The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-13 00:00:00

A TURILISII COVIIT-.UARTIAL.

In the Turkish camp at Bosnia, " in a large marquee,
we found twelve field officers with the mufti, or doctor of
Mahometan law, seated on two lines of divans, at the upper
aids of which were the places of the two majorsigeneral,
Arab Ahmed Peel& and Mustapha Pasha, and near them,
two clerks, to record the proceedings. When we had all
eat down, for the officers rose to receive us, pipes, aarghiles,
and coffee were brought, and the day's work commenced,
Osman Aga having taken his stand behind me to explain
what was going on. The court was commissioned to
examine and class the prisoners, with the power of acquit-'
ring these it found innocent, but not possessing that of con-
demning the guilty, who were to be finally jadeed
by Omar Pasha and Ilaireddin Pasha, with several sr
tenpin. Five of the accused had been selected te
undergo this investigation of their culpability. The
first was a vary tall and thin old man, of a cringing and
sinister aspect. He had been a schoolmaster, and he was
charged with having written the cnresponchnise kept
up between some of the rebel chiefs. He pleaded guilty to
having inditcd the letters, but he denied that he had at the
time any knowledge of their real purport. The tenor of
them, and his evident acuteness, completely refuted this
plea; and he was duly committed for trial by the higher
court. The next prisoner was also an old man, with a long
white beard, who had been one of the principal instigators
and directors of the insurrection in Turkish Croatia, and
who was, apparently, • cunning old fox. His name was
Abdullah Aga, the servant of God. He asserted that he
bad not been present at any of the engagements, and he
succeeded in substantiating his assertion by calling wit-
nesses from among those arrested, who all deposed in his
favour; but there was too strong an appearance of his
having deeply implicated to admit of his acquittal. A
suggested itself to Ahmed Pasha; he ordered
Vika obi masa should remain in the teat during the
bid of Ike others. Two young men were then brought in,
chained together. The first pleaded an alibi, which was
weakly watingh supported; but the case against him was
t sot a and the court decided that his chains should be
struck a. psi him a certificate of dismisaal to prevent his
being ted by the police, and set him free. The poor
man almost lost his wits with joy. He fell on his knees,
and kissed the ground at the teat of the two pachas. It
was a remarkable fact, and a fact that is most eloquent in
favour of the spirit now existing amongst the Turks, that
this man was a Christian, while those I saw committed for
trial were Mahometans. The other young man was a

handsome youth, probably not more thin sititeen or seven-
teen years of age. He was accused of having led the rebels
of his district, 300 in number, and of having fought with
great saves' in several battles. He refused to make any
answer to the questions put to him. Ahmed Pasha
then addressed the old man whom he had ordered to
remain, and who now tell completely into the snare,
in spite of all his cunning ; for he supposed that he
was forgiven, and wished to show his gratitude by zeal for
the government. He replied to Ahmed Pasha that the
youth was the well-known Hassan Bey, who had contributed
more towards the active sustaining of the insurrection than ,
any of the other chiefs. The lad looked astonished at this
decuaciation ; but it made him speak at last, and to the
purpose. ' Yes,' he said, 'I am Hassan Bey ; I was a chief;
and I did what I could against the government. I am
ready to hear my sentence ; but not alone. Who made me
• chief ? You, AbduUah Aga! You came to my house
when my father had been killed at Vutshiak, and you per-
suaded me to take his place. My mother refused to let me
go, and you told her that without me the men of the district
would disband. I went, but you did not. You sent us
young men, who believed your words, and you remained in
your house. Pasha, I am guilty!'—' Tahodjuk." said
Ahmed Puha. ' Child ! our Padishah will, I hope, be
merciful to your youth, and we will recommend you for
mercy. As for this old traitor, he shall be sent to answer
for having misled you and others.' "—From Frontier Lands
of the Christian and the Turk.

Mr. E. M. WARD has received authoritysfrom her
Majesty's Fine Arts Commissioners to commence at once on
• second illustration of English history, for the new Houses
of Parliament, as a companion to the " Execution of Mont-
rose,"—at present one of the leading attractions of the
Royal Academy Exhibition,—and now, we are glad tO
learn, about to be engraved in a size commemorate with
its merits. The story which Mr. Ward is to tell on canvass
is known among artists as " The Sleep of Argyll." It has
been painted before. The story rests on the authority of
Wodrow and has been copied and commented upon most
beautifully by Fox, in his noble fragment of English his-
tory. Mr. Ward's hero is the Argyll who was executed
early in the reign of James the Second ; and the incident
which he has to paint is, when briefly told, the touching
circumstance of his being foetid in his cell only a few hours
before his execution, sleeping in all the innocent repose of
childhood. He was found then tranquil by the lord of the
council, and one who was said to have been (though his
name is unknown) an active and not over-scrupulous enemy
against him. The scene made a strong impression on the
person by whom it was witnessed, and the incident is one
full, as Brown the gardeaer would have said, of many
" capabilities."—Athnirom.

CAsE INVOLVING A NICE POINT OF LAW, as'
affecting conventual life, bee been for some time before the
Irish Court of Chancery, the judgment of which has been
looked for with no ordinary interest by the Roman catholic
public. It was a petition presented on behalf of Miss E.
Blake, a professed nun in the convent of Loretto, Rath-
farriham, and sister of the late hie. Blake, Q.C. Mr. Blake
having diid intestate, Miss Blake, the petitioner, seeks that
an account be taken of the real and personal property of her
deceased brother, and that the property, when its amount
shall be ascertained, shall be equally distributed between the
petitioner and her sister, the oth icing representative.
The question now before the court was whether the peti-
tioner, being a profeued nun and a member of a monastic
order of the catholic church, should, or should not, be
considered in law civilly defunct and incapable of being an
inheritress of property. A prodigious bar was arrayed at
each side, and the arguments pro and con. occupied two
whole days. The Chancellor having at very great length
referred to several of the old authorities, concluded his
judgment by giving it as his opipion that, considering the
legislation in modern times, he could not hold a nun to be
legally dead, but expressed a hope that the question, which
he said was a most serious and important one, should be
brought for final adjudication to the House of Lords, so as
to have the law settled for the future. Judgment for the
petitioner. It ie stated there will be an appeal to the Hoses
of Lath.