The document is much too long, but may be seen in the _Levant Papers_. The burden of it is, that Mehemet Ali should be crippled in his finances to prevent him doing further mischief; and the Ambassador finishes by saying, “I have reason to believe my colleagues entertain an opinion different from mine. They have had before them for their consideration the instructions from Lord Palmerston so often referred to. They are possibly better able to interpret them than I may be, but I understand them in the sense I have described; and it is for others, not for me, to decide, and to take such part as they may esteem the best. Those whom I have now addressed can judge, as well as I can do, what is the opinion of the British Government. My opinion is of little importance, excepting to myself, but I must stand before my country and justify my acts[99].” All this would have been right enough if the Porte had the power to enforce it, but not having the power, they only exposed their own weakness to Mehemet Ali, and gave him an opportunity of treating their overtures with the contempt they deserved. On the 15th of February Rechid Pacha officially delivered to M. Pisani, Lord Ponsonby’s dragoman, copies of the firman granting the hereditary succession, the firman for governing the provinces bordering on Egypt, as likewise an official note to the four Ministers, and a letter from the Vizier to Mehemet Ali[100], communicating to them at the same time, that the Consuls might proceed to Alexandria in the steam-boat, which would leave in the afternoon without fail. This information had been privately communicated by the dragoman to Lord Ponsonby on the 13th.