This Burton rightly refused to do. And a
little later he arrested two Jewish boys, servants of British-protected
Jews, for drawing crosses on the walls--the usual sign for an outbreak of
Christian persecution at Damascus--and took away temporarily the British
protection from their masters. This gave the usurers the opportunity
they had been waiting for, and they wrote to the Foreign Office an untrue
and unjust report, saying that the Consul was full of hatred against the
Jews, and demanding his recall. Lord Granville sent a special letter,
requesting to know the truth of these charges, which he described as
"most serious." Fortunately Burton was able to satisfy him, and the
storm blew over. But the Jews neither forgot it nor forgave him.
4. _The Greeks stone him at Nazareth_.--Lady Burton has already given
a long account of this incident, and there is no reason to doubt the
correctness of her description. Here we find that the Greek Bishop
and his people disliked Burton because he had exposed a fraudulent
transaction of theirs with the Jews. But whatever was the cause, there
was no doubt that they were opposed to him; and the riot, which arose
from an apparently accidental cause, was really an outbreak of bitterly
hostile feeling against the British Consul. The Greek Bishop of Nazareth
at once drew up a grossly exaggerated report of the proceedings, which
was endorsed by the Wali of Syria, and forwarded to the authorities at
home.
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