According to French Traveler and Diplomat Édouard Antoine Thouvenel THE OTTOMAN STATE IN THE CENTURY

Edouard Antoine Thouvenel, who came to the Ottoman lands first as a traveler and then as a French ambassador (1855-1860), contributed to the preparation process of the Reform Edict as the father of the French thesis. In addition, by personally participating in the activities with other diplomats, he fulfilled a mission that recorded the influence of France in the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, Istanbul was at the center of alliances or conflicts between all state institutions and organizations and Western states. During this period, the most experienced, well-equipped and cunning diplomats of France, England and Russia served in Istanbul and there was a fierce struggle between them. Although he was at odds with the British ambassador Lord Stratford and the Russian ambassador General Ignatyf, who conducted diplomacy with different methods, Thouvenel successfully conducted the negotiations on behalf of France.
Thouvenel was in constant contact with the Sublime Porte and Abdülmecid. In line with the instructions he received from France, he had Reşid Pasha dismissed by following an oppressive attitude and had the pro-French Ali Pasha and Fuad Pasha sometimes appointed to the grand vizierate and sometimes to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He realized the theses of France with his effective diplomacy, which he carried out in the special Divan-ı elections, which were of vital importance in the Wallachia-Boğdan issue. Thouvenel is again on the diplomatic side of the Suez Canal project under the direction of French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, which will provide prestige for his country in the East, require serious engineering and will connect the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, which angered the British. In addition, the Légion d'honneur, which no Ottoman sultan had accepted before, was given to Abdülmecid with a magnificent ceremony in Çırağan by Thouvenel, and the Sultan attended a ball at the French Embassy for the first time.
Thouvenel, who continued his activities silently for five years without making as much noise as his rival Stratford, in Istanbul, III. While he was Napoleon's ambassador in Istanbul who started the French era, he returned to Paris as the Minister of Foreign Affairs who directed the French foreign policy.