homed, and
the settlement of the Chinese quarrel, all coming just in time to
swell out the catalogue of successes to be announced in the
Queen's Speech. In France the aspect of affairs is improving, the
King has given answers on New Year's Day which he would not have
ventured to make a short time ago, and His Majesty assures Lord
Granville that the war fever is rapidly diminishing. The French
hardly trouble themselves now (except in an occasional undergrowl
in some Liberal paper) about Syria, and the Government
considering Mehemet Ali's destiny decided, only desire to be re-
admitted into the great European Council, for the purpose of
participating in the measures to be adopted for determining the
condition of the Christian population of Syria, and for securing
Constantinople from any exclusive protection or influence.

[Page Head: LORD PONSONBY'S VIOLENCE.]

At this moment, however, everything is unsettled with regard to
Egypt, and Lord Ponsonby has been acting in his usual furious
style with such effect that it is not at all certain the question
will be settled without a good deal of trouble. Upon the receipt,
at Constantinople, of Napier's unauthorised Convention with the
Pasha, Ponsonby instantly assembled the ambassadors, moved that
it should be rejected and disavowed, and signified the same to
the Ministers of the Porte, who, of course, desired no better
than to acquiesce. At Ponsonby's instigation, Redschid Pasha
wrote to say that the Sultan utterly disavowed this Convention;
that he might be disposed, out of deference to his allies, and at
their request, to grant some temporary favour and indulgence to
the family of the Pasha, but as to the hereditary possession of
Egypt, _he had never heard of_, or contemplated, any such thing,
nor would ever listen to it; and he reminded the Allied Powers
that such a grant would be in direct contravention of the
principle of the Treaty itself, which had for its object the
maintenance of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. It remains to
be seen what will be done at Constantinople when the intelligence
of Stopford's Convention (so to call it) arrives there, which, in
fact, differs in no respect from that of Napier; but it is very
extraordinary that Ponsonby should write word that the Sultan had
never _heard_ any question of the hereditary grant of Egypt,
when, in the middle of October, a despatch was written to him
(which was at the same time communicated to the French
Gov