The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-03 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUFT,SDAY NOVEMI3EII; 3, 1

however to any one of them, but to each a mixture as
V a nature of her husbandry will allow of. To
exchange the potato for some one other
root exclusively would be productive of no real
advantage, even if in the present state of
things it were possible, which it is not. It is only by
varying the objects of cultivation, and by increasing
their number, thus providing the certainty of some
supply of food should a portion of them fail, that the
foundation of a better system of husbandry and in-
creased comforts can be insured, and that the periodi-
cal scarcity which some politicians venture to assert
is the necessary and natural attribute of Ireland can
be successfully averted. It is to the united and
earnest endeavours of Irish gentlemen that the
country looks for this indispensable change. The aid
`of a government can be only transient and impulsive.

- - -
TIIE Sydney journals contain the report of the
debate in the assembly of New South Wales on the
law for continuing the regulations respecting the
squatters and their lands, and the rejection of that
law. The information from England did not, how-
ever, then come down later than Mr. OLAnsroNE's
administration, and, ignorant of Lord GREY'S assump-
tion of the Colonial-office, they were of course not
cognisant of the proposed law for regulating the sale
and settlement of waste lands in the colony.
It is to be hoped that the provisions of that law
will satisfy the expectations, and cool the resentments
of so formidable a body u that of the squatters,
an ill-used race, but who certainly have brought to
bear against the colonial executive a force of elo-
quence, and energy, and influence, equally remarka-
ble as irresistible. It mattered little that the colonial
constitution excluded these " wanderers of the wild "
from the representation. They soon found champions,
and made their voice potential, their interests being
so closely interwoven with all others in the colony.
We arc not prepared to join in the vituperation of
the squatters against Sir GEORGE Glees, an able and
indefatigable servant of the Crown. He had the
excuse to make, that so many representatives of a
mother country have had to make in a colony, the
necessity of raising a revenue. The class on which
he was to levy it was pointed out from home in the
flocks and herds that peopled the waste lands. In
his ardour Sir GEORGE Gtres went too far. Had he
confined his object to a capitation tax on sheep and
oxen, he might have raised it in peace. But when he
went turd ier,and sought to coerce the squatters, in order
that his land-sales might be productive, then the
double fiseality mused the resistance of these hardy
men, and the colonial government has been obliged to
retreat before them.
We &now no specimens of eloquence more true, more
powerful, than the speeches of AncnIIIALD Born on
this question, into the service of which, narrow as it
may seem to us, he pressed some of the noblest
and warmest feelings of our nature. One, we re-
member, was, that to unfix the tenure of the squatter
was to enjoin him celibacy, and deprive him of a
partner of the fairer sex. What a theme was here !
and haw could Sir GEORGE Ours, or any governor,
excuse himself from so fearful a charge ? But in the
speeches of the members of the Australian Pastoral
Association occurred some of the imaginative flights
which distinguish its Catholic namesake in Ireland,
and large allowance must be made.
The stringent orders for sale and appropriation
of lands held by thousands of acres for sheep-feeding,
could only be warranted by the fact of the line
of cultivation having reached them, and of more
ground being demanded for the ploughman. The
rights of pasture ought not to atop this still greater
civilizer than the squatter. And when it can be
proved that sales were made and purchases concluded,
not with the object of forestalling or land-sharking, but
with that of positive cultivation, then a higher
authority than any governor's, viz., Dame Nature
herself, decrees that the privileges of pasture should
cease or come to a compromise.
To effect this will, however, be no easy matter in
the temper which the colonists display ; and we
look with considerable anxiety to learn the effect
produced by the bill of August last, and the attitude
which the hitherto triumphant squatters may think
fit to assume with respect to it.

