The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-07 00:00:00

from the throne, which betokened an expiring

ministry.
People, not aware of this legitimate cause,
must be disappointed at the string of royal
or ministerial nothings. How could Mr. CORDEN't,
Spanish speeches have done so little towards provoking
either free-trade, or a denunciation of it? How can
Mr. HENDEnsoN's mission, and the pilgrimage of
Anglo-Spanish bond-holders to the Tuileries, have
produced so little attention? The fact is, that to all
remonstrances or demands of the kind, Senhor MOs
at Madrid replies by an untranslatable shrug, and
adds, that he has no •;;Arrer—that he is out at
office, or liff:lng uMee merely, till the Cortes and the
Couri may decide ou a ministry which shall please
ofMthaderdo' re: wherel es. th
The PACUECO party,
both. .•
It is pretty evident, from the preparatory mer...„.nrs
Insjortly and the
ot
true
dee mit
ua cesa
cern
that section;;; the Moderados which opposed the
French marriage, and tried to widen the basis of con-
stitutional liberty, has mustered upwards of 100 strong.
There is little doubt, that it can command the support
of a considerable number of the Prog.ressistas. fhe
confidence of the Infante's family is reposed on
this party, to which the Queen's secretary
and her husband evidently lean. And now the
efforts of Queen CEIRISTINA and Count BRESSON will
be no doubt directed to make the best terms with this
party. Count BRESSON supports Mon, and would do
a great deal to procure a reconciliation between him
and the men whom he deserted and betrayed so lately.
This, however, seems difficult, even with Count BRES-
BON'S ability. Indeed, French influence, however
powerful at Madrid, is for the moment humble. The
brief and modest allusion to the Infanta's marriage is
a proof, arising out of a very natural anxiety to avoid
such a subject of discussion.
We trust that the Spanish Court may continue to
preserve its present attitude, looking
.more towards
constitutional liberty than it has done since the fall of
ESPARTERO. The victory of of S %LIMNER, it is to be
feared, is calculated to kindle fresh hopes in the old
court party, which of course dreams of coup (Mato and
military conquest to recover its authority. But in
disgracing NARVAEZ, it flung away its staff, and in
accomplishing the Infanta's marriage, it consum-
mated all that France wanted, leaving for itself no
further means of wining tke support of the Tuileries.
Queen CIUUNTINA may hereafter be a welcome guest
at the family Pea of the Tuileries, but in Madrid
she is useless. The dynasty of RIANZARES is at an
end, or nearly so—one blessing at least for unhappy

Span.

MOSUL, Nov. 16.
I gave you, in my hasty letter by the last Tatar,
the outline of Bederhan Bey's recent expedition ; but
I omitted a circumstance, characteristic of the man,
which occurred two days before his departure from
Jesira. Some of the Yezids, a race settled in the
Sinjar, who inherit the old Ma!gian worship, reside
on the territory of Bederhan Bey.. These people
are by far the most industrious agricultural popula-
tion south of the Taurus. But their religion is still
more obnoxious to Mahometan bigotry than even
Christianity ; nor are they like the Christmns protected
in the exercise of their worship, which they are
obliged to perform with the greatest secresy. It is
a maxim of Islam that no mercy is to be shown to the
professors of a religion which has no kitab (book), in
which case stand the poor Yezids, who have no rubric
bat the unwritten tradition of their immemorial
usages. Therefore, while it is lawful, although by no
means indispensable, to rant a certain toleration to
Christians and Jews, in virtue of their kitab, the New
or Old Testament, it is not only lawful, but even
meritorious, to destroy the illiterate worshippers
of fire.
At the Bairam Bederhan Bey sent a message to a
small colony of Yezids settled on his territory, be-
tween Jesira and Mosul. telling them that it was cus-
tomary for some of the infidels under Mahometan
rule, upon that festival, to become converted to the
worship of Islam. Upon their refusing to a man to
change their religion, he seized seven of them, and
made a solemn sacrifice of them at the fend.

