98 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



To Count Th. de Lesseps, Paris. 



" CONSTANTINOPLE, April 17, 1858. 



u The intentional dodging and backing-out of the 

 question which characterises the action of the English 

 Cabinet are not likely to stop much less to turn me 

 back. I look upon them merely as so many posts 

 which I leave behind me as I go on, and which will 

 soon serve to measure the distance which I have 

 travelled over. 



u I do not understand why some politicians, whose 

 advice I generally follow, regret that I am here in- 

 stead of in London. They will not adhere to this 

 view if they will compare the present position of my 

 enterprise with what it was when I left Paris four 

 months ago. Lord Palmerston had then publicly 

 stated that the question was one for Turkey, not for 

 England. It became necessary, therefore, to cut off 

 the retreat on Constantinople which he was keeping 

 open for me, and from which he would have beaten 

 me, for, with the threats of the English agents and 

 the passive attitude of ours, I am now more than ever 

 convinced that but for my presence here Lord Pal- 

 merston or his successors ejusdem farince would have 

 wormed out of the Porte some declaration fatal to the 

 making of the canal. 



" Such a stratagem has now become impossible, 

 because I am able to keep a look-out for, and to ward 

 off, the blows aimed at us. At the present time, 



