The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-01 00:00:00

SYRIA.

BEYROUT, Dz 0.29, 1852.
The following is the summary of intelligence re-
ceived from time to time from the province of Da-
mascus, where, as here, the hostile attitude 01 the
inhabitants of the Hawaii district continues to rivet
public attention. Mr. Wood's and Said Hey Djon-
heist's joint mission to these insubordinate people
was mentioned in a former letter. The result has

scarcely realised either the hopes or the expectations
entertained; for their mediation, after the recent
advantages gained by the insurgents, proved to be of
little avail. They, however, succeeded in other mat-
ters of minor importance, but of no less public
utility, as they were not only able to liner- ,
tain more correctly and positively the actual position
of affairs there, but induced the Druses to cease their
acts of brigandage ; this has had the effect of restor-
ing the country to comparative tranquillity, re-open-
ing communications, and causing a feeling of greater
security to prevail. Said Bey is now in Danielsen..
He only ventured to repair thither under the moral
guarantee of Mr. Wood ; the nature of his past
relations with the Turkish government was such
that he had hitherto deemed it most prudent not to
accede to the repeated invitations of the various
high funciLmaries of the Porte to visit either
Damascus or Beyrout. He, ilinVC:Vr, consented to ,
accompany Mr. Wood, the British Consul of Damns-
ass, to the revolted district, and shared with him
all the difficulties and dangers of a negotiation with
a wild and turbulent people whom lute success had
Inflated with extraordinary pretensions. It was not
so much in treating with the chiefs of the insurgents
that the voluntary pacificator met with opposition,
sae was it entirely with a Drage sect that they
had to deal. The Sheikhs, however well disposed,
lay at the mercy of their less reasonable subordi-
nates, whilst the influence of both the consul and
the Bey was lost upon the disaffected Mahomedans
who keep in check the Draws who had sought their
alliance in the first instance. After several days of
fruitless conferences, exhortations, and expostulations
Mr. Wood and Said Bey were obliged to suspend
their operation and return to Damascus, to explain
to the Turkish General-in Chief the impossibility of
any immediate settlement being come to. Said Bey
was received by Mehmed Pecha with every mark of
distinction and is still, with all his large suite, the
guest of His Excellency. Negotiations were re-
sumed by letters, but the insurgents in reply only
expressed their determination not to concede the
points in dispute. The grievances, objections, and
demands of the Hauranese may be summed
up in a few words. They object to furnish
their contingent to the standing army of the Sultan,
on the ground that as far as they arc concerned they
have never experienced the benefit of military pro-
tection from the inroads of the marauding Arabs.
Their repugnance also to military duty is owing to
their love of liberty and the armor pair re which is so
strong in them. They refuse to send their children
to be the companions of a dissolute soldiery whose
gross and brutal vices shocked them more than any-
thing else during the late war. They demand that
their borders be guarded by an efficient and active
military force to keep off the Arabs, because they
observe, it is not just that for every two piastres
of taxes which they pay to the govern-
ment, three piastres more should be forcibly
levied from them by the Bedouins. They offer
in place of conscripts ,to pay additional taxes ; and
insist upon a firman being granted to them, the
chief feature of which is to be exemption from the
conscription. It is further asserted that they will
only return to their allegiance when the faithful
observance of such a firman shall have been formally
guaranteed by the British government. This last
condition is the greatest stumbling block to any
visible settlement of affairs. The Porte, in any
ass, could never submit to be dictated to by her
own subjects in arms—it would be too humiliating,
and would besides destroy at a blow that authority
which it is her aim to recover and to establish on
firmer bases. The other alternative, of a renewal of
hostilities, threatens to be quite as disastrous. The
country, already in a declining state, would be corn.
pletely destroyed—the large army required to reduce
the rebellious to obedience would find that when it
obtained the victory it had conquered a heap of
,desolate ruins.
In the meantime the activity of the traffic between
this port and the interior has been resumed. Beyrout
continues to be a rising place, owing to the
presence of an ever-increasing European population,
whose enterprise and industry do more towards
civilisation than anything else. The natives, in
self-defence, are obliged to emulate their example.
The good people of our town were lately thrown
into some co motion by the appearance of Iwo French
steam frigates within a few days of each other. The
one bad on board an attache of the French embassy,
on his way to Jerusalem, and steamed off for Jaffa
after holding some communication with the consul-
general of that nation. The excitable Bcyroutines
looked upon this as a demonstration portending war
in reference to the dispute about the Holy Places.
The other steamer is to be stationed on the coast,
and it would be well if an English man-of-war
showed itself here now and then. Emir Effendi's
arrival from the capital has also attracted some no-
tice. He is entrusted with various missions, all de-
signed for the good of the country ; namely—the in-
vestigation into certain abuses of protection afforded
by some of the unsalaried foreign agents to rajahs of
the Porte; the equalisation of taxes amongst the
native population ; the sale of the government waste
lands ; • the commutation of the tax called Virgou,
hitherto imposed upon individuals, and its
transfer to landed property ; and finally, Emir
Effendi is said to be instructed to ascertain by
what means the works upon the proposed carriage
road from this place to Damascus can best be per-
formed. The want of such a road has long been felt,
and it is to be hoped that the project will not be
allowed to fall to the ground. European capitalists
would find a safe investment for their capital in such 1
an undertaking ; cash is all that is required to set the
work a-going. Surely the correspondent of one of
the German papers was in joke when, lately, he de-
liberately informed the public that, in consequence
of the Dense disturbances, the railway communica-
tions between Beyrout and Damascus were inter-
rupted. The bleeding backs of the mules and asses
who now do duty until steam power relieves them,
testify to the absurdity and incorrectness of such a
statement.
The Turkish post from Damascus, arrived this
morning, brings intelligence of an instance of Drums
vengeance having been wreaked on the Kurdish ir-
regulars—the consequence of the bloodspilliog men-
tioned above. A party of Druses felt in with a de-
tachment of these irregulars—or bashibozotik, as they
are called—and immediately fought them, killing
the son of the commander and five or six others. This
encounter took place at a short distance from the
city, and is, there is great reason to fear, only the
commencement of a series of bloody reprisals and
feuds which it will be difficult to extinguish. An
extraordinary Tatar messenger had passed through
Damascus, on his way from the capital to Jerusalem,
and was the bearer, it is said, of a new firman, an-
nulling the one recently granted to the French, and
which had been sent to the Holy City in charge of an
attache. This would indicate fresh, and possibly very
serious, complications of the question which is being
battled out at Constantinople between the French
and the Russian governments.