I was at desire. during the last days of October,
and saw Bederhan Bey immediately after his expedi-
tion against the Nestonans, of which I had as yet
heard nothing. My companion brought the Bey a
letter from Kimal Effendi, the only Turk for whom
he is said to entertain any regard. This procured us
an excellent welcome. The manner and place of our
reception by the Bey was singular. The serai of his
ancestors, which rises from the beech of the river, is
completely ruined. A lofty shattered wall, built of
alternate layers of dark and white stone, breached by
the cannon of Mehemet Reshid Pasha in '37, faces the
land side. We passed under a deep archway, and
turning to the left I saw the Bey and his attendants
on the top of a high ruined round tower without any
parapet. Their rich dresses blazed in the morning
sun. We got up to them by a stair on the other side.
The Bey, without inclining himself to our salutation,
laid his right hand upon hie breast, and threw him-
self upon a cushion set for him upon the ground.
We did the same. He was a tall, robust man,
order forty. His grey and rather small
eyes had their lids stained with kohl. He
wore mustaches, but no beard or whiskers. The
expression rather than the form of his features was
coarse; but no trace appeared in them of the ferocity
discernible in his actions. On the contrary, we then
thought him good-humoured; and now and then he
indulged in a hearty laugh. He wondered how Me-
hemet Ali could have the confidence to trust himself
at Stambul. And when he was answered that the old
Turkish fashion of entrapping rebellious pashas, and
cutting their heads off, was exploded, he replied,
" Aye, but they imprison;" and then laughed. He
then asked, " if we thought he could venture to Con-
stantinople with safety." We recommended him to
remain for the present at desire. He laughed again.
He complained of the excessive taxes which the
Porte enjoined him to put upon the people, and espe-
cially upon the Christians. They said, " Where you
now take 15 piastres, take for the future 30." But his
conscience would not permit him to afflict the people
in this manner. He was anxious that the villagers under
his government shouldlive comfortably, and freely enjoy
the fruits of their industry ; and, thank GOD, most of
them were in a prosperous state. He spoke in Kurdish,
and an interpreter translated what was said to him
on our part into the same language. But his igno-
'lance of Turkish was pretended : for, in an un-
guarded moment of excitement, without waiting for
the interpreter, he answered directly in Turkish. He
wore an enormous turban, wreathed with the common
and universally-worn Kurd handkerchief of blue with
red spots. Shawls were twined over this, and the
' flat blunt end of the lofty Kurd cap of white felt pro-
jected from the top. He was wrapt in a sleeved
cloak of crimson cloth, lined with fur, and covered
from the collar to the elbows with an embroidined
tippet of light blue silk. Six pages, evidently se-
lected for their beauty, with long hair, and effemi-
nately dressed in costumes of great richness, lounged
rather than waited behind him. The arms they wore
—yataghans, pistols, cartridge and shoulder-belts, all,
save blade and barrel, of embossed silver—looked
rather like toys than weapons, on the persons of these
delicate youths. A group of wild-looking Kurds, in
their abbu, and a negro slave or two, occupied the
mond rank. The view from the tower terrace was
eraenideent. The Tigris rolled broadly below,
an the snow-tippyeedd mountains of Kurdistan looked
down upon us. The Bey rose at our departure, and
sent us forward with an escort to a Christian village,
Ithat was commanded to slay a sheep for our en-
tertainment.
The dominions of Bederhan Bey stretch a day's'
march into the plain, and two days' march into the
Imountains towards the Persian frontier. This little
Iterritory, the diameter of which is about 80 miles deep
from west to cast, and about 60 miles broad from
north to south, has for its nominal capital Jesira. But
desire. is a mere heap of ruins, where the chieftain
seldom makes his appearance, except to meet some
Turkish functionary, or to transact some business con-
nected with the villages of the plain. His common
residence is Derghileh, a strong fortress in the moun-
tains. From this fastness he is in the habit of
moving continually upon excursions to the different
points of his little kingdom. His villagers confirmed
what he had told as respecting the moderation of the
taxes which he imposed, which amounted only to a
11 few piastres—say 10, upon an average, for each house.
