CAPITULATION GRANTED BY OMAR,

LIEUTENANT OF MAHOMET, AND AFTERWARDS HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSOR UNDER THE TITLE OF CALIPH,

TO THE CHRISTIANS OF JERUSALEM AND ITS DEPENDENCIES,

AT THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST OF PALESTINE, IN THE 15TH YEAR OF

THE HEGIRA.

[As a contrast to the conduct of the head of that Church, which by courtesy is termed Christian, we call the attention of our readers to a document by which may be seen the spirit that animates Islamism.]

In the name of the Beneficent and Most Merciful God.

PRAISE be to God, who has allowed us to be born in Islamism, and who honours us by the Faith, who has taken pity on us in sending to us his prophet Mahomet. Peace and the blessing of God be on him who purifies our hearts, who grants us the victory over our enemies, habitations in pleasant places, and who inspires us with love for our brethren! God be praised by his servants for this favour, for this infinite mercy.

This is the writing of Omar, Son of Chattab, which was given as a pact and a convention to the pontiff Sephyrinus, revered by all his people, Patriarch of the royal orthodox sect at Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives.

This Convention comprises the Subjects, the Clergy, the Monks, and Nuns, and grants to them safety and protection in whatever spot they may be.

We, Chief of the true believers, and our successors, ought to guarantee the safety of the Christian subjects, if they fulfil their duties as subjects.

This Convention shall not be broken except by their own fault, in the event of their choosing to withdraw from obedience and submission.

Let security be equally granted to their churches, their dwellings, the places of their pilgrimage, as well within as without; that is to say, to the Church Kamaneh (the Holy Sepulchre) ;

to the birth-place of Jesus at Bethlehem; to the great Church of the Cavern, with the three gates, towards the south, the north, and the west. Let security be granted in the same manner to the other Christians in those places; to the Georgians and Abyssinians, the Nestorians, the Jacobites, and to all those who belong to the prophet Jesus.

They all merit respect, because they were already formerly honoured by the Prophet* with a document, furnished with his seal, by which he exhorts us to succour them and grant them security. For which cause, we, Chief of the true believers, are disposed to show ourselves benevolent towards them, in order to honour him who has already shewn them his kindness.

They must be relieved from the capitation tax, and that of the tolls, in all the countries and on all the seas of the Mussulmans. On their entering Kamaneh (the Holy Sepulchre) and during the remainder of their pilgrimage, no taxes whatever shall be im posed upon them.

The Christians who visit the Holy Sepulchre must depose for the Patriarch, one drachm and a half of silver money.

The true believers of both sexes are to follow this law (the Sultans and the Chiefs not excepted), and they must submit to it whether they be rich or poor.

Given in presence of all the disciples of the Prophet.

Abdallah, Osman, B. Afan, Saad, Abdor-Rahman, Ibn Auf. Let faith be given to this writing, which must remain in the hands of the Christians. Let the blessing of God be granted to the Prophet and his disciples.

Let us praise God, the King of the worlds, on whom we repose as on the Prophet, our advocate with him. The 20 Ribuel, Euel of the XV year of the Hegira.

He who reads this Rescript, and who acts in a manner contrary to what it prescribes, from this day until the day of the last judgment, breaks the Convention of God and of his wellbeloved Prophet.

* Such is the rigid respect the Mussulmans have ever testified to the engagements and treaties they enter into.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF COURTS MARTIAL

IN GEORGIA.

In answer to the "Frankfort Journal," denying the existence of a war of the Caucasian population against Russia, we have only to quote a recent Imperial Ukase, by which, from reasons portending no very peaceable condition of those provinces, which the Reader shall find explained in that instrument, civil tribunals are superseded by a Court Martial.

