Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/179

BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 137 ately ; aud the angry despatches which now came chap. in from St Petersburg* did uot tend to divert _ him from his error. On the contrary, they tended to place him in hostility with France more dis- tinctly than before ; and since the question of the Holy Places was the one in which France and Russia were face to face, the Czar's Ambassador was not perhaps unwilling to enter upon a course which would place him for the time in distinct antagonism with France, and with France alone. He agreed to allow the question of the Holy Places to be treated first and apart from his other demands. It must be acknowledged that, so far as con- cerned the question of the Holy Places, the de- mands made by Russia were moderate. Notwith- standing all the heat of his sectarian zeal, the Emperor Nicholas had seen that to endeavour to enforce a withdrawal of the privileges which had been granted with public solemnity to the Latin Church would be to outrage Catholic Europe ; and it may be believed, too, that his religious feel- ing made him unwilling to exclude the people of other creeds from those Holy Sites which, according to the teaching of his own Church, it was good for Christians to embrace. But if the demands of the Prussian Emperor in regard to the Holy Places were fair and moderate, he was re- solved to be peremptory in enforcing them. And it seemed to him that in this matter he could not fail to have the ascendant, for his forces were near • 13th April