The Grand Vizier to Mazloum Bey.
19 Zilkadé, 1256. (12 January, 1841.)
In the letter which I wrote and sent by your Excellency to his Highness Mehemet Ali Pacha, there is nothing clear or precise relative to the hereditary succession to the Government of Egypt. It is said, in general terms, that he shall be reinstated in the Government of Egypt. It is then probable, it is to be presumed, that his Highness will conceive suspicions in this respect; and it is for this reason that it has been judged necessary to give the following explanations upon this point.
As the letter which Mehemet Ali Pacha sent to me, and by which he offered his submission to His Imperial Majesty, commenced by making mention of the Convention which had been concluded between him and Commodore Napier, and as the Sublime Porte had not accepted that Convention, which it regarded as null and of no effect, it was thought that if I had spoken in my letter of the hereditary succession, it would have been, in substance, to recognise the Convention, and that is the reason why it was omitted to speak of it.
Nevertheless, His Imperial Majesty, whose goodness and favours are shed over his servants truly submissive, entertaining with regard to Mehemet Ali Pacha the benevolent intentions which are in unison with the sentiments of moderation by which the High Allied Powers are animated, it is certain that as soon as he shall have proved by facts, as has been declared in my letter, the submission which he has offered, by immediately restoring the Ottoman fleet, and by making over, without delay, to the Commissioners of the Sublime Porte, the countries which are known to be in question, and which are situated out of Egypt, His Highness will be pleased to reinstate him in the government of Egypt, with right of hereditary succession.
The requisite conditions laid down by the Treaty of Alliance, and other points connected with those conditions, are about to be settled; and as all this will be arranged at the same time that the investiture of the hereditary succession shall take place, I abstain for the moment from entering into details upon this subject.
However, it is important that His Highness should know in a few words what is doing, and that he should be apprized beforehand, that if a single one of the conditions which shall have been laid down, is not observed, the hereditary succession will be abolished.
You will therefore formally ratify to Mehemet Ali, on the part of His Imperial Majesty, in case that, in conformity with what has been said above, his submission shall be a fact, the conditional hereditary succession aforesaid. And in order altogether to dispel the doubts which he might have in this respect, and to inspire him with entire confidence, you will even allow him, if necessary, to see my present official despatch.
Such are the orders of the Sultan, in conformity with which you will be careful to act, and it is for this purpose that I write to you the present despatch.