CHAPTER XXI.
Prince Metternich’s Orders to the Internuncio—Lord Ponsonby’s Correspondence with Baron Stürmer—Hesitation of the Porte—Message from Lord Ponsonby to Rifat Pacha—The new Firman granted—Accepted by Mehemet Ali—Termination of the Eastern Question.
The peremptory orders of Prince Metternich to Baron Stürmer, to settle the Egyptian question, arrived on the 12th of April at Constantinople, whereupon the Baron wrote to Lord Ponsonby to inform him that his colleagues of Russia and Prussia had agreed to hold to the Porte an uniform language, and requesting to know if he could count on his Lordship’s concurrence in this instance[[128]].
I give his Lordship’s answer in full, that the reader may judge for himself: it is an exquisite piece of diplomacy, and judging from it, it would be extremely difficult to decide whether the Ambassador had followed his instructions or not.
“Therapia, April 14, 1841.
“Monsieur l’Internonce,
“I had the honour to receive this day at a few minutes before 4 o’clock your Excellency’s official Note dated the 13th instant, and I reply to it without a moment’s delay. Your Excellency has communicated to me a despatch you have received from Vienna, containing directions for the conduct your Excellency is to pursue, and your Excellency expresses your desire that I should act in co-operation with your Excellency and both our colleagues of Russia and Prussia, in furtherance of the measure you are directed to adopt. If I am not in error, the measure you are to take, is to make known to the Sublime Porte the opinions and views of the Conference at London, as that opinion, or those views, are stated and exposed in the Collective Note of the Representatives of the Four Powers addressed to Chekib Effendi, and dated 13th of March, 1841, and in Lord Palmerston’s instructions, dated 16th of March, 1841, and addressed to me.
“I have already had the honour to acquaint you, that I had not only made known to the Ottoman Minister the contents of those documents, stating at the same time the opinion I entertained of the anxiety of the Allies to bring the Egyptian Question to a termination at any rate; but I also communicated to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Collective Note and Lord Palmerston’s instructions in original. Your Excellency will therefore be satisfied that I have already done in my individual capacity that which is so fervently urged in the despatch your Excellency has received.
“Your Excellency will, I am sure, have the goodness to acquaint me what you and our colleagues may desire to have done further for making known the opinion and views of the Conference to the Sublime Porte; I mean the mode of acting. Your Excellency is, no doubt, fully informed of the fact that the Ottoman Ministers have come to a decision to modify the Article of succession to the government of Egypt, with the view of rendering it agreeable to the wishes of the Conference; that the Ottoman Ministers have also modified, with a similar intention, the Article of the military rank to be conferred by the Pacha of Egypt; and that they are engaged in considering in what manner the Article of tribute may be modified so as to meet the views of the Conference.
“Your Excellency is also acquainted with the disposition manifested in the instructions sent by Rechid Pacha to Chekib Effendi, to arrange this last-mentioned point; and no doubt your Excellency will esteem that to be an evidence from which we may draw the conclusion, that the Sublime Porte is desirous to gratify the wishes of the High Allies of the Sultan, and may be supposed likely to act in the spirit of concession whenever the wishes of those Powers shall have been made known to the Sublime Porte.