i jo RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



admirable speeches of the minority, must not lead the 

 English Ministry to suppose that it can continue 

 practices at Constantinople which I am determined 

 most resolutely to withstand, and which, if they were 

 resumed next month during my negotiations with the 

 Porte, might lead to a deplorable conflict. 



" I beg of you expressly to let your fellow-country- 

 men clearly understand that I am not to be blamed 

 for any such conflict should it arrive, and that I have 

 forewarned all my English friends of the many embar- 

 rassments which the absurd and unbearable policy of 

 their Government in this matter of the Suez Canal 

 would probably bring upon their country. 



" While showing every readiness to go on with the 

 negotiations, I am making my preparations to get the 

 company in working order, and commence operations 

 before the end of the year. 



To M. Thouvenel, Constantinople. 



" CORFU, June 28, 1858. 



" While on my way here I met Fuad Pasha, who 

 saw the Emperor during his stay in Paris. He could 

 not forget the wholesome rebuke of the Emperor about 

 'a firman relating to Egypt,' and he asked Count 

 Walewski what this rebuke meant, but our minister 

 declined to give him any explanation. I thought it 

 my duty to tell him as a, friend, and as one holding no 

 official position, that if the Emperor was vexed it was 

 doubtless because he thought that in a matter of this 



