The arrival of a government order for a military conscription, a thing most unwelcome to the Moslems, occasioned a popular tumult. They determined, while setting the Pasha at defiance, to gratify their hatred of the Christians. The attacks on these commenced on the 16th of October. Thousands of wild Arabs, along with ruffians from the city, filled the houses and churches, and splendid furniture, gorgeous dresses, and gold and silver hoarded for generations, were suddenly transferred to the swarthy Arabs. All the churches, save one, were rifled and then burnt or destroyed, together with a large number of private houses. Not a few of the Christians were murdered, or severely wounded. The Pasha, unequal to the crisis, took refuge among the soldiers of the barracks, and yielded to the demands of the populace until new orders should arrive from the Sultan. There was a fortnight of anarchy, while the Pasha was employed in collecting troops sufficient to regain his authority. Then, having received explicit instructions from the capital, he commenced a bloody attack upon the insurgents. These were all Moslems, and such was their desperation that they suffered more severely than had the Christians. Until this outbreak, there had been a manifest change going on in the feelings of the nominally Christian community towards the Protestants. There was a growing respect among all classes for the missionaries and their teachings, a readiness on the part of many to acknowledge the truth, and a more easy access to the houses of the people. All this the outbreak interrupted for a time, and the effect was not good on the whole. There was a bloody feud between the two great parties. Yet the bonds of superstition had been weakened; especially the faith of the people in the miraculous virtue of the pictures, which filled their churches and had been worshipped for centuries. Some of these pictures were supposed to be so sacred, that whoever touched them would have a withered hand. But they had now seen them torn in pieces, trampled under foot, and burned by the enemies of their religion. Of the nineteen pupils in the seminary at Abeih in 1850, four were Druzes, three were Greeks, four Maronites, four Greek Catholics, two Protestants, one Syrian, and one Armenian; all on a level, eating at the same table, mingling in the same sports, and meeting at the same place of prayer.