Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/115

 on 13th a Protocol dated 10th July, 1841, to the following effect :

difficulties in which His Highness the Sultan found himself placed, and which decided him to call for the support and aid of the Courts of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, having now been smoothed, and Mehemet Ali having made to His Highness the Sultan the act of submission which the convention of 15th July was intended to bring about, the Representatives of the Powers which signed the said convention have recognised that, independently of the execution of the temporary measures resulting from that convention, it is especially desirable to consecrate, in the most formal manner, the respect due to the ancient rule of the Ottoman Empire, in virtue of which it has been at all times prohibited to the vessels of war of foreign Powers to enter the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus.

This principle being by its nature of a general and permanent application, the respective Plenipotentiaries, provided with the orders of their respective Courts to that effect, have come to the conclusion that, to manifest the agreement and union which preside over the intentions of all the Courts in the interest of the consolidation of the peace of Europe, it would be proper to mark the respect due to the principle above-mentioned by means of an Act in which France should be invited to join, on the invitation and in accordance with the wish of His Highness the Sultan.

That Act being of a nature to offer to Europe a pledge of the union of the four Powers, the principal Secretary of State of Her Britannic Majesty having the Department of Foreign Affairs, in agreement with the Plenipotentiaries of the four Powers, has undertaken to bring that object to the knowledge of the French Government, by inviting it to share in the Act by which, the Sultan, of the one part, would declare his firm resolution to maintain in the future the above-mentioned principle, and the five Powers, of the other part, would announce their unanimous determination to respect this principle and to conform themselves to it. ESTERHAZY. NEUMANN. PALMERSTON. BULOW. BRUNNOW. CHEKIB.

A Convention was accordingly signed on the same day by