RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND BULGARIA. 6 1 



guaranteed a succession to his family, and thus tranquility was once 

 more restored to the East. 



The fourth intervention of Russia in Eastern affairs, in 1853, which 

 led to the Crimean War, is within the memory of this generation, and 

 the real facts are matters of general knowledge, and their authenticity 

 is indisputable, but it is necessary to set them briefly forth. 



The centre and source of the whole controversy which led to this 

 intervention of Russia are to be found in the miserable dispute 

 regarding the Holy Places, viz., the Holy Sepulchre and the Church 

 of Bethlehem, both of which were in the possession of Turkey, and 

 the immediate cause of the dispute was that the " Star," which had 

 been placed from time immemorial over the altar in the Church of 

 Bethlehem, had mysteriously disappeared. The Latins charged the 

 Greeks with having stolen it, and this miserable squabble was made 

 the pretext for a diplomatic and political quarrel, and eventually 

 became the cause of a great European War. 



The French Government, to please the Catholics in France and 

 Europe, supported the quarrel of the members of the Latin Churches, 

 and in May, 1850, the French Ambassador at Constantinople 

 demanded of the Sultan of Turkey, and the Porte, a total change in 

 the relations of the Greek and Latin Churches in regard to the Holy 

 Places. 



The British Ambassador at Constantinople, Lord Stratford de 

 Redcliffe, in a despatch to Lord Palmerston, as early as the 20th May 

 1850, declared that all the Roman Catholic Powers support the French 

 demand, and against this action of the other European Powers, Russia 

 as the defender of the Greek Church protested, and the Porte, anxious 

 to please both sides, made concessions to each, but these concessions 

 not being accepted, France threatened force, and Russia the withdrawal 

 of her Ambassador. To avoid a rupture, an International Commission 

 consisting of Turkey, Greece, and France was appointed, and this 

 Commission gave its decision against France, that the Latins have no 

 right to claim exclusive possession of the Holy Places ; but in conse- 

 quence of the usual procrastination of the Porte to carry out this 

 decision, Russia determined to send Prince Menschikoff on a diplo- 

 matic Mission to Constantinople, which so aroused the French 

 Government, that they ordered the French Fleet to the East. . 



The diplomatic Mission of Prince Menschikoff to Constantinople 

 failed in its object, mainly in consequence of the influence brouglit to 

 bear upon the Porte by the British Ambassador, against the inter- 

 ference and subsequent action of Russia, and this advice of Lord 



