Among the means of promoting the independence of the Jewish people, and thereby advancing the best interests of Jerusalem, one of the most likely to be efficient appears to be the establishment of Industrial Institutions.

The Jews are an industrious and enterprising people, willing to relieve themselves, whenever the opportunity is given, from the state of pauperism in which, unfortunately, the greatest number of those in Jerusalem exist and starve. The tailors, bakers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, watchmakers, glaziers, &c., &c., are almost without exception Israelites; but the amount of employment afforded is inadequate to the wants of so many thousands.

The Hebrew population of Jerusalem is variously estimated from seven to ten thousand, and, with the exception of a very few families, all are extremely poor. The Fund contributed to by pious brethren in every part of the world, is administered by the Rabbis; and when the various other claims upon it are satisfied, but a very small proportion is left for the poor and needy. The Ashkenaz (or German and Polish) community is generally considered the wealthiest, and yet a common allowance to a poor man from its fund is ten paras, or about two and a half farthings, per diem; and even this starving pittance is liable to be withdrawn, if the Rabbis should take offence at any thing their pensioners may do.

Surely this is slavery and bondage of the worst description, —bondage for the merest necessities of life, in the Holy City of their former kings and princes, where gold was like stones, and silver was nothing accounted of.

There are at present two Industrial Establishments in Jerusalem. One, the House of Industry for men, has been opened by the Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, for persons inquiring into, or believing, the truth of Christianity, and the number of those admissible bears as yet but a small proportion to those willing to earn their daily bread by the labour of their hands.

The second, under the care of Miss Cooper, established by her independently of any Society, is for Jewish women and children, and is open to all who are willing to come. This Institution has answered so well that an assistant has been found necessary, and another English lady has joined Miss Cooper in the beginning of this year, (1852.) The number rose to forty-five and forty-six, and it was impossible for one pair of hands to prepare the work fast enough for them; and many were refused admittance on this very account. There is now an immense class wholly unprovided for, viz., such men as would work by the day, and at night return to their families, whether calling themselves inquirers into Christianity or not, who would be grateful for an honest and independent means of livelihood. Agriculture is a branch of useful employment which offers many such great advantages, besides the happiness of clothing once more the barren hills, and cultivating again the waste places around Jerusalem.

Some have supposed that the Hebrew people are at present unfitted for field or garden work, or at least unwilling to labour at it. Such as think this cannot have witnessed Hebrew labourers, aye, and Hebrew Rabbis, at work in Mr. Meshullam’s farm at Urtass, or Solomon’s Gardens, near Bethlehem, and the English Consul’s plantation, near Jerusalem; and cannot be aware of the fact that not a week passes without fresh applications for employment being made by poor Jews, or of the melancholy truth that Israelites literally die for want of meat in Jerusalem. Others may suppose that the neighbourhood of Jerusalem is insecure, and that people would be afraid to work. These again cannot have seen the summer encampments of the European residents, where, without guards, single families, including ladies and children, pass the hot season without the slightest annoyance by night or day. Others there are who believe Palestine to be an accursed land, incapable of producing any crops but stones and salt and sulphur. Let them come and see two crops a year produced by the poorest land we have. Let them behold quince trees groaning under the burden of 400 quinces, each one larger than the largest apples of England: vines, with a hundred bunches of grapes, each bunch three feet long, each grape three and a quarter inches in circumference: a citron tree, bearing 510 lbs. weight of fruit: half-grown broad beans from Urtass, the pod thirteen inches long, and six clustering stems from each plant: Indian corn, eleven feet high, on ground from which, four weeks before, a similar crop had been taken: water-melons, twenty, thirty and forty pounds weight.