IN our paper of the 31 et nit. we described the
Savings bank. We now ask, What is the benefit
society? Such things have existed beyond legal
memory: their regulations are extant in Saxon.
Burial expenses, and support during sickness, have
always been provided for those who would contribute,
by cht6s.
In a benefit club, the members pay weekly or
monthly, according to their ages, for sums to be
repaid at death, or for support in sickness, or for an
allowance in old age. So far it is a savings bank,
with a provision that the fund shall not be repayable
on demand, but only under specified circumstances.
Each man pays for his chance, according to his
chance, as in the assurance office ; in fact, the mutual
assurance office is the old Saxon club. Again, the
government will receive the funds and allow interest,
as in the savings banks ; and, to a certain extent,
prescribes regulations. But the government does
not prescribe the manner in which the rate of pay-
ment shall depend on the benefit bought. It only
requires that some actuary shall declare the rate to be
safe and self-maintaining : and, as a consequence, the
government does not guarantee the benefits. Accord-
ingly, the great distinction between the Bank and the
Club is, that the latter may become bankrupt by insuf-
ficient rates, without dishonesty on any part : the
former cannot. except by embezzlement.
Now, our readers will, perhaps, be surprised to learn
that the affairs of the largest assurance office are not
nearly so complicated in actual practice as those
of the smallest benefit society. The great mass
of the business of the former lies in the simple
assurance on one life: the latter has assurances,
annuities, and sickness to deal with. The Lon-
don actuary has no great wish for benefit-society
business. The concerns arc small in amount, the
parties are too poor to pay on the same scale on which
other business is paid. And though the actuaries
generally behave with liberality towards such clients,
yet it cannot be expected that a system should last in
good working order, which so much depends upon
the chance ofgettingtime andskill at less than market
price. To declare the state of such a society, upon an
account of assets and liabilities, is the most teasing
problem which is ever presented to a professional
man ; and it is a problem for which, under the cir-
cumstances, he feels that he must not expect a proper
remuneration.
With respect to getting necessary skill, then, the
benefit society is in a false position. There is a want
of union; hundreds of little associations are running
about, each paying, as far as it can, for the solution of
questions which their collective funds might soon settle
once for all. With respect to local management, the dif-
ficulties are asgreat. The gentry, clergy, and tradesmen
who are active about the savings banks, are cautious

and unenergetic about the benefit society ; they are
very apt to leave it to the management of the parties
interested, who, in their turn, are very apt to seek the
public-house for their inspiration, and choose the
landlord for their adviser or their treasurer. Nor is
this much to be wondered at. It is only now and
then that a country gentleman, or clergyman, will
feel his ground safe under him, when he undertakes
to regulate rates of payment which he cannot calcu-
late, and to endure responsibility in a matter, the
safeties and the dangers of which are beyond his

judgment. In such a case, countenance looks very
like guarantee : and it is not fair to ask any one to
give others an assurance, which himself can hardly
feel. What if the actuary should mistake, to whom,
upon general reputation, the tables are sent for re-
vision ? What if the tables themselves, or the
actuaries' cautions upon particular points, should be
misunderstood ?

Thus, then, stands the benefit society. Organised

by government as an investor of thuds, -left to its
own discretion as to what the funds should be to meet
the demands for which they stand pledged-from the
first commencement of accumulation; requiring the
greatest skill, but depending for obtaining it upon the
generous oonsideration of those who know how they
are circumstanced ; demanding, even more than the
savings banks, the support of local influence and
education, but possessing it in a less degree, from the
influence of fears for which those who feel them can-
not be blamed; placed, with respect to the savings
bank, in such a point of view that the contrasts are all
to their disadvantage; though, if they stood on equal
terms, it would be clear that they might answer pur-
poses which the bank neither can nor does attempt to
meddle with--and purposes too of the most beneficial
character.

It becomes from day, to day more apparent that the
protective, or prohibitive system as some call it, of
Prance, is doomed. It is just allowed time to gather
up its mantle and die decently. Central and depart-
mental societies for the promotion of freedom of
commerce by the reduction of the tariff on the one
hand,. and for the protection of native industry by
maintaining a high tariff on the other, have each ob-
tained from the government full liberty of action, and
it is now a fair stand up fight between freedom and
prohibition—a mere revenue tariff of duties and one
of native monopoly. The government affects to stand
by as an impartial witness of the contest, but it is
easy to see its secret wishes. As in England, the
difficulty will be encountered in the Chamber, where
monopolism is far more rampant than it was in the
House of Commons. Public opinion irresistibly ex-
pressed, can alone effect any serious relaxation of the
protective duties. Meanwhile the more immediate or-
fans of government in the press are from time to time
in a temperate and judicious manner expounding the
doctrines of free trade, and exposing those fallacies
with which the E❑glish public have been so long
made familiar, on the strength of which it is pre-
tended that native manufactures can be nourished
and extended. _

