The Druses

-Who are Thcy? Who aro these murderous poopie. - is in every body's n.outli, ubout this time. The latést and bast anthoritios trace them to tho Eastern confines of Syria. - Tliey are Araba, and settled in Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, wiiliia the last nuie hundred years. "Syria," saya tbe rejiable Dr. Thomson, who wrotc from a Uvcnty-five years' residence and trayel in tbat country, has always boen cursed "ivith a multiplicity of tribes and reügions, which have'split up tlie conntry into sn a'l principulitie and confliating classes - fruitful parent oí civil war, anaruhy and confusión." To give some idea of the population ofSyrta, thu Dcotor emrme ratea thcm as l'ullows: Mosleraa 800.000 Kurda 50,000 Nusairiych 150 000 Nowar 20,000 Drases 100,000 Jewa 25,000 Maronitea '200,000 G reeks 150 000 Anneniiuis 35,000 Papal OñVhoota 80,000 Thé Moslems are the ruling race over all the country, exoept n Löbanon, and they are divided into two seets, the Surïnites and the Siites. The total pcpulation is thus estimated at 1,610,(jOO - exclusive, however, of the Nomadie Arabs, whose numbers aro set down ' by the best authorities at half a ! lion. The Lebanon rogion contains 400,000 inhabitants, living iu sorne G00 to wijs, villages, and hamlets. Zah'o'i, just destroye'l, was tha hirgost town, and contained 11,000 people. The oihex towns wfaiuë have fal'en before the sword of the Druse?, are Deir el Kamar, 7,000; Hastwijwb, 6,000; and Ratibaira, 2,500. The entire popul. - tion live in towns and villages, and ero out into the fieldt to cultívate tbera. There ia no homogener)us comrnunity of peo.jle in Syria. ÈVery tribe lives ai art,"and hates each other with a hearty bate. two Moalem se ts excominnnicate each other. Both hate the Druses, and all these three detest the Nusairiyeh. The Marcaites love nobody, and ncbody loves them. The O-reeks despise the Catholiss; and all socts look down with contempt oa the Jews. Kxcept the Jews and the Bedouin Arabs, do tribe can trace back its origin to any ancieiit race. The Mosloms are a mixed race, derivod irom the people of the Greek empire at the time of the Mohammed In the nomirvally Christian sects there is the same mg of races, and a larga innision ot .' European blood, during Ihe times of [ the Crusades. Dr. Thomson thinks I Üiat tho Mitronites are tho deaoecdants ol the ancient Syrrans, but the Nusairiyeh say, they are the -'miserable debris of the accursed Oanaanitus." Bilt Ibis theory does not oomport with that of for. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Dr they are not black. The Meavvelis, a elassof dirty Arabs, who joined the Drnses in their late erusado againet the Ohrisliane, are very inuch like the Jevvs, and claim to have come from Persia. There is a 1-irge infusión of Egyptian blood in the Moslems from Carmel Southward. Dr. Thomson thinks that their peculiares are to betraced back to the old Philistines, who, ace rding to bis theory, carne from Egypt, and not from Cyprus, as is commonly thought. 11e fiiids traces in Lebanor, of thu original Phoenicians. In fine, the poop'.e of Syria answer completely to the prophecies respecting them - they are 'a people divided, meted out and trodden down." These iacts will explain the ferocity of the Druse8 and ibe pyrnpatby of the Moslems with them. And thoir antipaI thies to all other races v!ll continuo, so i long as Moslem authoritv continuos in that ill fated land. V"hen Mehomet Ali declared himself independent of the Por o and subjuguted Syria to hisyoke, all was peaco in that land, and had he been leit in pesseesion by theEuropean powern, his dyuasty vvould have been a homogeneous peopla out of those divided tribes lonff ere this. It is to be hoped tliat England and France will make has'e to bring light out of the present darkness Their joint word can put an end f irever to the diagraceful civil war now prevailiüg in öyria. - Bullimore Patriot. jgsg" A correspondent of tho Cineinnuti Frice Current, froin Titusville, Pa., eays 7,000 barrels of oil have been obtained from the wells in that región, and sold in New York at $15 por barrel of 40 gallons. Somo thirty wolls have successful, yieldÏDg togetier aboit 400 barrels per day.