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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 191, 24 November 1876, Page 8

A litter to 'Lea Missions Catholiques,' from Jerusalem, datecf" August 3, after informing us that " the telegraph brings news daily of frexh victories gained over the Servians and Montenegrins," drily continues, " And yet tha Government does not cease levying fresh troops, 'lhese levies, as one may suppose, are nob rnaie without difficulty, for the sentiments of patriotism, exiled from our Europe would n«t seem to have found a refuge in the Ottoman Empire." In mixed countries, such as Palestine, the difficulty iv veals itself still more forcibly. The Christims pay the blood tax, an*l are thus exempt from military service. This is not a piivilege which the Government intended to confer upon them. In peace time they coml lain bitterly of ( he weight of this impost, but at present they may congratulate th mselves. It must not, however, be suppised that they are free from ull app.ehensioas. Imagine, for example, the bitter jealousy of the Mussulmans, obliged to set out in a mass to fight the Christians of Europe, whilst they leave behind them their Christian fellow-countrymen seiied at their own hearths. The old hatred, renewed and doubled by jealousy, exhibits itseif in maledictions and thieats. Such is the present state of Jerusalem. We lately saw a few hundreds of soldiers of the reserve, newly enrolled, enter Jerusalem, amidst shouts of " Death to Christians ! " uttered by the relations and friends of the recruits.