Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

for service in Turkey in a little-known letter which was worded as follows:

Dans un temps où l'impératrice de Russie a resserré les liens qui l'unissent à l'Autriche, il est de l'intérêt de la France de faire tout ce qui dépend d'elle pour rendre plus redoutables les moyens militaires de la Turquie.

Cette puissance a des milices nombreuses et braves, mais fort ignorantes sur les principes de l'art de guerre.

La formation et le service de l'artillerie, qui influe si puissamment dans notre tactique moderne sur le gain des batailles, et presque exclusivement sur la prise et la défense des places fortes, est encore dans son enfance en Turquie.

La Porte, qui l'a senti, a plusieurs fois demandé des officiers d'artillerie et du génie; nous y en avons effectivement quelques-uns dans ce moment-ci, mais ils ne sont ni assez nombreux ni assez instruits pour produire un résultat de quelque conséquence.

Le général Buonaparte, qui a acquis quelque réputation en commandant l'artillerie de nos armées en différents circonstances, et spécialement au siège de Toulon, s'offre pour passer en Turquie avec une mission du gouvernement ; il mènera avec lui six ou sept officiers dont chacun aura une connaisance particulière des sciences relatives à l'art de la guerre.

S'il peut dans cette nouvelle carrière, rendre les armées turques plus redoutables et perfectionner la défense des places fortes de cet empire, il croira avoir rendu un service signalé à la patrie, et avoir, à son retour, bien merité d'elle.

Had the Comité de Salut Public accepted Napoleon's offer, he might have lived and died unknown to history. The world might have been spared some of the greatest

wars.

Although the first French Republic was atheistic and anti-Christian, it carefully continued the traditional policy of France in the East in its threefold aspect. It strove to maintain France's supremacy in the East, desiring to use Turkey as a counterpoise to France's enemies, to dominate the Near Eastern markets and to maintain its ancient

protectorate over the Christians in the East. That may be seen from the instructions given to the French Ambassadors. In those sent by the First Consul Buonaparte to Ambassador Brune on October 18, 1802, we read, for instance :

1°. L'intention du gouvernement est que l'ambassadeur à Constantinople reprenne, par tous les moyens, la suprématie que la France avait depuis deux cents ans dans cette capitale. La maison qui est occupée par l'ambassadeur est la plus belle. Il doit tenir constamment un rang audessus des ambassadeurs des autres nations, et ne marcher qu'avec un grand éclat. Il doit reprendre sous sa protection tous les hospices et tous les chrétiens de Syrie et d'Arménie, et spécialment toutes les caravanes qui visitent les Lieux-Saints.

2o. Notre commerce doit être protegé sous tous les points de vue. Dans l'état de faiblesse où se trouve l'empire ottoman, nous ne pouvons pas espérer qu'il fasse une diversion en notre faveur contre l'Autriche, il ne nous intéresse donc plus sous le rapport du commerce. Le gouvernement ne veut souffrir aucune avarie de pachas, et la moindre insulte à nos commerçants doit donner lieu à des explications fort vives, et conduire notre ambassadeur à obtenir une satisfaction éclatante. On doit accoutumer les pachas et beys des différentes provinces à ne regarder désormais notre pavillon qu'avec respect et considération.

3°. Dans toutes les circonstances, on ne doit pas manquer de dire et de faire sentir que si la Russie et l'Autriche ont quelque intérêt de localité à se partager les états du GrandSeigneur, l'intérêt de la France est de maintenir une balance entre ces deux grandes puissances. On doit montrer des égards à l'ambassadeur de Russie, mais se servir souvent de l'Ambassadeur de Prusse qui est plus sincèrement dans nos intérêts.

4°. S'il survient des événements dans les environs de Constantinople, offrir sa médiation à la Porte, et, en général, saisir toutes les occasions de fixer les yeux de l'empire sur l'ambassadeur de France. C'est d'après ce principe que le jour de la fête du prophète il n'y a point d'inconvenient à illuminer le palais de France selon l'usage orientale, après toutefois s'en être expliqué avec la Porte.

En fixant les yeux du peuple sur l'ambassadeur de France avoir soin de ne jamais choquer ses mœurs et ses usages, mais faire voir que nous nous estimons les uns les autres..

It will be noticed that the French Republic and Napoleon the First followed in every particular the same policy in Turkey which in more recent times was pursued by Prince Bismarck and William the Second.

