“The Government of Egypt has always been bound to provide for the wants of the Holy Cities; Mehemet Ali must therefore, as a faithful subject, act in conformity with what is imposed on him by the situation of Governor of Egypt[[98]].”
Lord Ponsonby, being first called upon for his opinion, stated, he had no objection to offer, but after his colleagues had spoken he should make some observations on the Tribute. The other Ministers gave their assent to the propositions of Rechid Pacha; the arguments they used Lord Ponsonby does not report to Lord Palmerston, as they would appear in the Protocol, but which Protocol is not, I suppose for some wise purpose, inserted in the Levant Papers. We must, then, content ourselves with the British Ambassador’s own observations. He begins by stating, that Mehemet Ali having been deposed, and the Porte appealed to, to reinstate him, sufficiently proves that the Treaty of the 15th of July does not bind the Allies. His Lordship, I believe, was singular in this opinion, for it has been distinctly and repeatedly stated by the Allied Ministers both in London, Vienna, and Constantinople, that the Treaty of the 15th of July should be the basis of the settlement of the Egyptian question; and in no part of the correspondence does it appear that the Allies approved of the deposition of Mehemet Ali, and it may therefore be fairly inferred that they entirely disapproved of it.
His Lordship takes for granted the Treaty is not an absolute rule, and thus observes:
“If the Treaty be not the absolute rule, why are we to counsel the Sublime Porte to take a measure that was adopted in that Treaty, at a time when affairs were in a state totally different from their actual state? The Treaty was a compromise with Mehemet Ali, and all its stipulations were conditional, and with a view to engage him to accept it. Mehemet Ali decided to refuse the Treaty, and to try the chance of arms. He has been vanquished, and he has made unconditional submission to his Sovereign. How then can the Treaty be obligatory upon the Allies, (of whom the Sultan is one,) to take the measures framed for another position of affairs which has ceased to exist?
“If then the Treaty be not obligatory upon the Allies, the counsel to be given by us to the Ottoman Porte is to be based upon the instructions we have received from our Courts; and we are not to advise the Porte to adopt measures that are impossible to be reconciled one with another, and contradictory, so as that one measure, if adopted, shall defeat almost every other measure which we are ordered to recommend.”
The document is much too long, but may be seen in the Levant Papers. The burden of it is, that Mehemet Ali should be crippled in his finances to prevent him doing further mischief; and the Ambassador finishes by saying, “I have reason to believe my colleagues entertain an opinion different from mine. They have had before them for their consideration[consideration] the instructions from Lord Palmerston so often referred to. They are possibly better able to interpret them than I may be, but I understand them in the sense I have described; and it is for others, not for me, to decide, and to take such part as they may esteem the best. Those whom I have now addressed can judge, as well as I can do, what is the opinion of the British Government. My opinion is of little importance, excepting to myself, but I must stand before my country and justify my acts[[99]].”
All this would have been right enough if the Porte had the power to enforce it, but not having the power, they only exposed their own weakness to Mehemet Ali, and gave him an opportunity of treating their overtures with the contempt they deserved.
On the 15th of February Rechid Pacha officially delivered to M. Pisani, Lord Ponsonby’s dragoman, copies of the firman granting the hereditary succession, the firman for governing the provinces bordering on Egypt, as likewise an official note to the four Ministers, and a letter from the Vizier to Mehemet Ali[[100]], communicating to them at the same time, that the Consuls might proceed to Alexandria in the steam-boat, which would leave in the afternoon without fail. This information had been privately communicated by the dragoman to Lord Ponsonby on the 13th.
Nothing was, however, further from his Lordship’s intention than allowing the British Consul-General to return. He appears to have been dissatisfied because he was not consulted before the measure was decided on, and he informed the Turkish Minister that he should not require the Consul-General to return, because it might not suit the British Government to establish the Consul-General on the same footing as before; that Mehemet Ali might refuse; and lastly, that Colonel Hodges could not leave Constantinople so suddenly[[101]]. Of these three arguments the only valid one seems to be, the probability of Mehemet Ali’s refusing the conditions; but even granting that, it would have been more politic to have sent the Consuls with the Turkish Commissioner who bore the firmans, with orders to persuade Mehemet Ali, if possible, to accept them, and to signify to him at the same time that the flags would not be hoisted till that point was arranged. They being on the spot, and in an official capacity, furnished with instructions from the Ambassador at Constantinople, would have seen how far it was possible for Mehemet[Mehemet] Ali to accept the firman without risking the tranquillity of Egypt, and would necessarily have more influence on the Pacha than I could have, being totally unprovided with instructions, and not having received a single line from the Ambassador to guide my conduct.
On the 15th of February Lord Ponsonby wrote officially to Rechid Pacha[[102]], disowning having had any thing to do with the firman, and stating that he never had been consulted at all, or knew any thing about it, till every thing was decided, and ordered to be sent to Alexandria. The fact is, the Porte saw that Lord Ponsonby was determined to keep the question open, and therefore arranged the firman without asking his advice. What that advice might have been is hard to say; but we must infer that had he been consulted, the firman would have been much more stringent than it was, and which, as it turned out, was not palatable to the Pacha, who absolutely constrained the Porte to alter it, and give him more favourable terms; in this, as we shall see, he was supported by the majority of the Ambassadors.