8vo. Volume I: xxxii, 490 pp., / Volume II: xii, 485 pp., chromolithographed frontispiece to each volume, two maps (one folding), half-titles, edited and compiled by his widow with a preface by the Viscountess Strangford, advertisement leaf at end of volume II, original red cloth, a little darkened with few stains, rebacked with original spines, hinges reinforced, some light toning and spotting, otherwise set in good condition, Kegan Paul & Co. London, first edition, 1878.

Synopsis

James Finn was the longest – serving British Consul in Jerusalem between 1846 and 1863. He was a member of London’s Jews Society working for the promotion of Jewish immigration and colonisation of Palestine with the help of Lord Aberdeen.
Finn was a writer and philanthropist. He was a great believer in productivity, an ideology that was very much in vogue at the time, and in 1853 purchased for £250 Karm al-Khalil . This land became Kerem Avraham, outside the walls of the Jerusalem. It was later established as a training farm for Jews in agriculture and to become productive citizens. Finn employed Jewish laborers to build the first house there in 1855. Cisterns for water storage were built and a soap factory was established which produced high quality soap sold to tourists.
Very interesting historical information are compiled in this work from the Archive of the British Consulate in Jerusalem, covering Napoleon’s war in Syria, the Greek war of independence, Egyptian occupation of Syria, the conflict between Turkey, Russia, France and England, the Crimean war, and the conditions in Jerusalem.