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to inflict a bitter disappointment upon the Latins in CHAP. 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 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 marble, with a covering of silk and gold ' instead of plain linen, among schismatic vases, and

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CHAP. 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 Garan 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 in attendance, in order that Russia and the Orthodox Church might know once for all whether the firman had been sent or not; but when the meeting was gathered, Hafiz Pasha only made a smooth speech on the well-known benevolence of His Majesty towards all classes of his subjects, and that was all that could be said.'*

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Consul Finn to Earl of Malmesbury, Oct. 27, 1852. Correspon 'dence,' part i. p. 44.

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So the Greeks, though they had been soothed for a CHAP. moment by the discomfiture of their Latin adversaries in the Church of the Virgin, could not any longer fail to see that their rivals were in the ascendant; and it soon turned out that the promise to evade the delivery of the keys was not to be faithfully kept.

of the key

star.

The pressure of France was applied with increasing Delivery force, and it produced 'its effect. In the month of and the December 1852, the silver star was brought with much pomp from the coast. Some of the Moslem Effendis went down to Jaffa to escort it, and others rode out a good way on the road that they might bring it into Jerusalem with triumph; and on Wednesday the 22d of the same month, the Latin Patriarch, with joy and with a great ceremony, replaced the glittering star in the sanctuary of Bethlehem, and at the same time the key of the great door of the church, together with the keys of the sacred manger, was handed over to the Latins.*

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For the Czar and for the devout people of All the IndignaRussias it was hard to bear this blow. To the Russia. 'indignation,' Count Nesselrode writes,' of the whole

people following the Greek ritual, the key of the Church of Bethlehem has been made over to the 'Latins, so as publicly to demonstrate their religious supremacy in the East. The mischief then is done, M. le Baron, and there is no longer any question of preventing it. It is now necessary to remedy it. The immunities of the Orthodox religion which have 'been injured, the promise which the Sultan had

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* Ibid., Dec. 28, 1852; but see Mr Pisani's note, p. 106.

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CHAP. solemnly given to the Emperor, and which has been. 'violated, call for an act of reparation. It is to ob'tain this that we must labour. If we took for 'our example the imperious and violent proceedings 'which have brought France to this result—if, like her, we were indifferent to the dignity of the Porte, to the consequences which an heroic remedy may ' have on a constitution already so shattered as that ' of the Ottoman Empire-our course would be already 'marked out for us, and we should not have long 'to reflect upon it. Menace and a resort to force 'would be our immediate means. The cannon has 'been called the last argument of kings, the French 'Government has made it its first. It is the argument ' with which, at the outset, it declared its intention to commence its proceedings at Tripoli as well as at 'Constantinople. Notwithstanding our legitimate causes of complaint, and at the risk of waiting some time longer for redress, we shall take a less summary course. . . . It may happen that France, 'perceiving any hesitation on the part of the Porte, may again have recourse to menace, and press upon 'it so as to prevent it from listening to our just de ́ ́ mands. . . . The Emperor has therefore considered 'it necessary to adopt in the outset some precautionary measures in order to support our negotia'tions, to neutralise the effect of M. Lavalette's threats, and to guard himself in any contingency which may occur against a Government accustomed to act by surprises.'*

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* Count Nesselrode to Baron Brunnow, 14th January 1853. Ibid. p. 61.

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Advance

Nor were these empty words. The same authentic CHAP. page* which tells of this triumph of Church over Church goes on to show how the Czar was pre- of Russian paring for vengeance. vengeance. Orders,' says Sir Hamilton forces. Seymour, 'have been despatched to the 5th corps 'd'armée to advance to the frontiers of the Danubian

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provinces without waiting for their reserves; and 'the 4th corps, under the command of General 'Count Dannenburg, and now stationed in Volhynia, 'will be ordered to hold itself in readiness to march if necessary. General Luder's corps d'armée, accordingly, being now 48,000 strong, will receive a ' reinforcement of 24,000 men soon after its arrival ' at its destination; and supposing the 4th corps to 'follow, the whole force will amount at least, accord'ing to official returns, to 144,000 men.'

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Is it true that for this cause great armies were gathering, and that for the sake of the key and the silver star the peace of the nations was brought into danger? Had the world grown young once more?

The strife of the Churches was no fable, but after all, though near and distinct, it was only the lesser truth. A crowd of monks with bare foreheads stood quarrelling for a key at the sunny gates of a church in Palestine, but beyond and above, towering high in the misty North, men saw the ambition of the Czars.

* Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 56.

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