The unbelief and apathy and indolence of man, —these are the curses on Palestine; but the land itself is being healed before our eyes. Few persons are aware that the cultivation of land around Jerusalem has received much attention within the last three years, from an Archimandrite of the Greek Convent. The large plantations around the convent of St. George, opposite the Jaffa gate of Jerusalem, at Mar Elias, half-way towards Bethlehem, and at the Convent of the Cross, &c., are the work of the Greeks, who have moreover purchased immense tracts in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem and elsewhere, which have not yet been planted. The value of land is very much enhanced in consequence. During the month of February, 1852, the Greeks planted 23,000 young mulberry trees, close to the Jaffa gate of Jerusalem, those formerly planted having answered well. Olives are planted at intervals, and small crops with vines between. They have blown away the surface rocks with gunpowder, and exposed the rich clay beneath. The loose stones are gathered into terrace walls. The ancient rock-hewn cisterns existing in every field are repaired, and supply the trees with water during the first year, after which the rains are sufficient for them. The supply of rain has steadily increased during the last seven years. In 1848 the lower Kedron flowed, on account of the well En-rogel rising to a height not known for eight or nine years before. Every year since, En-rogel has overflowed, and a fine stream poured down the Kedron, between the months of January and March.

This year we had delightful latter rain at the end of April and beginning of May, a thing unknown for years before. The new plantations have already yielded a considerable quantity of silk, which will increase every year. The olive tree is at present one of the most valuable products of this country, but would be infinitely more so did the inhabitants understand the art of crushing the berries and refining the oil. An Italian gentleman has declared that a handsome fortune might be derived from the residue, considered by the Arabs as worthless when they have passed the berries under their primitive and clumsy crushing mill. Two years ago olive oil of this country had never been imported into England. In the beginning of last year, twenty ships, of one hundred tons each, were loaded at Jaffa with this article alone; and merchants of London and Glasgow are endeavouring this year to open a trade in oil with Jerusalem, which will ensure handsome profits. Olive trees of ten and twelve years old bear transplanting well, and begin to yield in three years.

There is a piece of land near Jerusalem already secured (though the purchase money is not all paid), on which it is intended to establish an industrial plantation, for any Jews willing to work thereon. English residents, competent to judge, approve the Institution, and consider that there is every reason to expect success. A few hundred pounds are required for repairing the ancient cisterns, planting the trees, &c.; and for the first two or three years funds will be necessary for paying the labourers, &c. It is calculated that for about £300 the planting and clearing may be accomplished. The extent of the plot is about seven or eight acres. An oil and soap manufactory should be added. (The kali plant is a product of the country.) As soon as the first arrangements are completed, the writer will put it into the hands of trustees, who shall carry out the object.

POSTSCRIPT BY FRIENDS IN ENGLAND.

The above statement has been printed as sent from Jerusalem. Additional information has since been received. On Monday, July 5^th, a second petition was addressed to the British Consul by sixty-three Spanish Jews, earnestly imploring agricultural labour, to preserve themselves and children from starvation. Seven of them named Cohen, five Levi, two Kimchi.

The consul says: —

“One of the bearers of the paper, with tears, asserted that his family had been three days without food, and the Rabbis had given them leave to get such work where they could. I gave them a note of recommendation to Meshullam, as they told me he had promised to employ six. The rest I sent yesterday to my Talibiyeh ground. . . . . Fifty-one were employed, and today there are thirty-four. It is a truly animating spectacle, but the pecuniary burden on me is immense.”

Another account states that seventy-five were at work.

The undersigned friends in England, struck with this wonderful intelligence, that the Jews are beginning to cultivate their own Holy Land; convinced that they must learn to labour before they can again become a great nation, and desirous to assist the good work, have formed themselves into a Committee to superintend the transmission of contributions, in order to secure a judicious application of the Funds raised for this purpose.

They particularly request that all Donations may be addressed to Captain Henry L. Layard, 16, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, with a special notification that they are intended for The Promotion of Jewish Agricultural Labour in the Holy Land; and, without pledging themselves altogether to the details of the above plan, undertake the application of contributions to the great object of employing Jews in the cultivation of land.

Wm. Freemantle, A.M.

T. G. Hatchard, A.M.

H. L. Layard,

Wm. Marsh, D.D.

London, August 25th, 1852.