In consequence of a representation made by General Baron de Rosen, Commander of a separate corps of the Caucasus, to the effect that the Nomadic Tartars of the districts Bartshalinsk, Kasacks, and Shamshadilsh, in Georgia, who compose the majority of the population in those provinces, continue, in defiance of all the measures adopted by the Government, to rob and plunder travellers; and that, according to the prejudices prevailing amongst them, all such crimes are looked upon by them as deeds of valour, and the guilty never fail to meet with protection; His Imperial Majesty. has most graciously ordered that such offenders shall not as heretofore be delivered over to the civil tribunals for trial, but that, as the General may think requisite, they may be brought before a Court Martial: and that the latter shall institute an inquiry into the cases with the utmost possible speed, in order that punishment may be inflicted on such criminals without the least delay.

We cannot help confessing, that the state of those provinces must be far from satisfactory, if General Rosen,

whose character for humanity is so generally known, found himself compelled to apply to the Autocrat for such an atrocious instrument - which, placed in his hands, renders him the sole arbiter of life and death of the whole population. The consequences of such Ukases are incalculable. We have before us one which was issued during the Polish war in 1831, establishing a Court Martial for the purpose of stifling the insurrection in Lithuania. In consequence of it, the inhabitants of that province were doomed to have their properties confiscated; numbers of the inhabitants transported to Siberia; parents were held responsible for their children; the latter were dragged off to military colonies; and capital punishment was inflicted on the slightest cause of suspicion. The whole country was then made a theatre of woe and misery, which, after the lapse of five years since the provinces have been pacified, cannot be put an end to. Is the same course to be pursued with respect to Georgia?

To comprehend the whole extent of calamity implied in any of these measures, when they are connected with political objects, of which the Government is extremely jealous, we adduce a specimen of an Ukase of the year 1832, prohibiting the Lithuanians from speaking on politics.

The military Governor of Wilna, Prince Dolgorouki, being convinced from trustworthy reports addressed to his Highness, and from his own experience, that notwithstanding all the publications with respect to the surveillance of public order, and the police (blogoczynija), in the government graciously entrusted to his care, and in contempt of all the measures dictated by moderation for establishing quiet and public security in every quarter of his government in fine, that, notwithstanding several proclamations made by the local authorities, and read in churches, with the view of warning those who disobey the commands of the authorities from responsibility to the law, frequent instances of dissemi

nators of false reports and dangerous doctrines are found here and there amongst the people; an act the more culpable, and the more deserving severe and ignominous punishment, as these inventors of idle reports and groundless stories are not common people (prostoludij), who, after taking notice of the folly of such agitators, remain quiet at home, but rank rather among the nobles and functionaries (dwaranij, czynownki). As these are but few and insignificant in number, it would have been better not to take any notice of them; yet, thinking it requisite that the incorrigible reporters of all foolish stories should be persecuted (presladowanij), and, as dangerous people, expelled the government, the Prince Governor has deigned by his Ukase of June 10, No. 1460, to make all the authorities acquainted that it be their duty to watch over their subalterns and clerks in their respective bureaux, and to observe their moral conduct in private and public, as well as their family connexions, their friends, and all with whom they associate. Be it also remarked, that it is also their duty, if the report be founded on suspicion, to accompany it by remarks and opinions of their own for my notice, that according to the degree of their guilt they may be either suspended from their office, or dismissed, or brought before the tribunal, or put under the surveillance of the police, or imprisoned, or shut up in a fortress, or sent into the interior of Russia, or to Siberia (!!) On the other hand, if his Highness should himself obtain intelligence of an unsuitable conduct, absurd judgment, or propagation of dangerous notions respecting politics, or, in short, of premeditated and unsuitable (nieblagonamierennom i nieblagonaduznom) behaviour of any of the employés, in all these cases the chief of the latter, and the head of the department to which he belongs, shall be most severely examined as to the motive they had for concealing the misdemeanor of their subaltern, and thus neglecting to accuse him; they, in consequence, will themselves incur the punishment as incapable for their office, be dismissed from it, and tried and punished in proportion to the importance of the delinquency, which will be seen from the inquiry instituted against them. His Highness has also desired to extend the same watchfulness and responsibility to