“His Highness’s orders have already anticipated your intentions, with regard to setting the Druse chieftains at liberty. Some time ago several of these chieftains had quitted Syria and had fixed themselves at Cairo; at the news of the late events they came, of their own accord, to demand his Highness’s permission to return among their countrymen, there to act in the interest of the Egyptian cause, and ten days ago they took the road for Syria. It is at their request that the Druse chieftains, who had formerly been banished to Nubia, have been authorized to return to their homes, and that the order for their return has already been sent. The restoration of these different personages to their country being thus, as it may be said, a thing already done, your good intentions with regard to them are carried into effect, without its being necessary to have recourse to an exchange. “It had already come to our knowledge that the intention of the Great Powers was to leave the hereditary government of Egypt to his Highness, and the Viceroy awaits an official communication upon this point. His Highness is not the less grateful for the proposal contained in your letter, for he sees therein a personal manifestation of your friendly and conciliatory sentiments. In no case has his Highness intended to place himself in opposition to the will of the Great Powers of Europe. You are not ignorant, Commodore, that he had already submitted to the stipulations of the Treaty which grants to him the hereditary administration of Egypt. His Highness had only reserved to himself the power of soliciting from the Sublime Porte the favour of joining the government of Syria for life to this first concession; and this because the Viceroy was convinced that Syria in his hands might still furnish great resources to the Ottoman empire. Instead of making any answer to this request, hostilities have been had recourse to. You will judge impartially, Commodore, whether the faults have been on the side of the Viceroy. His Highness is persuaded of the contrary, and remains convinced that the Great Powers will do him justice. “With regard to the restoration of the Ottoman fleet, and the evacuation of Syria, I hasten to reply on these two points. It has never entered into his Highness’s intentions to keep the fleet of his Sovereign, and he has not ceased to express himself in this sense from the very day that circumstances brought the fleet of the Grand Signor to Alexandria.