THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 237 



the English arms have sustained in the Crimea, he is 

 stiffening himself against anything which would tend 

 to show that his omnipotent influence is waning, and 

 this feeling, which one cannot at bottom bring oneself 

 to censure, adds just at this moment a fresh force to 

 his British exclusiveness. 



" I was not therefore surprised to learn that on 

 the morning of the 28th, upon which day the Council 

 was to decide finally as to the Isthmus of Suez question, 

 he had had a conference lasting three hours with the 

 Grand Vizier, and that, in view of the impossibility 

 of obtaining a negative solution from the Council, 

 they had agreed upon a plan to gain time. 



" Eeschid Pasha is supposed, rightly or wrongly, 

 to be the noble lord's humble servant, and to be afraid 

 that he will lose his place when the influence of which 

 in private he complains very much, and says that he 

 should like to shake himself free, declines. But, as a 

 matter of fact, he always submits to the domination of 

 which he complains, and which is becoming intolerable 

 for the credit of France in the East. It would be 

 unwise to put too much faith in his protests, or to be 

 led astray by the approaching despatch of his son as 

 ambassador to Paris. He seems to me to be of too un- 

 decided a character to raise up Turkey out of the abase- 

 ment into which she has fallen, and to make a good 

 use of the elements of vitality which, in my opinion, 

 she still possesses. The result of the understanding 

 between him and the English Ambassador was that the 



