THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 231 



which, as he knew, the Imperial Government set great 

 store. From the very first he instructed M. Schefer 

 to pave the way for an interview between Eeschid 

 Pasha and myself, and this interview took place at his 

 house on the Bosphorus on the morning of the 12th. 

 I handed the Grand Vizier a letter from the Viceroy, 

 and a Turkish translation of my memorandum and of 

 the firman of concession for which the Sultan's assent 

 was sought. 



" After carefully reading these documents, the 

 Grand Vizier and myself conferred for two hours, and 

 I felt that at the expiration of that time I had made 

 some impression upon him by using the arguments 

 which I have already quoted. I added that I was 

 only there as a friend of the Porte and an agent of the 

 Viceroy, not as an agent of the French Government, 

 which had entrusted me with no mission of any kind. 



"The next day, during a grand banquet given by 

 Aali Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, previous 

 to the departure of Baron de Bruck, Keschid Pasha 

 ventured to speak to Lord Stratford de Kedcliffe about 

 the object of my visit to Constantinople, and encoun- 

 tered the resistance which we had anticipated. 



"It became necessary, therefore, to press for deci- 

 sion and act vigorously, so as to forestall the demands 

 of the English Ambassador upon the Sultan. The 

 Austrian Internuncio, to whom I reported how matters 

 stood, assured me that I might count upon his private 

 and official support, and that though his successor, who 



