The enmity of the clergy has descended to the people, and frequently, upon the most futile pretexts, the churches and Holy Places have been the theatres of fatal encounters between rival nations. The Pashas of former times (now it is different) gladly interfered on these occasions, to impose heavy fines upon the weaker party, and to sell impunity to the strong, who were quite ready to begin fresh disturbances the next day. At one time the Greeks were driven from the Holy Places by order of the Porte; now the Latins were subjected to the utmost annoyance; while the Armenians profited by the discord to establish themselves in the Sanctuaries belonging to one or other of the disputants, whose claims they pretended to be supporting. The Catholic Governments lacked the means, and perhaps the inclination, to interfere directly in such questions. The ministers of France, Spain, Venice, and Austria, in Constantinople, sometimes listened to the complaints of the religious fraternities, to whom the custody of the Holy Places had been confided. But whether their own governments failed to support them, or whether that of the Sultan was not found tractable, certain it is that their applications were seldom heeded; and, in fact, cases occurred of even personal violence being employed against the French Ministers and the Venetian _Baili_, or still more frequently, against their subordinates. Until within a few years past, money was the only way of succeeding in negotiations with the Porte. Hence it may be understood, as regards the Latins, how it is that the guardianship of the Holy Land has been so expensive to Europe[898]. The Franciscans had also the privilege of acquiring real property and disposing of the alms of the Faithful; until the Propaganda began to view with dislike such large sums removed entirely from its control; so in order to inaugurate a fresh system, a Patriarch was established at Jerusalem in 1847, and assigned as his revenue the fifth part of the alms received by the Guardians. This arrangement gave him the right of examining the accounts, and to the Propaganda upon the management of affairs. He was, however, so obstinately opposed by the monks, that he was obliged to make a compromise with them, in which the interests, if not the minds, of the two parties were somewhat reconciled. The Greeks also were reduced to the same situation as the Latins; for a community which is obliged to support its influence at the Turkish Court by the aid of money alone, is compelled to have recourse to expedients of every sort in order to obtain it. Consequently, either from the piety of the faithful or the activity of the monks, the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem has amassed a very large property, consisting of possessions in Wallachia, Bessarabia, Greece, and other countries, besides its estates in Palestine, and especially in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, which are being continually augmented. The secretary of the Greek convent of S.