СНАР. III. Still, in a narrow and technical point of view, the claim of France might be upheld, because it was based upon a treaty between France and the Porte which could not be legally abrogated without the consent of the French Government; and the concessions to the Greek Church, though obtained at the instance of Russia, had not been put into the form of treaty engagements, and could always be revoked at the pleasure of the Sultan. Accordingly M. de Lavalette continued to press for the strict fulfilment of the treaty; and being guided, as it would seem, by violent instructions, and being also zealous and unskilled, he soon carried his urgency to the extremity of using offensive threats, and began to speak of what should be done by the French fleet. The Russian Envoy, better versed in affairs, used wiser but hardly less cogent words, requiring that the firmans should remain in force; and since no ingenuity could reconcile the engagements of the treaty with Embarrass the grants contained in the firmans, the Porte, though having no interest of its own in the question, was tortured and alarmed by the contending negotiators. It seemed almost impossible to satisfy France without affronting the Emperor Nicholas. By the ment of the Porte. Mutual concessions. The French, however, did not persist in claiming up to the very letter of the treaty of 1740, whilst on the other hand there were some of the powers of exclusion granted by the firmans which the Greeks could be persuaded to forego; and thus the subject remaining in dispute was nar rowed down until it seemed almost too slender for CHAP. the apprehension of laymen. III. subject of Stated in bare terms, the question was whether, The actual for the purpose of passing through the building dispute. into their Grotto, the Latin monks should have the key of the chief door of the Church of Bethlehem, and also one of the keys of each of the two doors of the sacred Manger,* and whether they should be at liberty to place in the sanctuary of the Nativity a silver star adorned with the arms of France. The Latins also claimed a privilege of worshipping once a-year at the shrine of the blessed Mary in the Church of Gethsemane, and they went on to assert their right to have a cupboard and a lamp in the tomb of the Virgin;' but in this last pretension they were not well supported by France; t and, virtually, it was their claim to have a key of the great door of the Church of Bethlehem, instead of being put off with a key of the lesser door, which long remained insoluble, and had to be decided by the advance of armies and the threatening movement of fleets. Diplomacy, somewhat startled at the nature of the question committed to its charge, but repressing the coarse emotion of surprise, 'ventured,' as it is said, 'to inquire whether in this case a key 'meant an instrument for opening a door, only 'not to be employed in closing that door against 'Christians of other sects, or whether it was sim+ Ibid. p. 48. *Eastern Papers,' part, i. p. 84. See Count Nesselrode's Despatches, ibid. p. 61. III. CHAP. 'ply a key-an emblem;'* but Diplomacy answered that the key was really a key-a key for opening a door; and its evil quality was-not that it kept the Greeks out, but that it let the Latins come in. Increased violence of Govern ment. M. de Lavalette's demand was so urgently, so the French violently pressed, that the Porte at length gave way, and acknowledged the validity of the Latin claims in a formal note: † but the paper had not been signed more than a few days when the Russian Minister, making hot remonstrance, caused the Porte to issue a firman, ratifying all the existing privileges of the Greeks, and virtually revoking the acknowledgment just given to the Latins. Thereupon, as was natural, the French Government became indignant, and to escape its anger the Porte promised to evade the public reading of the firman at Jerusalem; § but the Russian Minister not relaxing his zeal, the Turkish Government secretly promised him that the Pasha of Jerusalem should be instructed to try to avoid giving up the key to the Latin monks. Afif Bey's Then again, under further pressure by France, the Porte engaged to evade this last evasion, and at length the duty of affecting to carry out the conflicting engagements thus made by the Porte was entrusted to Afif Bey. This calm Mahometan went to Jerusalem, and strove to temporise as well * See Count Nesselrode's Despatches, ibid. p. 79. + Note of the 9th February 1852. The firman of the mi-fevrier 1852. § Col. Rose to Lord Malmesbury. Eastern Papers,' part i. P. 46. III. as he could betwixt the angry Churches. His CHAP. great difficulty was to avert the rage which the Greeks would be likely to feel when they came to know that the firman was not to be read; and the nature of his little stratagem showed that, although he was a benighted Moslem, he had some insight into the great ruling principle of ecclesiastical questions. His plan was to inflict a bitter disappointment upon the Latins in the presence of the Greek priesthood, for he imagined that in their delight at witnessing the mortification of their rivals, the Greeks might be made to overlook the great question of the public reading of the firman. So, as soon as the ceremonial visits had been exchanged, Afif Bey, with a suite of the local Effendis, met the three Patriarchs, Greek, Latin, and Armenian, in the Church of the Resurrection, just in front of the Holy Sepulchre itself, and under the great dome, and there he 'made an oration 'upon the desire of His Majesty the Sultan to ' gratify all classes of his subjects;' and when M. Basily and the Greek Patriarch and the Russian Archimandrite were becoming impatient for the public reading of the firman which was to give to their Church the whole of the Christian sanctuaries of Jerusalem, the Bey invited all the disputants to meet him in the Church of the Virgin near Gethsemane. There he read an order of the Sultan for permitting the Latins to celebrate a mass once a-year; but then, to the great joy of the Greeks, and to the horror of their rivals, he went on to read words commanding that the altar III. CHAP. and its ornaments should remain undisturbed. 'No sooner,' says the official account, 'were these 'words uttered, than the Latins, who had come to 'receive their triumph over the Orientals, broke 'out into loud exclamations of the impossibility of 'celebrating mass upon a schismatic slab of mar'ble, with a covering of silk and gold instead of 'plain linen, among schismatic vases, and before 'a crucifix which has the feet separated instead of one nailed over the other.' Under cover of the storm thus raised, Afif Bey perhaps thought for a moment that he had secured his escape, and for a while he seems to have actually disentangled himself from the Churches, and to have succeeded in gaining his quarters. But when the delight of witnessing the discomfiture of the Latins had in some degree subsided, the Greeks perceived that, after all, the main promise had been evaded. The firman had not been read. M. Basily, the Russian Consul-General, called on Afif Bey, and required that the reading of the firman should take place. At first the Bey affected not to know what firman was meant, but afterwards he said he had no copy of it; and at length, being then at the end of his stratagems, he acknowledged that he had no instructions to read it. Thereupon M. Basily sent off Prince Gagarin to Jaffa to convey these tidings to Constantinople in any Arab vessel that could be found; and then, hurrying to the Pasha of Jerusalem, he demanded to have a special council assembled, with himself and the Greek Patriarch |