o preserve the Turkish domination, and
to that end made counter-proposals. The Russian scheme proposed that
Palestine should become a separate Pashalik, that the Church of the
Orient should be restored, that the Greek Patriarch should resume his
residence in Jerusalem, and that an special Church and Monastery should
be founded for the use of the Russian clergy and pilgrims. The Austrian
scheme proposed to leave the Turkish administration untouched except in
regard to jurisdiction over Christians. This was to be confided to a
high Turkish official directly responsible to Constantinople and advised
by a Council of Procureurs appointed by the Great Powers.[126] Russia
opposed the Austrian scheme.[127] Thereupon Prussia put forward a fourth
scheme of a far more ambitious character.[128] It provided for a
European Protectorate of the Holy Cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and
Nazareth, and a sort of national autonomy for the various Christian
sects which might be extended to the Jews, the whole to be governed by
three Residents appointed by the Christian Powers. Each Resident was to
have a small military guard. The Protestant Church, under the joint
protection of Great Britain and Prussia, was to be recognised as on an
equal footing with the other Churches, and to establish its headquarters
and other institutions--including schools for Jews--on Mount Zion, which
was to be fortified.[129] This scheme was strongly opposed by Austria,
in whose view Lord Palmerston concurred.[130] Russia also opposed it,
but in Paris it was received sympathetically.[131]

In the end all these schemes were dropped, and Palestine was handed back
to the Porte practically without any new conditions. Prussia, however,
continued her negotiations with Great Britain, both with a view to
general reforms and to the recognition of the Protestant Church in
Jerusalem. For this purpose she sent Baron Bunsen to London on a special
embassy.[132] Among the reforms proposed by him were facilities for the
purchase of land, "as many persons in Protestant Germany, Jews and
Christians, are desirous of settling in Palestine."[133] Eventually he
negotiated with Palmerston the Anglo-Prussian Agreement for the
establishment of a Protestant Bishopric in Jerusalem. There is a curious
reference to the Restoration of the Jews in Bunsen's account of this
transaction:[134]

* * * * *

"Monday, 19th July, 1841.--This is a great day. I am just retu