“Mehemet Ali alone can give you an answer on this question. If, then, you attack Beyrout, and if its inhabitants are buried in the ruins, let me not be responsible for the blood that is shed. “I have the honour to remain, “Your humble and obedient servant, “SOULIMAN.” “Beyrout, Saturday, two hours after sunrise.” I thought at the time it was impolitic opening a fire on Beyrout unless it was determined to follow it up by an attack. The mountaineers had before witnessed the little damage done at D’Jounie and along the coast by the Egyptian squadron, when they fired on the armed mountaineers, in various parts along shore; and when they saw that a powerful British squadron could not drive the Egyptian troops out of a defenceless town, it did not give them a very high opinion of our power. Souliman well knew the moral effect keeping possession of Beyrout would have on the mountaineers, and determined not to abandon it till forced; we ought to have taken the same view, and either not have opened a fire at all, or persevered until they were driven out, whatever mischief was done to the town. Had the same measures been taken at Beyrout that were taken at Sidon, there is no doubt but we should have got possession of it. We should have lost men, it is true, but in war that must be expected, when a great point is to be gained; and gaining the principal sea port on the coast of Syria, in view of the mountains, was a great point, and would have had an immense moral effect. Withdrawing the squadron, which we did on the 16th, with the exception of the Edinburgh and Hastings, which ships occasionally kept up a fire on the town, gave Souliman the opportunity of telling the mountaineers that he had beaten off the British squadron. The Pacha, though much annoyed, no doubt, at our proceedings, yet showed himself a man of great forbearance. During the time the cannonading was going on, the Indian mail arrived; our intercepting despatches from Alexandria furnished him with a fair excuse for stopping this mail, but as its detention had nothing to do with hostilities then going on, he hoisted a flag of truce, and delivered the mail, with a very civil message that all letters to and from India should be religiously forwarded. The Admiral, not to be outdone in civility, wrote a letter of thanks, and sent Souliman, who I have since learnt was a jolly and hospitable old soldier, a package of wine, that had been detained in an Egyptian vessel.