THE BELLE HeNairrn.—An application was
recently made to the Civil Tribunal for authority to expel
an old woman named lienriette from an apartment on the
fifth story of a house in the Rue Popincourt, which she
pertinaciously refused to quit, though she was unable to
pay any rent, and had no furniture of sufficient value to
guarantee it. The tribunal granted the demand. About
thirty years ago this woman, it was stated, was one of the
most dashing courtesans of Paris. She had a fine house,
kept carriages and horses, lived in splendid style, and spent
enormous sums over her toilette. She was then known as
the " Belle Henriette," and never drove out without
seeing • number of the most fashionable dandies of
Paris gallopping by her carriage side. For some
years gold literally poured in upon her, but her extrava-
gance was so fearful that she spent every farthing. It is
related of her that she one day gave a grand dinner to •
large party, and caused bonbons wrapped in bank notes to
be presentekto each guest ; and as the guests refused to
take the notes, she collected them and threw them into the
fire. In time her beauty faded, and the consequence was
that her admirers fell oft, and her fortune diminished. She
then had to sell by degrees her jewels and other valuable
property, and when the money obtained therefrom wee
exhausted, she sold all she had. She afterwards fell lower
and lower ; until at last she was reduced to such a state of
dreadful destitution that she could only wear rage, and was
glad to earn a few pence by acting as charwoman.
A GENERAL CAB FARE.—A mode of making
cabriolets less objectionable vehicles in Leaden would be
ti limit the charge (within a certain eisele, as in Paris) to
one chilling only for two persons, and sixpence far every
extra person or luggage. The operation would be similer
to the penny postage, depend upon it, fur many would pie
fee this to an omnibus for cheapness—and many more,
when they knew at once what they had to pay. Thus the
cab would be kept generally employed, even in fine
weather, instead of standing half a day idling. For clean-
'. Leese and civility the name and number of the proprietor,
' I large inside, would prove partly, if not quite, effective.—
' Builder.