---------
The report mentioned in our correspondence of yes-
terday of the ministerial decision to suspend for the
present the intended modification of the Cabinet, is
in substance confirmed by the Conatieutionnel of Sun-
day. It was not, according to the Constilutionnel, to
the King that Lord Normanby made the official com-
munication which had the effect of suspending the
proposed chan,ges, but to M. Guizot himself.
" We are assured," says the Constitulionnel, "that it was
to ➢l. Guizot himself, in the most formal terms, that the
British Cabinet declared the inconvenience which would at-
tend his assumption of the premiership under present cir-
cumstances, and amidst the discontent of the English nation.
On receiving this intimation, M. Guizot renounced his in-
tended advancement and adjourned, at least for some time,
his presidency. But, in spite of this voluntary resignation
of his intentions, M. Guizot seems to have felt keenly this
opposition of the English Cabinet to his personal projects.
1 his may be easily seen by reading t'.o late and unlooked
for article which has appeared in the Journal des Debals on
the marriage. This article has a twofo!d object—first, to
prove a difference bet'•veeu the policy of Sir Robert Peel and
that of Lord John Russell, relative to the Spanish affair,
and, secondly, to throw upon the English Cabinet the charge
of breach of faith."

The result of the whole matter is that Marshal
Soult continues, as hitherto, the ncminal head of the
Cabinet, having a handsome hotel, a large salary,
and nothing to do. The real head of the administra-
tion is NI. Guizot, holding, however, the subordinate
office of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In the Mote des Deqx Mondes, which appeared
on Sunday morning in Paris, and which, having a
semi-official character, is entitled to some attention,
more especially as its articles are prepared with more
deliberation and circumspection than those of the
daily journals, there appeared some observations on
the position of the Cabinet of the Tuileries in reference
to that of London, from which we extract the fol-
lowing :
" In fact, far from the celebration of the marriages and
the return of the Princes being the end of this affair, it
will be, more properly Teal:lag, the commencement of a
new era in our foreign relations. Three mouths ago it was
the English alliance, the entente cordiale, which was the
key-stone of our foreign policy. At present England is
strangely cold towards us; she is offended; and if there be
not an open rupture, there is at least a cessation of the good
understanding of 184.5. Lord Palmerston has not yet an-
swered the note of M. Guizot of the Bth October. A report
was spread, without foundation, that he had addressed an
answer directly to the King; the facts which have occurred
will render it difficult for Lord Palmerston to frame an an-
swer. He has not succeeded in his attempt to paralyse the
action of France, and this failure will not make him eager
to resume his pen. Nevertheless, this silence cannot deceive
us as to the sentiments of the English minister, who
assuredly will neither forget nor forgive anything.
Tho Whigs labour, without success, to strengthen
themselves. Sir R. Peel does not think meanwhile of re-
turning to office. The Whigs flatter themselves that the
friends of the late minister will give them their support in
Parliament. In fine, it is announced that Lord Aberdeen
will hold on the Spanish question the same language as
Lord Palmerston. These circumstances are sufficient to in-
dicate to our government the necessity of circumspection and
firmness in its measures. It stands before Europe no longer
supported by the friendship of England, but in a sort of iso-
lation, of which we trust France need not be apprehensive.
It is not a situation above the strength of the government of
1830, which has already endured sixteen years, during which
it has proved itself necessary to the maintenance of European
order. France can, without apprehension, observe and wait.
There are alliances which time and the force of things will
bring to her. She will be sought so much the more readily,
as she will be more tranquil endless solicitous."

The writer then proceeds to confirm formally what
we have stated above and in our correspondence of
yesterday, that the Duke of Dalmatia will not for the
present retire, and that the contemplated accession of
M. Passy will not take place. In a word, that the
Cabinet will undergo no change.

