295 
mission must be asked. Even their children throw 
stones at the monks. In short, no kind of insult is 
spared to oblige them to purchase tranquillity. It is with 
a view to annoy them in the very bosom of their con- 
vent, that the cloisters and the church of the sepulchre 
are filled with gutters, which in rainy weather inundate 
the edifice, already half ruined, and maintain a perpetual 
and dangerous damp in places where there is a defec- 
tive circulation of air. 
The greater part of the cloth with which the monks 
are clothed comes from Spain and Italy. Their sandals 
are made in the country, with leather which is also im- 
ported from Spain. In short, it may be said that the 
Latin Christians, who in former times overthrew the 
whole world to get possession of the holy places, have 
in the present day so abandoned them, that, were it not 
for Spain, there would not exist the smallest establish- 
ment for their religion in all the Holy Land. France, 
indeed, contributes to their support by means of its 
ambassador at Constantinople, but it cannot prevent the 
Turkish governors from holding almost continually the 
naked sword to the throats of the monks at Jerusalem, 
with a view to extort money from them, so that they 
pass their lives in a state of continual torture, and are 
really and truly martyrs to their zeal. The nuncio, or 
the keeper of the Holy Land, has the prerogative to arm 
knights of the order of the sepulchre. 
As the establishment of Roman Catholic monks 
in the Holy Land produces great advantages to the in- 
habitants of the country, I do not fear to recommend it 
to the different governments of Europe. The difference 
of religion ought to vanish before the eyes of the philo- 
sopher, who desires the welfare of humanity. This is 