The inhabitants of his territory, naturally industrious,
are therefore in a flourishing condition, and abund-
antly stocked with grain and cattle, while their
neighbours, under the dominion of the Porte, are re-
duced to the last state of misery and distress by the
heavy exactions to which they arc subjected. The
result is natural. The burdened lopulations abandon
their villages, and seek refuge among their thriving

kindred in the territory of Bederhan Bey. The Bey
receives them hospitably, and settles them in the
vacant spaces of the thinly-cultivated region. This
tide of emigration, which has been going on for many
years, renders it difficult to ascertain the exact popu-
lation under Bederhan Bey. It b came more general
during the hated sway of Kritli-ogl in. That atro-
cious tyrant, during the seven months of his govern.
ment at Mosul, which terminated a year ago, ruined
eighty-five villages. The destitute families whom
his insatiable avarice had despoiled and driven from
their habitations, sought a new home r-•
I Tigris, and became the suhist3 —.Liss the
Thus has the repaiii.:ln. of
chief*./...41;.8ec1er
gradually grown ;
han Bey.
n
his subjects }lave
..,.ilaplied, and 100-k up to him as a
...men His name is continually in their mouths, and
they appeal to him as the redresser of their wrongs,
and the arbiter of their differences. His word is law:
the disputes which he has decided are irrevocably
settled ; and, at the beating of his drum, the whole
population will start up in arms. Such is the bright
side of Bederhan Bcy's character. Unhappily it is
overmatched by the dark. His fanaticism has insti-
gated him to crimes that find no parallel in our day,
and equal in atrocity the worst achievements of the
blindest bigotry in ages past. His last violent deed
has, without doubt, sealed the fate of this chieftain.
Notwithstanding the attachment of his own imme-
diate subjects, and his popularity among the Kurds
generally, it is doubtful whether either would stand
the brunt of war with the Porte for his sake; so much
these mountaineers dread drawing down upon them
the terrible devastations of a Turkish army. But the
jealousies of the different tribes in Kurdistan render
the ruin of any particular chief not a very difficult
matter, even if he should be supported by the at-
most fidelity (an extremely rare case among the Kurds),
of his own dependents. The chiefs of Pinianski and
Tebal offered, in a message to Tayar Pasha, before
Bederhan Bey set out upon his expedition, to march
upon him and seize him in his passage from Jesira ;
and in consequence of this becoming known to the
Bey, the villages under their authority were visited
with the same relentless treatment which he inflicted
upon the Nestorians.
I have only to add a word concerning the Boy's
past history. During the war which the Grand
Seraskier, Mehemet Reshid Pasha waged against the
Kurds in 1836, he was besieged in Jesira, taken pri-
soner, and sent to Constantinople. From thence he
was raised by Ilafiz Pasha, who succeeded Mehemet
Reshid as Seraskier, just before the Battle of Nezib,
to the rank of mirali or colonel in the Turkish army.
Shortly after he was restored by the Porte to the
dominion of his ancestors over the district of Jesira.
Since that time to the present, his reputation and
power have been continually increasing, until he must
be considered a scarcely less formidable chief than
Mahmoud Khan. His fall has no doubt been resolved
upon by the Porte. But if they temporise, which is
not improbable, it then becomes the duty of the Euro-
pean governments to enforce the expulsion from
power of this scourge of the Christians.

FRANCE.—The following is the address of Chan.
