BERNSTORFF.
NESSELRODE.
CAPODISTRIAS.

* * * * *

(_d_) THE CONFERENCE OF LONDON (1830).

The growing symptoms of an impending break-up of the Ottoman Empire
visibly extended the practical applications of the doctrine of religious
liberty in the field of international politics. In emancipating the
Christian feudatories of the Porte, account had to be taken of the large
Moslem and Jewish minorities inhabiting those States. It was impossible
to emancipate the Christians and at the same time to place
non-Christians under disabilities, especially where they had governments
of their own faith to whom they might appeal and who might resort to
reprisals. Hence, the parity of all religions in the Levant had to be
recognised.

The point first arose in the settlement of the Greek question in 1830.
In this question it was not only the Moslems who had to be considered.
France renounced in favour of the new Kingdom her Protectorate over the
Catholics, which she derived from her capitulations with Turkey. Hence,
besides the Moslems, guarantees had to be exacted for the religious
liberty of Catholics in Greece. These guarantees were the subject of the
third Protocol of the Conference of London, February 3, 1830. At the
same time it was stipulated that there should be perfect equality for
the subjects of the new State, whatever might be their religion. Neither
Moslems nor Jews were expressly mentioned, but it is in virtue of this
Protocol that the Jews of Greece enjoy their present status as Greek
Nationals. The Jews of Greece were thus the first Jews of the Levant to
be fully emancipated.

DOCUMENT.

* * * * *

PROTOCOL _No. 3 of the Conference held at the Foreign Office, London, on
3 February, 1830_.

Present: The Plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, France and Russia.

The Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg having been called, by the united
suffrages of the three Courts of the Alliance, to the Sovreignty of
Greece, the French Plenipotentiary requested the attention of the
Conference to the particular situation in which his Government is
placed, relative to a portion of the Greek population.

He represented that for many ages France has been entitled to exercise,
in favour of the Catholics subjected to the Sultan, an especial
protection, which His Most Christian Majesty deems it to be his duty to
deposit at the present moment in