At the hour of despatching our Paris letters on
Sunday, the Madrid mail of the 27th had not arrived,-
The mails of the 26th had brought no intelligence
publicly known at Madrid respecting events in Por-
tugal farther than what had appeared the preceding
day. Private letters, however, have been received in
Paris communicating the fact that bulletins are clan-
destinely printed and circulated at Lisbon, in which
the progress of the insurrection among the population
and the army is reported. The following details are
given, as supplied by these documents :
The address of the provisional junta of Oporto, and
the letter of Count Das Antas, were intended to give
the Queen an opportunity, by the dismissal of the
ministers of the coup d'e tat, to restore the country to
tranquillity. These documents were dated the 13th,
and the last dates from Oporto reach the 19th. In
the interval the address was without effect, and mea-
sures, both offensive and defensive, were actively pro-
secuted at Oporto, which had all the appearance of a
camp. Three brigades were formed to march upon
Lisbon at a moment's notice. The first brigade, com-
manded by the Baron Doe Tornos de Olgodnez, was
composed of a battalion of chasseurs, a regiment of
foot artillery, a regiment of infantry, and the muni-
cipal of Oporto. The second brigade, com-
mandeduariby Geronimo Progado de Oliviera Leiton,
consisted of a battalion of chasseurs, and'three regi-
ments of infantry. The third brigade, com-
manded by Joachim Eusedio Moraez, was formed
of a battalion of chasseurs and four regi-
ments of infantry. Besides these forces there
was a division of cavalry composed of the horse
municipal guard, and four regiments under the
orders of Baron de Casal. The artillery was under
the command of Juan Manoel Pereira. All these
troops were placed under the command of Count Das
Antas as general-in-chief, and Leopold Dino as chief
of the staff. On the 14th the first brigade commenced
its march towards Lisbon amidst the enthusiastic shouts
of the population of rim la libertel. Das Antas left
on the lath. For the service of the city of Oporto
three battalions of artizans were enrolled, who elected
their own officers, and mounted guard on the morn-
ing of the 16th.
The extent to which the insurrection has spread
may be collected from the fact that the royal autho-
rity is only acknowledged in Lisbon, and through a
space of some dozen miles round it. On the 19th,
Saldanha, having ordered the 11th regiment of in-
fantry, stationed at Elver, to march to Lisbon, the
regiment on arriving at Estremoz proclaimed the
insurrection and marched to Evara. The 12th regi-
ment ,1
followed the same example' The people have
enrolled themselves in the Alentejo. An insurrec-
tional junta was formed at Beja, to direct the move-
ment. Lisbon was, in fact, in a state of siege. Nume-
rous arrests were made from hour to hour, even on the
slightest suspicion. The alarm in the Palace was extreme.
The King gave up all thoughts of leaving the capital.
The total amount of force disposable by the govern-
ment was 4 or 5,000 men, hastily enlisted, and undisci-
plined. All the civil servants of the government
were enrolled. Even children and old men werr.• seen
under arms. Without the aid of the bank the go-

[6.

vestment most have fallen, but even with that assist-
ance the situation was becoming hourly more critical.
The only hope was iissension among the insurgents.

In the new Grand Council of Berwe a motion has
been carried almost unanimously, to the effect that
all citizens who have studied in Jesuit schools or
colleges shall be excluded from all public employ-
ments. All the Catholic deputies of the Jura, with
the exception of two uitramontancs, have voted for
this measure. The Liberal party are also, according
to letters from that city, triumphant at Bale, where
the Grand Council, yielding to the prevalent opinion
of the public, have proceeded to effect reforms both
federal and cantonal. In Fribourg parties are more
divided, and if, as seems probable, the government
taking the part of the Jesuits, should resort to force
in the district of Morat, the chief centre of the Libe-
rals, serious conflicts may be apprehended in the
canton.

PARIS, Ocr. 31.
It had been announced that it was the King's in-
tention to celebrate the anniversary of the accession of the
present ministry to power, by calling M. Ouizotto the Pre-
sidency of the Council. I had assured you that these reports
were without foundation, and you now see that the 29th
October passed by without the slightest change in the con-
stitution of the Cabinet. The King has contented himself
on this occasion by giving a grand dinner to his Ministers.
Some say that he has also written a very cordial letter of con-
gratulation to M. Guizot; hut this has been all, unless a
distribution of cordons goes for anything. The King of the
Relgiins is to leave Paris in two days, and M. Thiers arrives
to-morrow. Neither of them will shake the confidence
which the King has in his own success. Moreover, the mar.
riage of the Duke de Montpensier is decidedly popular in
France. lam certain that the Deputies of the lett centre
share generally on this point the opinion of the left, and
that there will be no serious expression of dissent in the Cham-
ber. A little disquiet alone prevails as to the course which
will be pursued by the Spanish government, as well as on
the had understanding which exists between M. Isturitz and
M. Mon. An English intervention in the affairs of Portugal
is also expected, this being the interpretation given to the
naval preparations which are being made in your ports in the
channel. I have nothing to add to the details you have
given of the disasters caused by the inundations in the val-
leys of the Loire and the Rhone. These misfortunes are in-
cilculable, and will add greatly to the embarrassment already
felt by the deficiency ot the corn crops. The government has
adopted very insufficient measures for remedying the evil.
Of what use is it to distribute a sum of a million francs
amongst so many sufferers whose losses exceed a hundred, or
more likely two hundred millions ? Those farmers, also,
who cannot pay the indirect taxes must have them remitted,
bearing in the mind the old French proverb, " Sur qui Wit
rien, k Roi red tons set droits." Finally, it is also time to
think of devising remedies for securing France from the seve-
rity of these frightful devastations. Until the mountains are
again covered with trees, the rivers and torrents will periodi-
cally ravage our valleys. Some step must, therefore, he
taken with regard to this, and attention paid to scientific
advice. You arc aware that a considerable decline ha, taken
place in the Paris bourse in railroad shares. It is principally
owing to the had understanding between the principal com-
panies, which, instead of contenting themselves with spatter-
ing each other with dirt, have sought to devour each other.
But the crisis cannot be protracted much longer; money is
not wanting in Paris, and the sixty millions demanded by
the companies of Lyons and of the North, will be founa
without difficulty before the end of January. The Stras-
burg Company seems desirous of putting off all calls until
March. 0,

