Egypt -- History -- Mohammed Ali, 1805-1849; Syria -- History; Turkey -- History -- 1829-1878
“I hope this letter will reach your Highness in time to stop the
transports which Commodore Napier writes me are coming to the coast of
Syria for the purpose of embarking part of the Egyptian army. Should any
of them arrive here, they will be ordered to return to Alexandria.
“I hope this hasty and unauthorized Convention will not occasion any
embarrassment to your Highness. It was no doubt done from an amicable
motive, though under a limited view of the state of affairs in Syria;
but it will not lessen my earnest desire most readily to adopt any
measure which may tend to a renewal of that amity and good feeling which
I trust hereafter may subsist between England and your Highness, the
terms of which I am happy to hear are now in a state of progress with
the Allied Powers.
“ROBERT STOPFORD, _Admiral_.”
“To his Highness Mehemet Ali Pacha.”
The Ambassador wrote also to the Admiral and to the different
authorities in Syria and Egypt, calling upon them to repudiate my
Convention, and in fact no means were neglected by him to prevent the
settlement of the Eastern Question, and do as much mischief to Mehemet
Ali as possible.
The reader will allow this was tremendous odds against me: the
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, the General commanding in
Syria, Lord Ponsonby, and the four Ambassadors, the Sultan and all the
Divan, against an Old Commodore. The whole corps diplomatique, (for on
this point even the French minister agreed,) were up in arms—they
thought their trade was gone—nevertheless I was not dismayed. I felt
satisfied at Alexandria I was right, and I felt still more satisfied at
Marmorice, when I found our squadron, with the exception of the
steamers, had abandoned the coast, and left Ibrahim to himself. Why he
did not take advantage of it is not my affair—he ought to have done it.
In the fleet we had conventionalists and non-conventionalists: the
Captains who were off Alexandria were satisfied I was right; those who
were not, with few exceptions, were satisfied I was wrong. For my part I
had only to wait patiently the first arrival from England, to announce
either that I was a blockhead, or that I had taken a more correct view
of the affairs of the East, than either Admirals, Generals, Ambassadors,
Sultans, or Divans.
The letter of Sir Robert Stopford to the Admiralty, acquainting their
Lordships that he had rejected my Convention, clearly shows that he was
not aware of Ibrahim’s movements. The Admiral writes under date of the
1st of December, from Beyrout.
“Sir,
“I beg to transmit for their Lordships’ information the copy of a
Convention which Commodore Napier has entered into with Mehemet Ali, the
correspondence leading thereto having been transmitted by him from
Alexandria.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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