Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/183

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. HI buildings in repair, the Christians in Palestine chap. were willing to set the world in flames for the ' sake of maintaining their rival claims to the honour of repairing churches. The cupola of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem was out of order. The Greeks, supported by Paissia, claimed the right to repair it. The Latins denied their right. The dispute raged. Then, as usual, the wise and decorous Turk stepped in between the combatants, and said he would repair the Church himself. This did not content the Greeks, and Prince Mentschikoff now demanded that the an- cient rights of the Greeks to repair the great Cupola and Church at Jerusalem should be re- cognised and confirmed ; and although he did not reject the Sultan's offer to supply the means for the repairs, he insisted that the work should be under the control of the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem.* Some of these demands were resisted by France ; and although M. de Lavalette had been long since recalled, M. de la Cour, who succeeded him, seemed inclined to be somewhat persistent, es- pecially in regard to the question of the Cupola and the question of precedence at the Tomb of the Blessed Virgin. It seems. probable, however, that although M. de la Cour may have been sufficiently supplied with instructions touching the immediate question in hand, he had not perceived so clearly as his English colleague the dawn of the new French policy. From the communications of his own
 * 'Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 129.