In the Middle Ages and in the time of the first Capitulations, France could easily act as the protectress of Christianity, for she was the strongest Power in Europe and in the Mediterranean and nearly all important States were Roman Catholic. Times have changed. The other nations no longer trade in the East under the French flag, or appeal to the French Consuls when they are in need. of protection. Besides, with the rise of powerful Protestant and Greek Orthodox States and of influential Armenian, Coptic and Abyssinian Christian Churches, France can no longer act as the protectress of the Holy Sepulchre on behalf of all Christendom. She acted in that capacity for the last time during the reign of Napoleon the Third. It is not generally known that the Crimean War was not merely a war for the control of Constantinople, but was in the first place a struggle for the key to the Church in Bethlehem. Small causes often have great consequences.

As the question of the Holy Places bears directly upon France's claim to Syria, it is worth while looking into the genesis of the Crimean War. Beforehand, we must take note of the peculiar position which the various States and religions occupy at the Holy Sites. A map of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and of the buildings attached to it is as complicated as a map of the Holy Roman Empire. Certain parts of the Church building belong to the Latin and Greek Christians in common, while others belong exclusively to Latin Christians, Greek Christians, Abyssinian Christians, Armenian Christians, Copts, Syrians, Russians, Prussians. Every carpet, picture, lamp, vase

has its owner.

Of the fifteen lamps in the Angels' Chapel in Jerusalem, for instance, five belong to the Greek Church, five to the Latin Church, four to the Armenian, and one to the Coptic Church. The greatest jealousy prevails among the different Churches and nationalities. The displacement of a Greek lamp or vase by a Latin one might create a riot. Property of various Churches has been displaced, stolen or burned by other Churches and sanguinary fights have often occurred within the Holy precincts. Men of the same religion, but belonging to different Churches, are unfortunately frequently animated by a blind and passionate zeal, and religious ceremonies performed in their presence in an unorthodox manner appear to them not merely a sacrilege but a deadly insult which calls for blood. To avoid a collision, the Turks have devised the most minute regulations. Still they have not been able to prevent the Churches encroaching upon the rights of their rivals.

During the Napoleonic period, France had taken comparatively little interest in the Holy Land and the Greek Church had encroached upon the position of the Latins. That encroachment was the direct cause of the Crimean War. In 1854, when the war began, the British Government published a Blue Book of 1029 pages, containing nearly 1200 largely abbreviated documents. If their full text had been given the volume would probably have exceeded 2000 pages. That publication furnished an account of the causes of the war and was significantly entitled Correspondence respecting the Rights and Privileges of the Latin and Greek Churches in Turkey.' In that correspondence various Church properties, and especially the key to the Church at Bethlehem, played a very great part.

[ocr errors]

As early as May 20, 1850, Sir Stratford Canning informed Lord Palmerston :

[ocr errors]

MY LORD, A question likely to be attended with much discussion and excitement is on the point of being raised

between the conflicting interests of the Latin and Greek Churches in this country. The immediate point of difference is the right of possession to certain portions of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

General Aupick [the French Ambassador] has assured me that the matter in dispute is a mere question of property and of express treaty stipulation. But it is difficult to separate any such question from political considerations, and a struggle of general influence, especially if Russia, as may be expected, should interfere in behalf of the Greek Church, will probably grow out of the impending discussion.

Soon the question of the key to the Bethlehem Church came to the front and monopolised the attention of all European capitals and Cabinets. On February 9, 1852, Aali Pasha wrote to M. de Lavalette:

La Grotte qui est la Sainte Crèche est aujourd'hui un lieu visité par les diverses nations Chrétiennes, et il est établi depuis un très ancient temps qu'une clef de la porte du coté du nord de la grande église à Bethléem, une clef de la porte du coté du midi de cette église, et une clef de la porte de la grotte susmentionnée, doivent se trouver entre les mains des prêtres Latins aussi. En cas donc que ces clefs ne se trouvent point en la possession des Latins, il faut qu'on leur donne une clef de chacune de ces trois portes, pour qu'ils les aient comme par le passé.

The Sultan, as the sovereign and ground landlord, was called upon to decide between the quarrelling Churches, and he endeavoured to arrange matters by a Firman which was to be publicly read. His attempt proved a failure. Consul Finn reported to the Earl of Malmesbury on October 27, 1852, from Jerusalem :

Afif Bey invited all the parties concerned to meet him in the Church of the Virgin near Gethsemane. There he read an Order of the Sultan for permitting the Latins to celebrate Mass once a year, but requiring the altar and its ornaments to remain undisturbed. No sooner were these words uttered than the Latins, who had come to receive

« AnteriorContinuar »