miler Pasquier to the King of the French, on the occasion of
the anniversary of new year's day
" Sire,—Time speeds on, and events follow in quick sue
cession ; but circumstances change : and that which
is eminently wise and just, noble and great, still re-
mains firmly established in the place assigned to it by public
esteem and admiration. Such already is the judgment of
the cotemporaries and witnesses of your reign, a judgment
which history will ratify. Commenced in the midst of a
storm which threatened to shake even that which it did not
overthrow, passing through days and dirllculties of every
kind, where even perils were not wanting, it has saved all,
strengthened all, and consolidated all. Its duration has,
thanks to Providence, been greater than that of the longest
reigns, which have succeeded each other during that
half century in which your name appears, after so many
trials; there it will remain as a symbol of the indissoluble
alliance of two things, monarchy and liberty, the ardent
love of which has never been extinguished in the bosoms of
the French people by any effort or any revolution. Lofty
and powerful reason, which alone could obtain so glorious
a success, could lay the foundation of that c.dm, hut firm and
generous policy, which your government has followed for lfi
yeah, and will never abandon. Such a licy leaves but one
anxiety in the mind, that which arises from the desire that
nothing may disturb your work, and that our posterity may
inherit, after us, the advantages which we possess. Heaven
has been pleased to grant all that could hest answer our wishes.
Your dynasty already appears in the future rich and proud
of the numerous offshoot/ which under your cherished and
tutelary protection, are growing and advancing with the new
generations whose destinies will one day be confided to them.
The year which has but just gone by has seen the accom-
plishment of that union which was to complete the whole of
so many great existences, and none can say, when casting
looks as well as thoughts on the young princess whose illus-
trious origin is embellished by the native graces and qualities
which they promise, that the last choice is not the worthy
complement of all those which have so happily preceded it :
I may add, none could have been more agreeable to France.
Receive, Sire, the congratulations with which this event
inspires us; we give them not only as peers of France, bat
as members of the great family from whom your eyes
are never turned away, and whose interests are always
your greatest study.. Happy is the country in which
at can be said that to wish the king increase of years is to
wish to the country he governs long years of happiness, and
to the civilised world that welfare which is always the con-
comitant of peace."—The King replied "As you have said,
the great problem to be resolved was the alliance of mo-
narchy with liberty; to make the people understand that liberty
needs the assistance of monarchy, and to prove to kings sad
princes that monarchy must be accompanied by liberty. It is
owing to ignorance of this principle, or to the prejudice that
monarchy and liberty were incompatible, that France has
been hurried into the storms of revolution. May God pre-
serve us and other nations from them. May our
be sufficient to convince both kings and their subjects
monarchy and liberty can live and flourish together, although
not without a mutual confidence. If the national vote has
elevated me to the throne, it was because the whole
tenor of my life gave reason to expect that all my efforts
would tend to carry out this principle, and because there was
no tear of change upon my side. You have seconded me so
well in this effort that, on this seventeenth anniversary, we
can congratulate ourselves on hasing happily accomplished
our task. I trust, with your loyal assistance, that, as
long as it shall
_please OW to extend my life, we shall
continue to confirm our institutions and the pros-
perity of France. I thank you for your congratulationson the marriage of my eon I have noticed with pleasure the
manner in which this event, so happy for my family and for
myself, has been appreciated by the C banshee of Peers."
This reply of his Majesty was followed by repeated shouts of
"Vise k Roi."
THE BEY OF TUNIS AND THE SLAVE-TRADE.—
The Bey of Tunis, during his visit to Paris, evinced more in-
telligence than is generally found in the Oriental rulers
who have been in Europe. His great merit is having
abolished the aline-trade in his territory, which he has ac-
complished with some sacrifice of property.
GERMANY.—HAMBURG.—The hamburger Neue
Zeitung has ceased to exist, after having outlived a period
of seventy years. It was a strenuous defender of the rights
of the duchies of Schleewig and Holstein, in which it was
lately prohibited by the Danish government
BERLIN, JANUARY 2.—The Allg. Preuseische
Zeitung of the foregoing date contains a correspond-
ence from the Saxon province of Prussia, in which it
is stated that the produce of last harvest does not justify in
any way the apprehensions which were generally enter-
tained respecting a scarcity. It amens that although the
rye crops were not so abundant here and there as they
usually are, tke quality of them was excellent; and adds,
that there has been an average crop of wheat andbarley. The
potato crops, too, were good. There are satisfactory accounts
also from the Rhenish province*. Wheat, and particularly
rye, continue, however, to be very dear.
