To Jerusalem

Abstract

The confluence of millennial expectations, the Damascus Affair, and the Eastern Crisis did not just make the Restoration seem actual and even urgent. Gestures by Palmerston fed momentum behind the idea and helped spawn fresh plans by Restorationist lobbies. The Jewish cause thus turned into the second pillar to a more general British design for the Middle East. The Catholic and Orthodox chancelleries meanwhile came up with their own plans for the newly evacuated Jerusalem. While this failed due to confessional rivalry and Austrian and Russian restraint, great-power prerogatives with regard to the Holy Sites were reaffirmed in 1841. The consequences, soon to be seen in the shape of the Crimean war of 1853–6, were of long-term significance.