ROME, OCT. 20.
The month of October has been from time imme-
' mortal sacred to the observance of the Roman villeggiatura
during which the cool acclivities of the circumambient hills
afford, if not watering, at least breathing places to the gene-
ral public, state-functionaries included. The active mind of
Pius IX. brooks no relaxation, and during his visit to the
falls of Tivoli this week, his whole time was devoted to the
organization of the new iron works which promise to relieve
Rome from part of the disgraceful tribute she now pays to
foreign industry. Fire blasts, smelting furnace., specimens
of agricultural implements, models of iron bridges (these
latter especially), occupied the attention of the ex-officio
" Pontifex," and orders mixed with encouragements were
issued for a variety of works. The Roman finances are,
thanks to the various retrenchments made in the Papal
household, and the discontinuance of many sinccurcF. for
from being in the hopeless condition they would have assumed
had the late reign gone on. The last million of the Torlonia
loan was paid on the 26th of August, and had the great
tobacco broker wished to back out of his agreement, I am
cognisant of many quarters whence the money would have
been at once forthcoming. You are aware that the grand
mill-stone tied round the neck of the papal treasurer is
the payment of the Swiss boors who, to the number
of near 10,000, garrison the legations. To got rid
of these, now worse than useless, mercenaries, is the
firm determination of Pius, but he is hound by the stolid and
suicidal compact signed by the late Gregory, in the year
1831, when, frightened out of his senses by the revolt of
Bologna, he aczreNl to guarantee their pay and allowances
for twenty years to come : which period will not expire till
18.51. There is some notion of hiring them out to any
foreign power ss ho may want such efficient bludgeonmen,
and may he willing to relieve Isis holinessof the incumbrance :
they would be invaluable to keep down the Poles, anu I sup-
pose Russia or Austria will ultimately take them off his
hands. The Swiss officers have had the cunning to bargain
for their natural lives full pay and certain prerogatives and
emoluments, which place them over the heads of their
Italian fellow-commanders, a perpetual blister on the pontifi-
cal corps &armee. Does not Milton say something about
annulling certain
" vows made in min as violent and void r.
And was net such the case of the late Pope when he was
cheated into suchen agreement by the Dahretties of Lucerne.
One family of that canton has held the command of these
hired troops for the last 300 years, a vested interest with a
vengeance.

