to congratulate the Queen upon a result so glorious for the British navy, so decisive for the final success of the cause which England and Russia are called upon to support together. This is the object of the letter, inclosed in original and in copy, which the Emperor addresses to His august Friend and Ally. Being desirous by the same opportunity to testify to Her his full estimation of the admirable conduct of Admiral Stopford and of Commodore Napier, the Emperor places at Her disposal, for them, the Cross of St. George of the second and of the third class. Have the goodness, M. le Baron, to deliver to Lord Palmerston the Insignia thereof, which are likewise transmitted herewith, requesting him to convey to its high destination the Cabinet letter which accompanies them. The English Government will perceive, we do not doubt, in the just homage thus paid to the bravery of the two sailors, a fresh proof of the disinterested manner in which we participate in the glory of our Allies, and of the sincerity of our zeal for the triumph of our common policy. Accept, &c.,

I HAVE had under my consideration the letter of your Lordships' Secretary of yesterday's date, inclosing a copy of a despatch from Commodore Napier, dated the 26th of November, with copies of that officer's correspondence with Boghos Bey; and also the further despatch from Commodore Napier of the 28th of November, which has been communicated to me by your Lordships this day, inclosing the Articles of Agreement signed by Commodore Napier and Boghos Bey, on the 27th of November.

I have to request your Lordships to convey to Commodore Napier the approval of Her Majesty's Government of the steps taken by him on this occasion, though without any instructions to that effect, and upon his own responsibility, to carry into execution the arrangements contemplated by the Treaty of the 15th of July, and to put an end to the contest in the Levant.

But the instruction given by your Lordships to Sir Robert Stopford in pursuance of my letter of the 14th of November, will have reached Sir Robert. Stopford a few days after he received from Commodore Napier a report of the result of his negotiation at Alexandria; and it is uncertain whether Sir Robert Stopford will have considered the instruction of the 14th of November as superseding Commodore Napier's arrangement, or whether he will have looked upon Commodore Napier's arrangement as superseding that instruction.

In this state of things, Her Majesty's Government must postpone a final communication with respect to the arrangement made by Commodore Napier, till they learn, as they probably will in a few days' time, what course Sir Robert Stopford took upon the receipt of the instruction of the 14th of November.. But there is one part of the Articles signed by Commodore Napier and Boghos Bey, upon which it is necessary that an instruction should immediately be sent to Sir Robert Stopford.

In the First Article, Boghos Bey, on the part of Mehemet Ali, takes two engagements: the one is to order the Egyptian troops to evacuate Syria; the other is to restore the Turkish fleet. The first engagement was to be fulfilled immediately, and was to be conditional only upon the promise of Commodore Napier that he would, in his capacity of Commander of the British fleet before Alexandria, suspend hostilities against Alexandria, and every other part of the Egyptian territory. The other engagement was eventual, and was to be fulfilled as soon as Mehemet Ali should have received an official notification that the Porte grants him the hereditary government of Egypt, and that this concession is, and shall continue to be, under the guarantee of the Four Powers. Now it is necessary that Sir Robert Stopford should lose no time in making known to Mehemet Ali that this last demand of his, that the Four Powers should guarantee to him the grant of the hereditary government of Egypt, if that grant should be made to him by the Sultan, cannot be complied with.

In the first place, as far as Great Britain is concerned, it would be inconsistent with the principles which guide the conduct of the British Government to guarantee to a subject a grant of administrative authority made to him by his Sovereign within the dominions of that Sovereign; and, in the next place, as regards the Four Powers, one of the main objects which those Powers had in view in concluding the Treaty of the 15th of July, was to uphold and secure the independence of the Sultan's Throne. But it is obvious that such a standing interference by the Four Powers in the internal affairs of the Turkish Empire, as would be implied by the guarantee demanded by Mehemet Ali, would be inconsistent with that independence, and would, as far as the province of Egypt is concerned, tend essentially to impair it. For these reasons, neither Great Britain singly nor the Four Powers jointly, can give the guarantee demanded by Mehemet Ali.

That which the Four Powers will do, is to recommend to the Porte to make the concession specified in the communication which Sir Robert Stopford has been instructed to convey to Mehemet Ali.

My Lord,

Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby.

Foreign Office, December 17, 1840. HER Majesty's Government have received from Commodore Napier a copy of the Articles of Agreement concluded between him and Boghos Bey, on the 27th of November, by which Boghos Bey engaged, on the part of Mehemet Ali, that the Egyptian troops should immediately evacuate Syria, on condition that Commodore Napier should suspend hostilities against Egypt, and that the Turkish fleet should be given up by Mehemet Ali, as soon as Mehemet Ali should be informed from Constantinople, that the Sultan had granted him the hereditary government of Egypt, and provided that grant were guaranteed to Mehemet Ali by the Four Powers.

