"A blood feud existed between the and the s; and the former, being irregular troops in the pay of the Government, were scouring the plain of Damascus, attacking and murdering little parties of Druzes wherever they could find them. The Pasha was either unable or unwilling to prevent these base and cowardly deeds; and thus, when it was the interest of the Government to conciliate the rebels, whom they were unable to subdue, and while they were compelled to supplicate foreign interference and mediation to aid them in their difficulties, they were permitting their own soldiers to perpetrate crimes which could not but excite the Druzes to revenge, and at the same time disgust those whose mediation they were soliciting"