Another great source of unprofitable expenditure is the
support of the galley-slaves, who are a very numerous class
indeed, owingto the repugnance of the papal code to spilling
blood, when the penalty can be possibly commuted to per-
petual labour. \nu are aware of the value of such labour:
the result is a dead loss to the exchequer. Count Rossi, be-
fore he left Rome to consult his masters at Paris, made, offi-
cially, an offer to relieve the Pope of all his convict.,
whom he engaged to convert into agricultural la-
bourers in the flourishing French colony of Algiers.
Nothing has yet been decided on that point. Of
one thing there can be no doubt, and that is the cordial
feeling of Pius towards Louis Philippe, and hence he has
done all in his power to forward the Montpcnsier marriage
as far as his influence with the Spanish clergy could be used
for that object. Viewed from Rome, that question assumes
a very different aspect from its appearance to an English
eye. Don Carlos has received a hint that if he come here
his sojourn will not be made very satisfactory should he as-
sume the character of a pretender. All these things annoy
the French Carlists as well as those of the Peninsula, but
they must swallow the bitter pill in silent acquiescence. You
will scarcely believe it true, but it is nevertheless so gene-
rally asserted by grave men in every quarter that there must
be some foundation for the report, that his Holiness, previ-
ous to taking solemn possession of the Papacy on the 9th of
November, intends, during eight consecutive days, to preach
in propria persona from the pulpit of St. John Lste-
ran. We are all on the qui cite for this unheard-of
curse of lectures only to be historically paralleled by
the discourses of Savonarola in the glorious days of
Florentine freedom. " I shall send an analysis of these
speeches from the throne," as they occur. The late se-
cretary. Lambruschini, was detected last week in
a quasi treasonable correspondence—the original letter hav-
ing found its way into the l'ope's hands. Pius sent for
him, tore it in fragments before his face, and told him to
"sin no more." Cardinal della Gongs has been still more
deeply engaged in plotting with Austria, along with certain
old jobbing functionaries here : the belief in town is, that
his eminence is now lodged in the Castle of St. Angelo. If
not, where is he ? For the last week, his whereabouts is the
town mystery. Father Ryllo starts to-morrow for Abyssinia,
on a mission of evangelism, combined with discovery. He
applied to the French institute for co-operation. which was
refused by the Guizot ministry, "because Ityllo is a Jesuit."
He has to-day to make a similar application to the Geogra-
phical Society of London.

SAMSOUN, Ocr. 6.
The most important news I have to send you from
this place concerns the late revolt at Adjara, and the means
by which it has been put down. The district of Adjara lies
dose upon the Georgian frontier, and consists of an extensive
valley winding up through rugged mountain• covered with
dense forests, and watered by a river which empties itself
into the Tchorakh at some hours distaace from Batoum.
The inhabitants commonly gain their living by coming down
to Batoum, and cultivating the lands about that town. But
they are a wild set, little addicted to labour as long as they
can procure a subsistence by less methodical means. They
are a Georgian race, and speak a dialect of the Georgian
language ; and their cunning and ferocity render them a
strong contrast to their neighbours the Lazes, who enjoy a
high reputation among Europeans for their fidelity and
straightforwardness of character. At the head of this war-
like mountain clan that inhabit the Adjara, the family of
Kcur Hussein Bey, who instigated their late insurrection,
has long figured. That chief himself became some years
ago the main instrument of Hafiz Pacha, then Governor of
Hrzeroum,li quelling some disturbances in the province of
Kars, and acquired by his military qualities great influence
with his employer; insomuch, that the Adjaralecs, in
requital of their services, were almost entirely exempted
from taxes, were allowed to carry arms, and were not
called upon to furnish recruits. The enjoyment of these
privileges seems to have swelled the pride of the Ad -
jandees, and to have bred a mutinous spirit among them,
which soon made it necessary for the Porte to treat them
with less indulgence. At length, in 1842, Kerr Hu..sein
broke out into open rebellion-, and attempted to extend the
spirit of revolt through Kars and Van. He was, however,
defeated and taken prisone r by Haflz Pacha, who se at hint,
wounded, to Constantie.ople. It may be added, ra characv
teristic of the man, that on board the steamer he refused to
allow the surgeon to e.ress his wounds, or to extract the r.vo
bullets which had entered his back; but he treated Itiraself
by the application of soft decayed wood, which he stuffed
into his hurts, armedy for the rest which is common among
the country pecrele of these parts. Keur Hussein is a short,
thick-set man. on the verge of 50, blind, as his narete denotes,
of one eye, and marked with the small-pox. To extreme
daring end. energy he adds a port of fierce humour, which

