Benoît Fould, Lesseps and several members of his family, Eugène Mougel, Ruyssenaers (Dutch Consul General in Egypt), M. Sabatier (French Consul General), Sa'id of Egypt and multiple members of his family, Paulin Talabot and his brother Edmond, and members of the chambers of commerce of Lyon and Venice. Second canal concession (1856) Following the granting of the first concession in 1854, Lesseps was in near constant travel to assemble diplomatic approvals perceived as necessary to build the canal from other foreign governments involved. Although the first concession was granted by Egypt, at the time Egypt was an administrative subdivision of the Ottoman Empire, and so Lesseps traveled frequently to the Sublime Porte to make his case to the Grand Vizier of the sultan, Ali Pasha. The Ottoman Empire, although neutral to the idea, were greatly under the influence of the British at that time. Since Britain – through the policy of Lord Palmerston – was largely opposed to the canal project, and its citizens owned a potentially competing project in form of a railroad from Alexandria to Cairo, not to mention various merchant warehouses along the African sea route, Lesseps made several trips to Britain between 1854 and 1858 to persuade Palmerston and the British public. Lesseps also had to fight back against Robert Stephenson's and even Enfantin's expert opinions on the feasibility of the canal. Lesseps formed an organization of international engineers (the International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez) to again study the canal route in late 1855, and its results were released to the general public. In January 1856, Said granted a second concession to Lesseps' company which replaced the first concession. This concession defined the canal as a direct route, but also stipulated a freshwater canal from the Nile to Lake Timsah. Again, mining and land rights were included along with generous tax exemptions. A majority (ths) of the workers for the company were required to be supplied from Egypt and the skilled workers were required to be paid commensurate with skilled workers on other Egyptian public works projects. An amendment stipulated that work could only commence with the approval of the Ottoman sultan. The board of directors of the concessionaire company would have 32 members, each serving for eight years. The operations office would be headquartered in Alexandria, while administrative offices would be located in Paris. This company was to be called