As these Articles of Agreement will have reached Sir Robert Stopford much about the same time as the instruction sent to him by the Lords of the Admiralty on the 14th of November, it is doubtful which of the two Sir Robert may have determined to act upon; and whether he will have considered the instruction of the 14th of November as superseding the Articles of Agreement, or the Articles of Agreement as superseding the instruction.

If Sir Robert Stopford has taken the first course, and has sent a communication to Mehemet Ali, in pursuance of the instruction of the 14th of November, there can be no doubt that Mehemet Ali will have consented to do what was required of him by that instruction; and in that case Sir Robert Stopford will have transmitted Mehemet Ali's acquiescence to Constantinople; and then your Excellency and your Colleagues will, of course, have given to the Porte the advice specified in my despatch of the 15th of October to your Excellency; and your Excellency will before this, have sent off to this office a report of the decision of the Porte, which has, no doubt, been in conformity with the advice so given..

But if Sir Robert Stopford has taken the second course, and has looked upon the Articles of Agreement of the 27th of November as superseding the instruction of the 14th of November, he will in that case have sent those Articles of Agreement to Constantinople, as being virtually equivalent to the written engagement required from Mehemet Ali by the instruction of the 14th of November.

In that case, however, a doubt may have been felt by your Excellency and your Colleagues what steps you should take in pursuance of the instructions contained in my despatch of the 15th of October, and in the corresponding instructions sent from Vienna, Petersburgh, and Berlin; because those instructions, modified by the subsequent letter to the Admiralty of November 14, contemplated the unconditional submission of Mehemet Ali to the Sultan, as a preliminary to the advice to be given to the Porte to reinstate Mehemet Ali in the Government of Egypt; and, on the contrary, Mehemet Ali, in the

demands which he sets forth in the first Article of the Agreement, signed on the 27th of November, engages to restore the fleet only on two conditions,the one being, that the Sultan should grant him hereditary tenure in the Government of Egypt, and the other being, that such grant on the part of the Sultan should be placed under the guarantee of the Four Powers.

It appears to Her Majesty's Government that the fact that Mehemet Ali attached the first of these conditions to his restoration of the fleet, need not prevent the Porte from making to him that concession. For, in fact, those Articles of Agreement were substantially a complete surrender on the part of Mehemet Ali; and he was led to suppose, that in asking for hereditary tenure, he was only asking that which the Porte was willing to give. But the second condition, namely, the guarantee of the Four Powers, is one which cannot be complied with; and your Excellency should, on this point, give to the Porte the same explanations which Sir Robert Stopford has been instructed, in pursuance of my letter to the Admiralty of the 15th instant, to give to Mehemet Ali.

It has been reported, but upon what authority is not known, that the Porte was, towards the end of November, but before it had heard of the submission of Mehemet Ali, disinclined to revoke the decree which had deprived him of the Government of Egypt. It is not unnatural that such a feeling should have existed at that time in the mind of the Turkish Government, but Her Majesty's Government hope that subsequent events, and the unanimous advice of the Four Powers, will have removed these objections on the part of the Porte, and will have led the Porte to accept the settlement effected by Commodore Napier's arrangement, or by the subsequent more ample submission of Mehemet Ali.

It would indeed be necessary, that, in reinstating Mehemet Ali in the Pashalic of Egypt, care should be taken to make such arrangements as would protect the people of Egypt from a continuance of the tyrannical oppression by which they have of late years been crushed, and should secure the Sultan against a renewal of those hostilities which have compelled him to have recourse to the aid of his Allies. But the means of effecting all these purposes may be found in the stipulations of the Treaty of the 15th of July, without removing Mehemet Ali from his Pashalic. The Treaty says, that all the laws of the Turkish Empire, and all the Treaties of the Porte, shall apply to Egypt, just as much as to any other province of the Sultan's dominions; and that the land and sea forces which may be maintained by the Pasha of Egypt, shall be part of the forces of the Empire, and be kept up for the service of the State.

Under these stipulations the Sultan will of course be able, by an exercise of his legislative authority, to establish unity of flag, and of military and naval uniform, throughout all his provinces; to limit the number of troops which each province shall, according to its population, maintain; to regulate the mode of enforcing the conscription, so as to protect the people from undue burthens and oppressive levies; to fix the number and class of ships of war which shall belong to the several naval ports of his dominions; to fix the manner in which commissions in the army and navy shall be granted in his name, and by his authority; to determine that a single monetary system shall prevail throughout all his dominions; and that there shall be but one mint. The Treaty specifies, that none but the legal imposts shall be levied in Egypt, which will secure the people from undue exactions; and the execution of the Convention of 1838, by which all monopolies are to be abolished, will at once free the industry of the people of Egypt from those oppressive restrictions which have hitherto kept the great mass of the population in the most abject poverty, and which have gradually thrown out of cultivation extensive tracts of land that were formerly tilled and productive.

By such means it seems to Her Majesty's Government, that future security might be afforded both to the Sultan and to his Egyptian subjects against the disposition of Mehemet Ali again to rebel against his Sovereign, and to oppress the people of the province he would have to govern. ¡

My Lord,

No. 94.

