“I am not aware of any harsh expression towards your proceedings, in my letter to Mehemet Ali, as I consider the words ‘hasty and unauthorized’ perfectly justifiable under the circumstances of the case, and which accounted for my refusing to ratify the Convention.
| “I am, &c., “Robert Stopford, Admiral. |
“Commodore Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B.,
H.M.S. Powerful.”
On the 31st of the same month, having obtained a month’s leave of absence, I hauled down my broad pennant, and proceeded to England in the Oriental steamer, and arrived at Liverpool in the middle of April.
CHAPTER XIX.
Meeting of the Foreign Ministers in London—Protocol of the 5th March—Note of Chekib Effendi—Note of the 13th of March—Lord Palmerston’s explanation of the Views of the Allies regarding the Hereditary Tenure—Conference of the 16th March—Protocol—Endeavour to include France in a Convention for closing the Straits of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus—False Position of the Porte—Views of Lord Ponsonby and of the other Ambassadors—Instructions of the Austrian and British Governments—Opinions of M. Guizot—Turkish Plan of Settlement—Note of the 10th May.
When Lord Palmerston heard from Sir Robert Stopford that the Turkish fleet had arrived at Marmorice Bay, and that Ibrahim Pacha had reached Gaza, he immediately assembled the Foreign Ministers, and, on the 5th of March, they agreed to a Protocol to the following effect[[106]]:—
1. That Mehemet Ali had submitted, and asked for pardon.
2. That he had delivered the Ottoman fleet to the Commissioners.