46 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 Measures taken by the French President. chap, understood that by the course of her studies in the '_ eighteenth century, Trance had obtained a tight control over her religious feelings. Whenever she put forward a claim in her character as 'the eldest ' daughter of the Church/ men treated her demand as political, and dealt with it accordingly ; but as to the religious pretension on which it was based, Europe always met that with a smile. Yet it will presently be seen that a claim which tried the gravity of diplomatists might be used as a puissant engine of mischief. yS There was repose in the empire of the Sultan, and even the rival Churches of Jerusalem were suffering each other to rest, when the French President, in cold blood, and under no new motive for action, took up the forgotten cause of the Latin Church of Jerusalem, and began to apply it as a wedge for sundering the peace of the world. The French Ambassador at Constantinople was instructed to demand that the grants to the Latin Church which were contained in the treaty of 1740 should be strictly executed ;* and, since the firmans granted during the last century to the Greek Church were inconsistent with the capitula- tions of 1740, and had long been in actual opera- tion, the effect of this demand on the part of the French Fresident was to force the Sultan to dis- turb the existing state of repose, to annul the privileges which (with the acquiescence of France) the Greek Church had long been enjoying, to drive
- June 1850. 'Eastern Papers,' part i. p. 2. — Xoie to ilk
Edition.
