THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 233 



right, and so I determined to stay a few days longer 

 and see what could be done. 



The day following, at a dinner at the British Em- 

 bassy to which I was invited, I sent Lord Stratford 

 de Eedcliffe the following letter : 



" CONSTANTINOPLE, February 26, 1855. 



" I hasten to communicate to you the documents 

 which, in accordance with the wish expressed by you, 

 will enable you to form an opinion as to the enterprise 

 which has brought me to Constantinople. I venture 

 to hope that I shall no longer have to fight against the 

 powerful opposition of the honourable representative 



Great Britain. 



" Your Excellency was pleased to tell me that you 

 were anxious for information on the subject, and that 

 up to the present time you had only given a personal 

 opinion. 



" The question has been submitted in due course to 

 the Sublime Porte without any sort of foreign inter- 

 vention. It would not be within my province, as the 

 agent of Mohammed Said, to place it upon another 

 ground, as your Excellency suggested. The Viceroy 

 of Egypt was at liberty to place it upon this ground 

 and keep it there. Just as he was unwilling to give 

 it a purely French or Austrian complexion, in the 

 same way he would not assent to give it an exclu- 

 sively English aspect by transferring the discussion 

 of it to London, and letting the solution of it depend 