Tents itself In speeches, not easily translatable, but singularly
relished by the Turks. The captive became a sort of lion at
Stamboul, and obtaining his liberty by means of the interest
of Ha& Pacha, or, as some say, through his connexion with
a Circassian slave, sister of a slave of Ries Pacha, was cent
back to Emir:tam, where, however, be remained uneler the
surveillance of Kiamili Yacht", successor of Hafiz. Some
disturbances breaking out again in Adjara during the
detention of Keur Hussein at Erzeroum, and being
ascribed to his intrigues, he was sent back again
as a prisoner to Stamboul. But he had not been
confined there long before he effected his escape, and
fled into Egypt. Here he lived some months on the bounty
of Mehemit Ali, and then returned by land through Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Kurdistan, towards his native country.
During his voyage there is scarce need to say that he set the
people's minds as much as possible against the government
of the Porte, and particularly the Tarzimat or modern
system, attempted but hitherto without effect, to be carried
out in the distant provinces. It is now about four months
since Keur Hussein arrived in Van, in which pro-
vince his exertions were attended with sufficient success
to alarm the government, and to put them upon extensive
preparations, to which I have before alluded, fur putting
down the spirit of disaffection. From Van he corresponded
with his adherents in Adler& ; and a portion of this corres-
pondence having been detected by Mr. Guaricino, the
English Consul at Batoum, and made known to Hahl Pacha,
Governor of Trebizond,the latter made some preparations for
meeting the threatened insurrection, although by no means
adequate to the occasion. At length Keur Hussein joined
his tribe, and putting himself at the head of all the moun-
taineers he could command, held himself in readiness to act.
Meantime Halil Pacha sent the rebel a message through his
Kisya, Ahmed Bey, offering to make him mutsellim of some
considerable place, if he would only keep quiet. Keur Hussein's
answer was characteristic, " Tell Bahl Pacha that lam up to
my nose in such offers from Pachas as he makes me now ; and
were I a riche I would never look at myself in a glass more."
Ahmed Bey then retired to Ardanond, with a hundre 1 men.
His place of retreat was immediately invested by Keur
Hussein, and after a siege of nine days he was obliged to
capitulate, and was allowed to retire to Batoum. In the
meantime a body of 6,000 irregular troops were, towards
the end of August, got together at different places in the
province of Trebizond, and directed, partly by sea and
partly by land, upon Batoum. The designation of irregular
is hardly strong enough to give an idea of the miserable
equipments of these row levies, composed of the very scum and
dregs of the pachalik. Their arms consisted of a carbine
about the length of the fore-arm, and a knife stuck in the
girdle. The food of the 4.000 that marched by land con-
sisted entirely of the maize that now stood nearly ripe here
and there in fields along the coast. The remaining 2,000
were brought over iu three steam voyages from Samsoun
and Trebizond. An idea may be given of the rawness of
these recruits by the fact of their firing ball.cartridges to
salute the son of a pacha on board one of the steamers, when
she came into Batoum ,to the no small consternation of he pas-
sengers, towards whom their pieces were directed. The barrels
of powder were stowed in a cafeneb, and the troops sat hard
by smoking their pipes. Before the arrival of the
troops which marched by land, Ahmed Bey, putting
himself at the head of the two thousand sent by sea,
marched out towards the valley of Adjara in quest of Keur
linen:in. He had crossed the lower bridge of the Tchorakh,
and was proceeding to re-cross the ricer by another bridge
some miles higher up, when Keur Hussein, descending from
the mountains by another path, came behind him, destroyed
the lower bridge of the Tchorukh, and thus cutting off his
retreat, attacked him in rear. By this means Ahmed Bey
was driven into the precipitous defile through which the
torrent of the Adjara forces its course. The hostile popula-
tion assembled on the heights, rolled down stones upon his
pent-up and frightened soldiers, while Keur Hussein, ad-
vancing over the upper bridge, charged them fiercely in the
rear. The upshot of the affair was the total defeat, and
nearly total destruction of the troops; but by far the greatest
part of the loss was occasioned by the stones. Ahmed Bey,
with a remnant of his discomfited soldiers, escaped to Khoppa.
Keur Hussein dots not seem to have followed up this first
success by any vigorous measure. He neglected to make
himself master of the powder at Batoum ; which would have
been of the utmost service to him, as it was simply by his
want of ammunition that he was in the end beaten. The
remaining four thousand troops that marched by land
were headed by Kiaya-oghlon Emir aga, mutsellim
of Tiriboli, a man notoriously cruel. Uni:ing his
forces with the remnant of Ahmed Bey, he marched
against Keur Hussein, and succeeded in completely defeat-
ing him. But no sooner was he master of the c iuntry, than
he swept it clean with fire and sword ; and, not content with
mere destruction, he glutted his savage nature with the most
revolting excesses. Out of a great number of prisoner', only
30 were spared; and these simply because they seemed stout