STUTTGAIM—According to a recently published
official document, the population of the kingdom of Wurtem-
berg at the beginning of the year 1845 was 1,743,827, being
an increase of one per cent. compared with the preceding year.
ITALY.—A letter from Rome, of the 28th ult., in
the Conanisitionnel, says " The changes in the government
offices are being continued. Monseigneur Gramellini, who
was installed at Rome, on the 26th, as governor of the capital
and minister of the general police of the city, in_ the room of
Monseigneur Marini, raised to the cardinalate (as we
have before stated), is replaced at Ancona, where he
was legate, by Monseigneur Roeconi. The delegates
of Perugea, Ascoli, lticti, and other places have
been changed. Thus it will be seen the secularisra-
-6011 of the government officers is still postponed. Pre-
lates are replaced by prelates, and the only thing done is the li
substitution of prelates who are friends to progress, and not
hostile to the new system, for the Gregorian*. How many
obstacles are opposed to the intentions of Pius IX. and Car-
dinal Grizzi. Pius IX. would have been glad to deviate
from the custom of giving the purple to ecelesiaaties who
hare charges called Cordo-di:ie. His holiness wished to
commence this reform with Monseigneur Marini, by sending
him as legate extraordinary to Spam or Portugal, or by
making ham auditor of the chamber. The opposition,
however, of the sacred college has been such, that the pope
was obliged to yield and make him a cardinal, On the fol-
lowing day, placards were posted en the walls of Rome
blaming the act. This first step will probably induce the
pope to leave the treasury in the hands of Monseigneur An-
tonelli ; and for the same reason, perhaps, it is that Mon-
seigneur Row:oM, who was to have been appointed treasurer,
will be sent as governor to the province of Anoona. Letters
from Bologna state that a commit...sip, has been discovered in
that city. It was formed by the ...arabinien (armed police),
inferior officers of the police, and persons inimical to the
Civic Guard. This plot; if it had not been detected, would
have caused serious disturbences."
DENMARK.—RENDSUCAGIL—A grand banquet
was given on the 29th ult. to the presidents of the
Schleswig and the Holstein legislatures. About one
hundred and seventy persons were present. One of the
speakers, Herr Wille, of Hamburg. expressed the opinion
that the separation of Lubeck and Hamburg from Holstein

had worked prejudicially for all three. The health of the
Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg was drunk
amidst enthusiastic applause.
RUSSIA.—ST. PETERSBURG, Dec. 26.—Yester-
day, the funeral obsequies of the late Princess Maria Mi-
cheelowna were performed in the cathedral of St. Peter and
Paul, by the metropolitan and the chief clergy, in presence
of the Emperor, the Crown Prince, the Grand Dukes r'
stentine, Nicholas, and Michael, and Prin.- ust-
berg. The deceased was br, ' ...a refer of Olden-
Cathedral.—Alk. P- in one of the vaults of the
TA Ty"— _ .oussiselae Zeiltutg, Jan. 2.
I.—We have accounts from Honolulu, the
capital of the Sandwich Islands. The dates are to Aug. 22,
1846 ; but the columns of our Honolulu contemporary are
occupied almost exclusively by reports made to his Majesty
Kamehameha 111., by his ministers of foreign affairs and
public instruction, his attorney-general, &c. The following
is a paragraph of nyws: " A Snake.—Sonkes have been
considered as much strangers here as in Ireland, but
a friend of ours saw one in Nuuanu Valley on Thurs-
day morning. It was about a foot lone, of a green-
ish colour, and crossed the path, taking refuge in
a stone wall—a straggler probably front some ship."
HONOLULU, AuG. Is.—We have received an official
document from the consul of France announcing the raising
of the blockade of Itaiatta, signed by Governor Bruat.
