The Express.
London, England, 1860-07-16 00:00:00

SYRIA.

RISING OF THE MOSLEM POPULATION
OF BEYROUT.
(now ova owx coaararcennarr.)
BEYRO duns 28.
My last letter was dated Saturday, the 23rd
instant, on which and the following day the Moslem
population of this town threatened to rise and
massacre the whole Christian population, whether
European or native. This fanatic excitement was
caused, as I then informed you, by the murder of a
Moslem by a Christian, on the early morning of
Saturday. Anything like the excitement that day
in Beyrout I never saw, not even in Affgbanistan,
where I was present during the Moslem outbreaks of
1840, both at Candahar and Gabel. Although there
were present in the roadstead an English line-of-bat-
tle ship, a large Russian and a larger French frigate,
besides two smaller English and three smaller
French men of war, the Moslems seemed deter-
mined to run a muck, and to shed all the Christian
blood they could. The French Consul-General bad
a sword drawn on him at the very gate of the
Seralio, or government house, on Saturday, as Oil
the first alarm he hurried off to confer with the
Turkish Governor for the safety of the place. An
English gentleman, riding down to the town some
hours later, bad a pistol snapped at him ; and on
Sunday, au English naval officer in uniform had a
pistol presented at his bead. Fortunately, the
Turkish troops which had just arrived from Con-
stantinople were commanded by a man of energy,
General Kmety, a Hungarian of Kars reputation.
More fortunately still we had an energetic man,
the English Consul-General, here, and he was well
and ably backed by Captain Paynter, of her Ma-
jesty's ship Exmouth. The native hristians put
DO faith whatever in the Turkish troops, for the
experience of the last thirty days has shown them
how both Ottoman soldiers and their leaders will
on all possible occasions betray and murder the
Christians they are called on to protect, However,
Kmety'a being a Christian produced considerable
confidence in the town ; and as the murderer of the
Moslem was caught, condemned, and executed by
sunset, the Moslems were in a great measure
calmed down by Saturday evening. All that night,
however, and all the next day and night, we were
living on a volcano, which might at any moment
break out. The panic was fearfuL All the native
Christians of the place either slept in the
various houses of the European residents
(under the impression that they would be safer
there than in their own places of residence), or else
on board boats and vessels in the harbour. The
local government was powerless, and although it
had more than 2,500 regular troops at its command,
and could at any moment have had 1,300 Europeans
landed from the ships of war, it allowed itself to be
dictated to the whole of Saturday by a fanatic
Moslem mob of not more than 400 persons. On
Sunday, as on the preceding day, whenever a
native Christian appeared armed, gun, sword,
and every weapon he had were aken from him by
the Turkish police; but not only were the Moslems
permitted to go about in armed bands, but they did
so shouting out that the time had now come
to murder every dog of a Christian. On both
Sunday and Monday, large bands of armed
Brumes, fresh from the massacre of whole Christian
villages in Lebanon, came into the town, and were
everywhere feted by the Moslems. Any Druse
who could show a gun that had killed a Christian
had the weapon ornamented with flowers by the
Moslems of Beyront. All this while the Turkish
authorities looked on and did nothing. In the
meantime her Britannic Majesty's ships Gannet
and Mohawk were busy running up and down to
, Sidon and to the Damoor river, bringing away
women, children, and a few men, who had escaped
from the butchery of the Druses in various vil-
lages. These two vessels saved no less than 2,200
poor creatures from starvation and worse than
death, on Saturday the 23rd, Sunday the 24th,
Monday the 25th, and Tuesday the 2Gth instant.
L From the gallant Commanders Lambert and West
to the youngest boy on board these ships
, the utmost kindness and humanity were
shown these poor unfortunate creatures. But
although a large Turkish line-of-battle ship
was here on the two first and at Sidon on the two
latter days, not a boat did she send, not an offer did
she make to save a single soul, nor have the
Turkish authorities in any way whatever helped
the hundreds of poor wounded and starving Chris-
tians that have been brought here. Ou the con-
trary, when the Mohawk was landing her cargo of
theme unfortunate creatures ou Saturday, the acting
governor of the town had the impertinence to re-
quest they might not be landed in Beyrout, for fear
of exciting the Moslems ; just as a bleeding sheep
must not be shown to a tiger ! This Captain
Poynter positively refused, and threatened to land
them under fire of the Exmouth's guns.

If any one doubts the truth of all I have stated
regarding the blood-thirsty murder of thousands
of Christians by the Druses, and of the pumper in
which the latter have been on all occasions helped
by the Turkish authorities, let some member
of either house call for copies of the British
Consul-General's despatches to the Foreign-office,
and those of the senor naval officer here to the
aLmiral at Malta. lam quite sure that if any
difference is found between my account of these
misdeeds and those furnialied by English officers,
the former will be found the milder of the two.
In the meantime a number of native Christians of
Beyrout, who can do so, have turned their merchan-
dise and jewels into money, and are taking passages
to Alexandria, Malta, and Corfu, or any plate
where they think their lives will be safe, which
they certainly are not under the Turkish govern-
ment. The screw steamers Arcadia and Tiber,
from Liverpool, arrived here two days ago,
but the consignees of the goods have landed only
a very small portion of them, preferring to send
them back to be stored at Malta, until the five
powers of Europe do something towards settling
thin unfortunate province. Manchester alone must
be a severe sufferer by these iniquitous acts of the
local government, for the trade of the place is now
at a stand-still.

The poor wounded women and children from
Deir el Kamer are on board the Exmouth, whore
the captain, officers, and doctor have afforded them
every assistance. The details of the fearful
slaughter which took place at the last-mentioned
town on the 18th inst. have reached me, but I have
not time to give them to-day.
All precautions have been taken for the safety of
the English inhabitants by Captain Paynter. The
boats of nls ship lie off the lauding place all night,
and on blue lights being burnt from the Consul-
General's house, under certain contingencies, the
marines and men will be permitted to land. But
there can be no doubt that in Syria we are on the
eve of great events ; and a small frigate or two,
with one or more gunboats, should be sent here,
else it will be utterly impossible to save the
Christians who may By for shelter to the towns on
the coast. French, English, and Russian vessels
have all more in band than they can manage.

VERICAN 1,241) CANADIAN MAMA.—The British
and North American Boyal Mail steamship Canada sailed
from Liverpool for Boston on Saturday with the North
American and United States mails and 100 passengers. On
Wednesday next the Quebec and Montreal Mail .Steamship
Company's steamer Bohemian will be despatched from the
Mersey for Quebec, with the Canadian and United States
mails. The box at the Liverpool post-office will be open
an that day for the receipt of letters till 9 u.m., and rid
Londonderry until 9.30 pin.