young men, fit for making soldiers of. The rest had their
noses and eras cut off and were otherwise mutilated before
being put to death. Some were nailed up to trees, to sari e
for marks to the soldiers, and others torn asunder. Every
house that he could meet with he ordered to be burned to
the ground. So that, at present, Adore is a desert. Mean-
while, the papers of Constantinople announce. with much
complacency, that the disturbed district has been completely
pacified. So/due-lir:cm prima :
.farens appellont. But it is
not by unloosing such hell-hounds as Kinyaoghlon upon
a mutinous population, that any other quiet than the quiet
of complete desolation is effected. No sooner des the
mowed down people grow again, than they hate their cruel
(oppressors worse than ever; and, Tenting curses not loud
but deep, are banded together more strongly than ever in a
fierce, sullen, and secret determination to resist the wi,l of
the supreme government.
Rebellion loses its criminality under an oppressive govern-
ment; and the mixture of cruelty in the punishment
awarded to the rebellions bee-nines then especially odious.
The greater part of the troops employed on this expedition
have returned to Trebisand. Their lose amounted to some-
what more than 2,000 ; 300 of them perished by fever con-
tracted in the unwholesome air of Batoura. by
regular
troops, about 2,000, that were sent from Constantinople
under the command of Omar Pasha, have never moved from
their encampment outside the walls of Trebisond. Dur-
ing the winter they will go into barracks. In the spring,
the opposition which is everywhere manifested by the inha-
bitants of this province and of Eastern Turkey in general,
against the tanzimat, which the government has resolved on
enforcing, will no doubt call them into action. It may be
worth while to inquire into the reason of this objection on
the part of the people a system devised fur their better
government. The solution may perhaps be found in this.
The taxes imposed by the tanzimat are heavy, altkough
they have the advantage of being few and fixed. But while
the tithe and house-tax of the tanzimat arc levied by the
tax-gatherer of the Sultan, the innumerable exactions of the
local governors which are all abolished by the tanzimat,
continue to be imposed upon the people, while the
ventral government is impotent to afford them protection
against this iniquitous system of plunder. The consequence
is they are ground on both checks; and it may truly be said,
to the bone. The heaviness of the sahlian or house tax may
be gathered, from the fact that an impost of 200 piastres
(nearly 2/.) is levied on the meanest dwelling. Besides these
two burdens of the sahlian and onbelik, or tithe upon all
produce, there are heavy excise duties called iktissab, levied
upon all articles of consumption. Another feature in the
tanzimat highly objectionable to the people is the conscrip-
tion. At present the main hardship of the conscription is
done away with by the soldier's discharge after five years'
service. But as this reform has only just come into opera-
tion, the inexperienced people regard the conscription with
the same horror as when the soldier's enlistment was for
life. Under the tanzimat the pashas are paid fixed salaries
by the government, and they have no right to impose any
tax whatever upon the people. The tanzimat also abolishes
their power over the lives of the Sultan's subjects. If the
people could be protected by the central government against
their pitches, no doubt the establishment of the tanzimat,
would improve their condition. But it may be questioned
whether this protection can be ever made effectual in an
empire so extensive, so badly furnished with means of com-
munication, and so subject to revolt as Turkey. The only
hope far the people lies in the education and moral advance-
ment of the class from which their governors are selected.
With respect to the military movement that is expected to
be made in the spring for the enforcement of the tanzimat,
it seems very likely to assume the shape of a sanguinary coer-
cion, which will only depopulate and desolate the districts
intended to be improved. It would be condemning the
government prematurely to suppose that it does not intend
to curb the rapacity of the inches as much as possible at the
same time that it enforces its system. But it would do well
to begin by exacting obedience from the highest first, and
conciliating the goodwill of the people by an impartisi dis-
tribution of justice, and care for their present welfare, instead
of goading them into rebellion by the arbitrary and sudden
enforcement of a system fraught to them with terrors, whe-
ther real or imaginary matters little. I may add that it is
suspected by such as are familiar with the Turkish modus
agendi, that the commissioner whom they talk of sending
into Kurdistan, previous to the employment of military force,
is designed rather to lull the people into a kind of false secu-
rity, than to make any genuine inquiry into their grievances.
Keur Hussein, since his disappearance after the defeat he
suffered, has cot been found. He is supposed to be still in
the neighbourhood of Adjara, whose inaccessible forests
have more than once sheltered him against the pursuit °this
enemies. . _

The Sultan bas sent a sabre to Ham Pasha, as a token of
his satisfactior, at the suppression of the rebellion. It were
to be wished that His Highness had accompanied this gift
with a bows tring for Kiayaoglon.