“I have received the two letters which you addressed to me, the first by the channel of Hamid Bey, who had been entrusted with a despatch for my son Ibrahim Pacha, and the second by Captain Fanshawe, of your flag-ship. I am delighted with the friendship which you evince towards me, and I hasten to act in the sense which you point out in your official dispatch. I consequently address a petition to the Sublime Porte under flying seal, and in order that the contents thereof may be known to you, I add a French translation to it. I hope that my compliance will be appreciated by the Allied Powers, and in asking a continuance of your friendship, I flatter myself that your good offices will ensure me their good will. (Signed) “MEHEMET ALI.” “H.M. Steam-vessel Megæra, at Sea, December 12, 1840. “Sir, “I have the honour to report to you my proceedings in the service on which you ordered me. “I arrived off Alexandria in this vessel early on the morning of the 8th, and finding no English man-of-war off the place, proceeded into the port, and sent for Mr. Larking, Her Majesty’s Consul, whom I requested to inform Mehemet Ali that I was charged by you to make a communication to him from Her Majesty’s Government, and for which purpose I demanded an interview with him in the presence of Boghos Bey. “At noon I went to the palace with Mr. Larking, and had an audience with Mehemet Ali: after delivering your letter to him and passing a few compliments, I read to him my extract from Lord Palmerston’s instructions, which was interpreted to him by his Dragoman, and then presented to him, expressing my hope that his compliance with what it required, would restore a good understanding between the Sultan and himself. He alluded to the recent Convention, and said he had promised all this before to Commodore Napier, if Egypt was guaranteed to him, and that he never departed from his word. “I replied, I had no guarantee to offer; but he would perceive that, though you had not been able to ratify that Convention, you had lost no time in communicating the instructions received from your Government, and in expressing your own disposition to conciliate; and that I hoped he would merit the wish which I knew you had expressed, and take some immediate steps for the restitution of the Turkish fleet, which I regretted to observe was making no preparation for sea; that the words in my note with reference to the fleet were ‘immediate,’ and ‘without delay;’ and I was sure his giving directions for that part of it which could be most expeditiously equipped proceeding to you at Marmorice, would be regarded in a favourable light, both at London and at Constantinople.