Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/126

 The collection of Texts illustrative of the international position of Egypt has been made upon a principle somewhat different from that followed in previous chapters. The relations of the Khedivial government to the Sultan on the one hand, and to the Powers on the other, are so ambiguous that it has been thought better to err on the side of inserting too many documents rather than too few. Thus, in order better to explain the Khedive's quasi-independence of the Porte, the whole series of Firmans, from 1841 to 1879, has been set out, though some of them were not submitted to the Powers, and only those of 1873 and 1879 are now in force. In like manner several of the financial Decrees have been superseded to an extent greater than could well be expressed by italicizing portions of them; but without setting out in extenso these earlier Decrees the later ones could hardly have been made intelligible.

''The act of submission which thou hast just made, the assurances of fidelity and devotion which thou hast given, and the upright and sincere intentions which thou hast manifested, as well with regard to myself as in the interests of my Sublime Porte, have come to my sovereign knowledge, and have been very agreeable to me. ''