The Express.
London, England, 1856-04-18 00:00:00

TURKEY.

According to a despatch from Constantinople of the
7th, published by the Trieste press, serious disturb-
ances have broken out in the province of Caveman*
on account of the hatti-humayoun. The Turks pillaged
several houses, and all the inhabitants who were not
Massatrains were obliged to fly.
With reference to reports such as these, a Con-
stantinople correspondent, writing on the 3rd inst.,
has remarked :—" Energetic measures will be taken
to put down all disturbances arising out of the execu-
tion of the Sultan'. finnan. But it should be under-
stood that the troubles reported from Kurdistan, the
Mediae, and other points, have not really the impor-
tance that is attached to them. Unhappily, a habit
of outrageous exaggeration prevails here in reporting
on facts of a nature to alarm the public or disquiet
the government. It is not to be expected that re-
forms so radical ae those announced in
the last hatti-hunrayoun could be promul-
gated without causing something of a shock
to old prejudices. Perhaps it would have been
wiser to reserve the mention of these reforms until
the preparations of the government were more ad-
vanced. But although this has not been done, there
is nothing in the present situation that can give pre-
text for the assertions of the alarmist.% I believe
their predictions are u insincere as they are un-
founded. Any one who knows the Turkish character
intimately, and has seen the calm attitude of the
population, is well assured that the Christians have
nothing to fear. Thou who raise sinister ?ports
wish to afford a pretext for foreign occupation.
Is another letter of the same date, we read : "The
force at the Sultan's disposal is more than doubly
sufficient to assert his authority, and give effect to the
hat in all parts of the empire."
The Prism erOrient of Constantinople says: "An
event of a certain degree of gravity has taken place
at Masai.. A slave brought into the town from the
frontiers of Georgia was incarcerated in the village of
Koutzkeui, occupied by Circassian& The slave was
a Christian of the Armenian church. The bishop of
that church demanded that he should be set at li-
berty, but this was refused except on payment of a
sum of money. After a good deal of diaCasSion, the
bishop, seeing that there was no other means of
effecting his release, paid 501. sterling, and the slave
was given up to him. The prelate then appealed to
the members of his church to contribute the sum which
he had paid, so as to emancipate the slave ; but
they refused on the ground that slavery is abolished
in Turkey. We are usured that a foreign consul
has demanded the slave from the Pasha of Amnia,
and has also demanded that the man who sold him
shall be punished. The hatti-humayonn has been
badly received in Massie on account of the false in-
terpretations given to it s at Samsun, on the con.
teary, it hes been well received. One of the Austrian
Lloyd's steamers which recently left Constantinople
had on board a female slave sent to Samson°. The
steamer not having been able to communicate with
the town on account of the high sea, condoned her
route to Trebizond. On bar return the proprietor of
the slave presented himself to demand her, but she
refused todisembark, saying that slavery is abolished
and that she meant to remain tree. As she persisted
in her resolution she was carried back in the steamer
to Constantinople."