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 BETWEEN T41E CZAK AND THE SULTAN. 147 to be kept free from the dominion of both the con- chap. tending Churches. All these arrangements were ' to be embodied in firmans addressed by the Sultan to the Turkish authorities at Jerusalem.* Thus, after having tasked the patience of Euro- pean diplomacy for a period of nearly three years, the business of apportioning the holy shrines of Palestine between the Churches of the East and of the West was brought at last to a close. The question was perhaps growing ripe for settlement when Lord Stratford reached Constantinople ; but whether it was so or not, he closed it in seventeen days. For the part which he had taken in help- ing to achieve this result he received the thanks of the Turkish Government and of the Eussian and French Ambassadors. The Divan might well be grateful to him, and lie deserved, too, the thanks of his French colleague ; for, having more insight into the new policy of the French Govern- ment than M. de la Cour, he was able to place him in the path which turned out to be the right one. But when Lord Stratford received the thanks of Prince MentschikofT, he felt perhaps that the gravity which had served him well in these transactions was a gift which was still of some use. • ' Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 248. The question of the Holy Places was finally settled on the 22d of ApriL