Having received instructions from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to send a competent officer to Alexandria, in order to make a communication to Mehemet Ali, the substance of which is stated in a letter from Viscount Palmerston to their Lordships of the 14th of November, of which you will receive a copy,—it is my direction you proceed forthwith in H.M. steam vessel Megæra to Alexandria, taking with you the Dragoman named in the margin[[137]], and on your arrival, after communicating with the senior officer, who will give you every support, you will demand to have an interview with Mehemet Ali, in the presence of Boghos Bey, in order to make to Mehemet Ali a communication from Her Majesty’s Government. When admitted you will be guided in all respects by the directions contained in the said letter; and further, should the written document which Mehemet Ali may deliver to you, for the purpose of being transmitted to Constantinople, contain an expression of a desire, on the part of Mehemet Ali, to obtain hereditary tenure of the Pachalic of Egypt, you will not decline to receive and convey the document on that account, provided it shall also contain the engagements mentioned in the aforesaid letter. You will also state that if Mehemet Ali, as a proof of his desire for conciliation, expresses his readiness to restore the fleet immediately, you will offer in my name every assistance in conducting it to Marmorice, where it will be placed at the Sultan’s disposal; and making the senior officer acquainted with the result, you will return in the Megæra, and join me at Marmorice.
Should the senior officer be at any distance from the port, you will not go out of your way, but communicate with him on your return from Alexandria.
Given on board the Princess Charlotte, off Cyprus, 6th Dec. 1840.
(Signed) Robert Stopford, Admiral.
By command of the Commander-in-Chief,
(Signed) John Loudon, Secretary.
Captain Fanshawe, H.M.S. Princess Charlotte.
No. VI.[VI.] See Vol. II., page [36].
Protocol of the Conference held at the house of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Sublime Porte, the 20th of December, 1840, between the Minister for Foreign Affairs, on one part, and the Representatives of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, on the other.
Minister for Foreign Affairs. You are aware, gentlemen, that a letter was addressed by Mehemet Ali to the Sublime Porte, and you are acquainted with its contents. The Sublime Porte yesterday received likewise the Memorandum of the Conference of London of the 14th of November. The Sublime Porte directs me to ask you, gentlemen, if Mehemet Ali by this letter has complied with the spirit of the Memorandum, and if his submission ought to be considered as real?