We have frequent arrivals from this place, but the diffi-
culty attending the procuration of authentic intelligence
concerning the lute hostilities is inconceivable to any one
who has not tried it. From our own correspondence we
can only glean that, during May and June, Governor Brunt,
with 1,000 men and a steamer, attacked the several camps
of the Tahitians at Papeenoo, Hautana, and Bunaauia, and
in the conflict lost several men in killed and wounded,
including come superior officers. The natives remained
masters of the interior. but were driven to great straits by
the destruction of their cultivated grounds and the desola-
tion of their valleys. Numbers have since come into the
French lines and given up their arms. Three of the English
missionaries offered to mediate before the late battle, but
Governor Brunt would grant no terms short of actual sub-
mission. Papciti, at the latest dates, was quiet, but the
isLind generally is in a sad condition. Since writing the
above, we have hal the pleasure to receive from Captain
Bonnet, of the French transport Lioa, the following let-
ter, containing a succinct account of the late events at
Tahiti, which will not fail to inter, at our readers :—( Trans-
lation.) "To the Editor of the Polyneslan.—Honolulu,
August 11,1846.—Admiral Hamelin arrived in the Papeiti
Roads on the 28th of April. In the meanwhile, the relations
of Pomarc were carrying on negotiations in her favour,
which remaining without result, decided Governor Bruat
upon setting out, in the beginning of May, at the head of
1,000 men, soldiers, seamen, and allies, in order to drive the
insurgents from their positions in Tapai, Palmas, said Ahons,
which was done without striking a blow. On the 10th of
May, the four forts which they bad erected at Fapenoo
made a lively resistance to our troops, who, never-
theless, took possession of them the same day, and pur-
sued the enemy into impassable places. The French
troops bivouacked during about twelve days in
this part of the island, in order to destroy all the resources
of the enemy, and to hinder them from re-establishing them-
selves there. The inhabitants of the valley of Fatahua were
likewise driven from a very strong position which they occu-
pied, and their resources were destroyed, to punish them for
depredations which they had committed a short time before,
near Papeiti. A block-house was established upon the im-
portant position of Tapai, which opens the communication
with the eastern districts, in closing it to the insurgents of that
side of the island. At the latter end of May the expedition
marched upon Panavia, and took possession of the fortifica-
tions of the insurgents, who were driven into a narrow defile,
where they had concentrated their forces in an impreg
nable position, from whence, without being seen, and from
the top of their rocky walls, they were enabled to fire upon
our troops, who could not ace them, and to throw down
enormous stones, which rolled upon our seldiers, in which
manner several were severely wounded. It was necessary to
give up the pursuit of the enemy and destroy their resources.
This day coat us the brave commander of the Brea, mor-
tally wounded in the chest by a gunshot ; M. Perrot, a
first-class student, killed in the entrenchment, and three
soldiers. Among the wounded, who number 15, are Lieut.
Malmanche, chief of the staff, who had to suffer amputation
of the right leg; M. Claniere, captain of the 31st; and
Sub.-Lieut. Lejeune, who had already received several
wounds in the preceding actions, where we had 21 wounded.
As to the affairs of the Island of Huahine, and to the false
and slanderous account which has been given of them by the
Friend (doubtless misinformed), inits numbers of thy month
of April last, and which its editor had the delicate attention
to convey to me on board of my ship, I think I cannot do
better than to lay before you a letter, which one of my friends,
who resided at Huahine during the events, and who was
as capable of judging of them as any one, has been good
enough to write to me giving me a detail thereof. I shall
adjoin, for the edification of certain parties, that Captain
Hammond, of the Salamander, into whose hands the
Friend, of the 15th of April has fallen, hastened formally
to give the lie to a letter contained therein, and attri-
buted to one of his officers, who has played a part in these
unfortunate events.—(S4neel) Bosnrr."—The police laws
at Tahiti are becoming increasingly strict. A sentinel is
stationed on One Tree-hill to prevent any one passing with-
out a special permit (natives without any burden excepted).
The names of all the native householders at Papeete have
been registered, and forbidden to go to the camps on pain of
losing their all; and not to receive additions to their families
without a permit. The permits of Messrs. Barif and Thomp-
son to visit Papeuoo camp had been renewed for three
months, the former being allowed (on account of inability
to travel quick) to go on Saturday, and return on Monslay,
the latter to go and return on the Sabbath."—Sandwich
Islands Polynesian.