed intention of bringing in a large measure of reform. ”

“ The Lebanese had yet to develop acute antagonism of creed; and, so long as but one European Power, whether France before 1800 or Great Britain afterwards, was concerning itself with them at one time, they lacked the external temptation to dissension which was to offer itself presently. British influence, therefore, was doing as yet no more harm in middle and south Syria than French interest had done before it; but the fact that two European Powers, with growing and antagonistic interests in the Levant, [3] had gained a footing, where one alone used to be, foreshadowed danger. ”

“ If the occupation of the see of Peterborough precluded the devotion of much time to literature, Creighton's translation to London put an end to the hopes of those who still looked forward to further contributions to historical science from his pen. Creighton was as much a statesman and a churchman as an historian; and, when the call was so obvious and the choice so fully justified, it was only natural and right that church and state should take precedence. ”

“ Jewish national development, cultural, agricultural, and economic, is inevitable and natural in Palestine after the war. There is so much unoccupied and uncultivated land in Palestine that there is plenty of room for Zionist development without ousting the existing Moslem population. The Jews have already shown that land, hitherto regarded as barren, can be converted in a very short space of time into rich vineyards, or into fruit and almond plantations. With the Arab movement centred at Damascus, Zionism in Palestine would be a help rather than a hindrance to it ”

“ There is an unerring sense of proportion, an admirable flair for the true causes of events, a searching insight into motives, combined with great caution in attributing them, a full appreciation of conditions as limiting action, with due acknowledgment of the capacity of character to override conditions. ”

“ A stagnating agriculture, affecting the prosperity of the whole country, has received some stimülus in Palestine from the Jewish and German colonies, and such advances as have been witnessed in the last decade or two are in no small degree the effect of their example. The spread of the colonies has also led to a substantial advance in the market value of agricultural land in their neighbourhood. ”

“ Findlay had a cultivated taste for art, and, as a member of the board of manufactures, took a prominent part in the direction of the Scottish National Gallery, to the collections of which he contributed with great generosity. To many learned, charitable, or useful institutions he gave not only money but time. He was secretary for six years to the Society of 'Antiquaries. He took part in the movement for opening the university of Edinburgh to female students, and was president of the association for the medical education of women. ”

“ The Jewish agricultural colonies, which have grown up during the past twenty-five years, show level of agricultural and scientific development far ahead of anything else in Palestine. The Jews have in many cases flung themselves upon barren and uncultivated land and transformed it into rich intensively cultivated plantations. The colonies are inhabited by strong and healthy agriculturists living in clean, well-built houses, and possessing a high degree of commercial and political organization, as well as a distinctive social life. The schools are progressive and excellent in every way. ”

“ These Yemenite Jews, who speak a pure Hebrew and very pure Arabic, have been cut off from the rest of the world since the rise of Islam in the seventh century of our era. They are the remnant of those large Jewish communities, many autonomous, which existed in all the cities of Arabia in the time of Mohammed. They have maintained themselves absolutely distinct and orthodox in religion for many centuries in Yemen, and have acted as metal-workers, craftsmen, and carpenters for their Arab rulers. ”

“ In 1835 a British Commission was studying a line for an overland route to the Euphrates; and the little opposition it encountered, in its extraordinary task of hauling steamers in sections overland from the Orontes to the Euphrates, is a testimony to Ibrahim's power, all the more significant because the British held their permission, not from him, hut from the Sultan with whom he was at war. During those ten years Europe progressed from mediæval ignorance of Syria to almost as much knowledge of it as she has had up to the present war. ”

“ Syria has always been a land much exposed to invasion and conquest, and it therefore contains a large number of foreign elements, derived from both ancient and modern times. The Turks and Kurds are modern examples of these foreign elements. Distinct from this is the replenishment of the population from the tribes of the Arabian Desert, which maintains the specific racial character of the Syrian people. The transition between the nomad Beduin and the Syrian fellahin, or peasants, may be seen all along the eastern border, but the extremes are distinct. ”

“ A satisfactory solution of the West Syrian problem, which involves the territory north of the Litani river and west of the Rayak-Homs railway, is a matter for arrangement, now that Syria is definitely cleared of the Turks. As one goes eastward from the watershed which divides the Mediterranean from the Jordan valley, there is an increasing proportion of Arabs; and Trans-Jordania is an Arab country. The Arab movement is becoming increasingly national; its goal is Arab independence, free from British or French protection. ”

“ Apart from agriculture, only silk-spinning in the Lebanon, the textile industry in the same district and at Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, and the production of olive oil and soap at Antioch, Tripoli, Jaffa, &c., can be said to have attained any real significance. Mining is negligible, and the absence of a home supply of both coal and petroleum has been a serious hindrance to the development of manufactures. The country therefore depends greatly upon foreign imports, and its purchasing power is much affected by the quality of the harvest and similar natural factors. ”