Viscount Palmerston to Earl Granville.

Foreign Office, December 18, 1840.

I INCLOSE for your Excellency's information, and for communication to M. Guizot, a copy of a letter which I addressed, on the 15th instant, to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, signifying to their Lordships the Queen's commands as to further instructions to be addressed to Admiral Sir Robert Stopford.

I am, &c.,

(Signed)

PÁLMERSTON

No. 95.

Earl Granville to Viscount Palmerston.-(Received December 20.)

My Lord,

Paris, December 18, 1840.

I RECEIVED yesterday your despatch of December 15, inclosing Commodore Napier's despatch to your Lordship of the 26th of November, and his correspondence with Boghos Bey.

I read with surprise, in the Commodore's despatch, that a French steamer had arrived three days before at Alexandria with a Negotiator, who had joined with the other French Agents already established there, in endeavours to prevent the success of his negotiation with Mehemet Ali. This statement is so at variance with M. Guizot's repeated assurances that he had directed M. Cochelet to advise Mehemet Ali to accede to the proposal which Admiral Sir Robert Stopford was instructed to make to the Pasha, that I could not but conclude that either it must have reference to some person whose mission was unknown to M. Guizot, or that it was founded upon erroneous information furnished by Boghos Bey, or some other Egyptian Agent. I this day, in conversation with M. Guizot, alluded to this new Negotiator, who must have been sent to Alexandria since M. Thiers quitted office, and I must say that the unhesitating and unembarrassed manner in which he denied that he had sent any Agent whatever to Egypt, and the repetition of what he had before said to me in regard to the recall of Count Walewski, and his instructions to M. Cochelet, fully confirmed my previous impressions.

I have an indistinct recollection of having heard at the time of the change of Ministry, that Marshal Soult proposed sending an officer to Egypt, and also that a French officer of the name of Beaufort, on whose representations of the force and efficiency of Ibrahim Pasha's army M. Thiers placed great reliance, was to return to the Levant. I will not fail to make further inquiries on the subject.

(Signed)

I have, &c.,

GRANVILLE,

My Lord,

No. 96.

Viscount Palmerston to Earl Granville.

Foreign Office, December 22, 1840. WITH reference to your despatch of the 18th instant, in which your Excellency reports that M. Guizot denies having sent any Agent whatever to Alexandria, I have to acquaint your Excellency that I read to Baron de Bourqueney, last week, Commodore Napier's letter, and drew his attention to that passage which states the arrival of a new French Negotiator, who, in conjunction. with M. Cochelet and Count Walewski, had endeavoured to prevent the arrangement which Commodore Napier was trying to effect; and Baron de Bourqueney said thereupon that he could not believe the latter part of the statement, because the person to whom Commodore Napier alluded, as having recently arrived, must have been M. de Beaufort, who, Baron de Bourqueney said, had been sent to Alexandria by M. Guizot immediately on his coming into office. Baron de Bourqueney further said that he could not think that M. de Beaufort had acted in a manner so contrary to M. Guizot's intentions.

It may be that Baron de Bourqueney was mistaken as to the time when M. de Beaufort was sent from Paris, and that M. de Beaufort was sent off by M. Thiers, and not by M. Guizot; but it would be desirable that your Excellency should ascertain when M. de Beaufort went, and by whom he was sent.

PALMERSTON

I am, &c.,

(Signed)

No. 97.

Earl Granville to Viscount Palmerston.— (Received December 23.)

My Lord,

Paris, December 21, 1840.

I HAVE received your Lordship's despatches to the 18th instant. I this morning communicated to M. Guizot your Lordship's letter of the 15th ultimo to the Commissioners of the Admiralty, signifying to their Lordships the Queen's commands as to further instructions to be addressed to Admiral Sir Robert Stopford. The refusal of Her Majesty's Government to ratify that part of the Convention concluded between Commodore Napier and Boghos Bey, which stipulates for the guarantee by the Allied Powers of the hereditary government of Egypt, was expected by the French Minister, and he seemed not to apprehend that the want of that guarantee would retard the execution of the other arrangements of the Treaty, and expressed his persuasion that if the Sultan should be so ill-advised as to refuse to reinstate Mehemet Ali in the Government of Egypt, the Allied Powers would not aid the Turkish forces in expelling the Pasha from that pashalic.

I have, &c.,

Lord Beauvale to Viscount Palmerston.-(Received December 23.)

My Lord,

Vienna, December 15, 1840.

M. DE PONTOIS is reported to have made in the latter days of November an attempt to induce the Porte to leave Candia to Mehemet Ali. This step on the part of M. de Pontois appears to have been taken in connection with advices received by him from Alexandria, in support of which opinion I inclose copy of Mehemet Ali's letter of the 11th of November to Louis Philippe, drawn up by M. Walewski, and evidently destined for communication to the Chambers, in order to serve the purposes of M. Thiers.

I have, &c.,