Such are the orders of the Sultan, in conformity with which you will be careful to act, and it is for this purpose that I write to you the present despatch. Footnote 104: See _Levant Papers_, Part III., p. 242. Footnote 105: The firmans are given at length, as are also the instructions of the Turkish Envoy, and the official notifications connected with the affair, in the _Levant Papers_, Part III., pp. 241-254. CHAPTER XIX. Meeting of the Foreign Ministers in London—Protocol of the 5th March—Note of Chekib Effendi—Note of the 13th of March—Lord Palmerston’s explanation of the Views of the Allies regarding the Hereditary Tenure—Conference of the 16th March—Protocol—Endeavour to include France in a Convention for closing the Straits of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus—False Position of the Porte—Views of Lord Ponsonby and of the other Ambassadors—Instructions of the Austrian and British Governments—Opinions of M. Guizot—Turkish Plan of Settlement—Note of the 10th May. When Lord Palmerston heard from Sir Robert Stopford that the Turkish fleet had arrived at Marmorice Bay, and that Ibrahim Pacha had reached Gaza, he immediately assembled the Foreign Ministers, and, on the 5th of March, they agreed to a Protocol to the following effect[106]:— 1. That Mehemet Ali had submitted, and asked for pardon. 2. That he had delivered the Ottoman fleet to the Commissioners. 3, 4. That he had evacuated Syria; and that the Turkish authority was established there and in Candia. 5. That the Sultan had accepted the submission, and pardoned Mehemet Ali, his children, and adherents. 6. That the Sultan had announced his intention of reinstating Mehemet Ali with hereditary succession. The conditions settled on the 15th of October and 14th November[107], being thus fulfilled, the assembled Ministers determined that the Consuls of the Four Powers should now return to Alexandria.