§ Mr. Humebegged leave to ask the noble Lord, whether he had received any more recent despatches from the Levant which would enable him to stale whether the treaty made by Commodore Napier, or by Admiral Stopford, with Mehemet Ali, had been yet carried into effect? Also, whether Syria had been yet evacuated by the troops of the Pacha, and the authority of the Sultan re established in that country?
§ Lord J. Russellsaid, all the information he could give was, that Commodore Napier had entered into a convention with Mehemet Ali, which the commodore had not authority to conclude, and which Admiral Stopford disapproved of, and therefore was not carried into effect. The submission of Mehemet Ali had been made 182 in consequence of instructions sent by Admiral Stopford through Captain Fanshawe, and accepted by the Sultan, who had in consequence appointed commissioners to proceed to Alexandria and inform Mehemet, that the Sultan conceded to him the government of Egypt, and would make his authority hereditary. As for the evacuation of Syria, arrangements were making by which Ibrahim and his troops would be permitted to quit that country without molestation. The evacuation was not yet complete. Mehemet Ali had proved his readiness to fulfil his engagements, so far as to have given orders for the Turkish fleet to be rapidly refitted and made ready to sail from Alexandria.
§ Lord J. Russell.— Yes, in consequence of the suggestion of the Four Powers.