ircumstantial detail of our
various visits, as it will impress upon this statement
the stamp of authenticity, and at least serve to show
that we were anxious by all the means in our power to
arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

In the course of these visits we had a great deal of
conversation with the families and friends of the
accused, persons who, far from appearing desirous of
concealing anything, seemed on the contrary anxious to
have everything fairly enquired into, and submitted to
the most ample investigation. We saw several people who
had been subjected to torture, amongst whom was one
woman, a female servant of David Arari; we saw their
wounds yet unhealed, and heard from their own lips the
description of the sufferings they had endured. The
tortures to which they had been subjected were of the
most cruel and disgraceful nature, and some of them even
too disgusting to be mentioned with propriety. We also
had, during our stay at Damascus, many opportunities of
discussing the question with various people with various
shades of opinion, and of canvassing the evidence
adduced in support of the charges.

My own opinion, in which I may, I believe, also safely
state my fellow-travellers fully concur, is that the
Jews of Damascus are NOT GUILTY of the atrocious charges
which have been preferred against them.

My grounds for this opinion are simply this, that there
is no admissible evidence to support the charge.

I at once reject _in limine_, as repulsive to every
principle of reason and equity, and as unworthy to be
considered as legal evidence, all the admissions and
confessions of the witnesses and accused persons which
were extorted by torture or the fear of torture, however
plausible they may seem, or however compatible with one
another they may appear, particularly when I find them
at variance with conflicting testimony on the one hand,
and inconsistent with the general probabilities on the
other.

Any absurdities, as the annals of witchcraft fully show,
might be proved by the agency of torture. It was through
fear of the application of this beauteous engine for the
elucidation of the truth, that the Inquisition extorted
from Galileo the admission that the doctrine of the
earth's motion was heretical; yet, notwithstanding this
confession, as that illustrious man observed on rising
from his knees, "e pur si muov