Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/181

BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 139 CHAPTER X. Meantime the course of events affecting the chap. question of the Holy Places had shifted the . — grounds of dispute ; for the solemn act performed |Kte^ e at Bethlehem in the foregoing December had con- SSfftS? verted the claims of the Latins into established privileges ; and the Emperor Nicholas, notwith- standing his religious excitement, had still enough wisdom to see that, although he might have been able to prevent this result by a violent use of his power at an earlier period, he could not now un- do what was done. Without outraging Catholic Europe, and even, it may be believed, his own sense of religious propriety, he could not now wrench the key of the Bethlehem Church from the hands of the Latin monks, nor tear down the silver star from the Holy Stable of the Nativity. Therefore all that Prince Mentschikoff demanded in regard to the key and the star was a declara- tion by the Turkish Government that the delivery of the key implied no ownership over the princi- pal altar of the Church ; that no change should be made in the svstcm of the religious ceremonies or