Disinclination of the Porte to confer the Hereditary Pachalic on Mehemet Ali—Departure of the Turkish Commissioners—Their orders—Opposition of the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian Ministers to the views of Lord Ponsonby—Lord Palmerston’s opinion of his conduct—Rewards conferred on the Officers of the Squadron at Acre—News from England—Approval of the Convention—Instruction of the 15th of December—Lord Palmerston’s Letter to Lord Ponsonby—Prince Metternich and Count Nesselrode, in approval of the Convention. Though the Porte accepted the submission of Mehemet Ali, it was in no hurry to act, and when it did get in motion, it was far from doing what, I presume, three out of the four Representatives wished and expected. The Commissioners did not leave Constantinople till the 6th of January, and they had no power to confer the hereditary pachalic on Mehemet Ali; and instead of carrying orders to General Jochmus to suspend hostilities, they brought orders to demand the arms and guns of Ibrahim’s army; which demand was supported by Mr. Wood, the emissary of the Ambassador, and also by General Jochmus[4]. The Austrian Internuncio saw through this intrigue; and on the 7th of January, in an interview with Rechid Pacha, announced to him that the four Powers had decided on applying for the hereditary succession for Mehemet Ali. This produced a correspondence—far too long for me to give here, but which may be seen in the Government volume of _Levant Papers_. From this correspondence it appears that the Austrian, Russian, and Prussian Ministers decided to act without Lord Ponsonby, in consequence of directions from the Ministers in London, based upon the Convention they had previously rejected. The English Ambassador does not appear to have received his instructions till the 10th of January, though they were dated the 17th of December. I should like to see the reply Lord Palmerston made to the Ambassador on learning that he had rejected the Convention; why it is suppressed, is easily accounted for. It ought to be explained how, on the 7th of January, the Internuncio received his dispatches which must have passed through the hands of Prince Metternich at Vienna, whilst the English Ambassador only received his on the 10th. The delay might have caused great embarrassment, and indeed at such a critical moment it was not desirable that a disagreement even for three days should have existed between Lord Ponsonby and the other Ministers. The Governments of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, as well as their Ambassadors at Constantinople, saw how things were going on in the East. They wrote peremptorily to those personages to settle the question; and Prince Metternich requested Lord Beauvale to state to Lord Palmerston that, in case the Porte should hesitate to accede to the recommendation of the Allied Powers to confer the hereditary government on Mehemet Ali, his court could not be compromised by such hesitation[5].