On Tuesday, news was received that Sir Charles Euan- Smith
had withdrawn his Mission from Fez on July 12th, further negotiations having become impossible. On July 5th, the Sultan finally agreed that the treaty concluded between him and our Envoy should be signed next day. This, how- ever, was not done ; and on Saturday last, without assigning any ground for the change, the Sultan refused to give his formal assent to any treaty except one drawn in accordance with his own ideas. In order to get Sir Charles Enan-Smith to agree to this, he offered the English Minister a bribe of £30,000. The only result of such action was, of course, the withdrawal of the British Mission. This, however, was not accom- plished without difficulty, as the horses and mules belonging to the Mission were seized by the Sultan, and were only restored when he learned that Mr. E. Carlton was being sent to the coast on a swift horse, with a request to the Governor of Gibraltar to send an armed force to rescue the Mission. It appears that the treaty proposed by England conferred no rights on us which were not to be enjoyed by other Europeans, and that Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Belgium supported the demands of our Minister. The failure of the treaty was probably due to the French. They, no doubt, told the Sultan that if he refused to sign, they would lend him their support, and would refrain from countenancing attempts on the part of pretenders to destroy his authority.
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