136 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 CHAP, the question of the Greek Patriarch, had a right ' to expect Lord Stratford's acquiescence in that dangerous part of the Czar's demand which sought to establish a Protectorate over the Greek Church in Turkey. Nothing is more likely than that, in the process of endeavouring to penetrate Lord Stratford's intentions through the medium of the Turkish Ministers, Prince Mentschikoff may have received a wrong impression, and it is very likely that Lord Stratford in reading the draft may have at once struck out clauses which he regarded as totally inadmissible, reserving for separate discussion and for oral explanation the consideration of an ambiguous clause which, dangerous as it was, might easily be so altered as to become entirely harmless ; but it is certain that there was never a moment in which Lord Stratford was willing or even would have endured that any Protectorate over the Greek Church in Turkey should be ceded to Piussia ; * and no one versed in the spirit of English diplomacy, or having a just conception of Lord Stratford's nature, will be able to accept the belief that the Queen's Ambassador intended to overreach his antagonist by any misleading contrivance. But whatever may have been the clue which led him into the wrong path, Prince Mentschikoff failed to see the danger in which he would place the success of his negotiation if he consented to let the question of the Holy Places be treated separ-
- See Lord Stratford's Prspntrhes, 'Eastern Papers,' part i.
p. 127 et seq. to 151.
