Syrian sympathies which had been inaugurated before the century began, During thirty years it developed obscurely, and gave little warning of the importance it was destined to assume. The earliest protagonists were France and Great Britain, traditionally the leading actors on that time-honoured stage. It was long before other competitors would enter the lists. Russia did not challenge in earnest till the 'fifties; and Prussia waited till there was a German Empire. A still longer period elapsed before Italy began to make herself felt in the Holy Land.
It cannot be doubted that France and Great Britain had very similar motives in endeavouring to obtain, each for herself, a preponderating influence in Syrian affairs: for each was anxious to establish herself in this neighbourhood on the road to the East, in order to secure the fullest advantage for' her trade with India and China. With the progress of invention, it was felt that it would not be long before the difficulties of time and space would be overcome; it was obvious that the possession, or, at all events, the domination, of the countries round the eastern end of the Mediterranean would greatly facilitate the trade of whichever Power happened to be the strongest, at the time, in those regions. Hence the attraction both of Egypt and of Syria for the two great maritime Powers during the greater part of the nineteenth century, and hence the preponderating influence in the Near East which those Powers, now in happy alliance, enjoyed till near the end of that period.
French and British in Syria.—France had enjoyed a long start, but during two centuries made indifferent use of her Syrian monopoly. Nominal "protector" of the Latin Church in the Ottoman Empire since the Capitulations granted in 1535 by Sultan Suleiman to Francis I, she had allowed Latin rights to the Holy Places of Palestine to be limited by rights, equal or even superior, of the Orthodox Church; and she had made little use of her opportunities for acting politically in the Lebanon. Before the
