The Express.
London, England, 1856-12-26 00:00:00

TURKEY AND THE BLACK SEA.

(71101 K AN OCCASIONAL COHMESPONDINT.)

CONSTANTINOPLE, Dec. 15.
The captain of a brig, who has arrived here from
the Sea of Azad', informs ma that *ince peace was.
concluded, bez.wetn that date and the month of
October lest, at least a million and a halt clatverts of
grain (100 chelverts are equal to Lbout iJ itnprisl
quarters) have been conveyed in above one thousand
vessels from the port of Tag...nrog alone. The prices,
which began after the peeve, in the mouth of May, at
23 rubles (sseigoate) per chetvert, have now risen to
Sl roubles 60 kopecks par chetvrrt ; so that many of
the speculators hare had to sacrifice immcnse sun sof
money in order to tulfil their contrnts.
The company of Boubi and CJ., at Timing,
which is connected with shareholders all civet Russia,
has undertaken grata speculations on a very wen.
sive scale. Flat-bottom.-d iron steamboats have been
built by this company for the transport of grain upon
the Volga and othir 'mere in the interior. These
undertakings, together with the iotroduc ion of the
forty steam vessels said • o have bra purchased for the
navigation of the Black Sea, will probably result in
a state of things which will not suit the calculations
of some of the geatntrade speculators.

The scheme which has just been propose] by the
Porte for a line of raiiw,.y between Varna i.tcl Rust-
chuk is of the more importance upon this account;
for when once the easy usk of competing that line
of communication shim have been accomplished, end
when the grain and (Jitter products of the rich soil
of Moldavia and Wall .chia shall no longer he obliged
to be brought through the difficult passage of the
Salina mouth of the D-uube, but may be carried by
railway to Verne, it is evident that all purchases of
that kind will be more profitably made at Varna than
at any of the Russian ports either of the Black Sea
or the Sea of Azoff. _ _ _

Besides this railway, the plans of five other lines
of railway have &co laid before the Turk; govern-
ment for its approval.
The first of them is a line from Scutari to Alex-
endretts, the length of which is 930 kilometres.
The second proposed line is from A lexandretta and
&kiwis to the Euphrates, the length of it being 270
kilometre..

The third line is from Balis to Bagdad, the distance
being 770 kilometres.
The fourth line is from Bigdad to Bream, a
distance of 660 kilometres.

The fifth project is for a railway from Constanti-
nople to Belgrade, the length of which would be 720
kilometres.

These are magnificent schema indeed; but
whether capitalirs will be found to perform these
gigantic works it remains for the future to prove.
From Yenikale, where the captain of this brig
stopped and landed to get provisions, he brings word
the the Russians are proceeding with two great
works of fortification there; one of them being
erected upon the Asiatic promontory of Tchetchne,
and the other fortiticatinn near Yenikale, eccatructed
in such a manner that they will be able to close up
the two channels which form the entrance to the Sea
of Azoff.

Twenty thousand RuHan troops have been col-
lected, to ha sent to join the army of the etlllCailli.
According to the information received here, great
activity is now prevailing amongst the Russian troops
in Georgia, and the Russian army has now taken up
its position en echelon from Baku to Erivan, and all
along the neighbourhood of the Persian frontier.
A meeting of the Grand Council was held here to-
day, and lasted until night. Omer Pacha was sent
for, and called away from the theatre to attend the
council. It appears that the matter under discussion
was to determine whether it be expedient to allow
the English to occupy a merely strategic point upon
Turkish ground, for the coovenienca of their opera-
tions against Persia; but as the Persian minister
declared that Persia would regard any point thus
occupied as hostile ground, and would act accordingly,
it is very probable that Turkey will decline to grant
the English government this favour.
Dr. Pompeeti, on his road hither from Kars, met
several people, Frenchmen and others, who were in
the Persian cervice, on their way to Teheran. In this
city, too, we often see Poles and Italians going about
with Persian officers, and conversing with them very
familiarly; but I believe that none of them have yet
entered the Persian service, though several of them
intend to do so.
The ignorance of a rich Armenian, who suspended
from his ceiling such an enormous chandelier, that the
concentrated heat of the candles set tire to the wooden
ceiling, which was decorated with oil paintings, has
just caused the destruction of his own house, and
nearly one hundred other houses of his neighbours,
in the Run Kapu quarter of this city.
The same night, lieu Ajnali Tchetsme, a wealthy
Greek was caught in the very act of placing combus-
tibles at the foundation of a house. Cotortunately
he ia under Aurigae protection, and will therefore be
handed over, in any case, at the reqeeet of the
Russian embsesy. This is the fatal pesiticn in which
the Turkish government is placed—that it is unable
to execute justice upon etimicale who claim to belong
to other nations.
To put a stop to the murders and robberies which
have now become so frequent, the Turkish govern-
,ment has appointed military p. troll to aid in
strengthening the heeds of the police, cot only in
Pere and Galata, but also in the surrounding dis-
tricts, where robbery and murder have got so com-
mon that nobody dares to go out in the streets of an
evening. The French captain of gendarmerie re-
turns to France to-day since the Turkish gendarmerie,
projected by Omer Peas, and settled in a quasi
organisation six months ago, her not been called
into actual being. It is a pity that the
government does not organise a rural
police system, since even if the military patrols do
keep order a little in the streets, it is unsafe to go
for only a mile distance out of town. To-day some
of the thieves at Arnautkir made their way into the
palace of Mr. Wildeobruck, and stole whatever they
could get.
Yesterday a newly.built steam ship, a twodecker.
was to have been launched with great cere-
mony, and eight o'clock (Turkish time) was the
appointed hour; but unluckily it happened
that the ship presumed to break loose
as early as five o'clock, and thundered down the
slips into the harbour. It is very fortunate that no
one was killed by it. Mahmoud Ali Pada went
immediately to the Sultan to inform him of the
accident, but his Majesty came nevertheless tom a
visit to the steamship Tettige, and was loyally saluted
by the 103 guns with which she is armed.
It seems as though a divine curse lay heavy upon
the isles of the Archipelago. The other night a
powder magazine at Larnacca, in the island of
Cyprus, was blown up, and many heal as well SI
habitations were destroyed by it.
The Journal de Constantinople announces the offi-
cial mediation of England to effect a reconciliation
between Abyssinia and Egypt.
The Presse d Orient e•atee that the Shah of Persia
is forced by the anti English petty to wage est,
that party having menaced him with a change of
dynasty and death should he hesitate to engage in
hostilities.
The Imaurn of Mame, in refusing to pay tribute
to Persia for his possessions in the Persian Gulf, in-
formed the Shah that he (the lmaum) considered him
merely as his spiritual bead.
Letters from Broome of the 10:h state that silk bad
risen considerably in price.