The Express.
London, England, 1856-10-30 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

MOM OM OWN 001LINIPONDINT.)
-PARIS, WIIDNISDAT ETNNINO.

A sharp telegraphic warfare Is going on between
the seml-offiolal journals of Vienna and Paris, the
former continuing to meet that the Porte has not
demanded the immediate evacuation of the Principa-
lities, the latter maintaining the contrary. The
Pays of this evening reargues the question, bat in
terms which seem to me to betray a misgiving lest
M. Thoneesel should have reckoned his chickens
before they were hatched, and that the next mail
from Constantinople may show that whatever may be
the history of the late ministerial crisis the Porte has
not definitively wanted the attitude towards En-
gland and Austria which the French journals repre-
sent. The Pays oonfeesse itself puzzled to amount for
the positive denials which it has encountered both at
Vienna and London, and is driven to suggest that
perhaps no official notification may have yet been
made of the repolutions which it persists in asserting
have really been ems to by the Porte. The Otto-
man ministry, it says, was firmly resolved to close
the Straits on October 28. It may be that some
such resolution has been expensed to the French
minister at Constantinople, but since it is quite
certain that the English fleet did not leave
the Black Sea on that day, and that it is
not going to leave just yet, I apprehend that the
Ottoman government will not be in a harry to clothe
with as Maoist character a demand which would not
be complied with. It does appear that the Austrian
eteKwition of the reinuipaituse, however objection-
able it was originally, rests upon the same reasons
upon which the English cabinet justifies the pro-
longed presence of our ships in the Euzine, namely,
the tardinees of Russia to execute the treaty
of Paris, and the necessity of maintaining
a position which alone affords somethisg like
a material guarantee that the extremely modem
ate terms imposed upon Russia as the condition of
peace shall not be evaded. The Pays, like the other
government journals, tells foul of Lord Stratford do
Redcliffe, whom it stigmatises as an incurable
intriguer, but it skips over the fact that on
this occasion, at least, Lord de Redeliffe's policy is
entirely supported by the Cabinet of Londoo.
The Petrie also contains an attack upon Lord de
Bedell* and persisting as to the disputed point of
feet in its original statement, notwithstanding the
reiterated denials of the Austrian Correspondence, it
says :—" Doubt will be so longer possible when we
know all that took place in regard to the resignation
or the Ottoman ministry and its aebsequsat with-
drawal of that resignation. What we koova of the
setter alresdy authorises us to heist more, than ever
alma the sometime of the news leach we pub.
fished."
The Prom evidently feels greet doubt ahem the
version of the government jouraQs, sad observes that
it would be sere easy tit 'meantime if it were

not the fact that Aali Pacha, the head of the cabinet,
whoa maintenance in power is considered a triumph,
has shown himself on many oceseions since the treaty
of Paris a rather 'saline pardon of Austria, and more
particularly in regard to her position in the Princi-
ptlities. However, I have no doubt that to-morrow
the government writers will continue to speak in the
same strain u heretofore, and even probably with
more energy. They are instructed to Übe all the argu-
ment. which may be read in the Russian organs,
to insist upon the feet of commimions having
been appointed to settle boundaries, as a
reason why neither Austrian troops nor English
ships have any right to assume the office of guar.
diens of the provisions of the treaty, and to refer all
difficulties of interpretation to the limbo of a new
congress. In short, they are to represent Austria
and Ragland as guilty, by the auras which they
have decided to follow, of a flagrant violation of the
treaty of Paris.
The upward movement in the Rents yesterday
having been produced entirety by purchases to close
accounts' hee not been continued. To-day sales pre-
dominate', and the Rents fell 55c. for cash, and 45c.
for account, closing at 66fr. 50c. and 68fr. 450. Mo-
biller fell 40c. But little business was done in any
other securities, but the Orleans, Lyons, end Medi-
terranean Railways tell from 10fr. to 12fr., and the
other lines from 2fr. 50c. to sfr.

SYRIA.

BEYROUT, Ocr. 13.

Fearful words have been heard in the streets of
Beyrout during these last three day.. It was whis-
pered on Saturday, rumoured on Sunday, and talked
openly of to-day, that " the plague is at Damascus."
Those who know the Levant well are alone capable
of judging what a terror this sentence must cane, in
the minds of all men. Damascus is but 70 miles
from Berme. To establish a sanatory cordon be-
tween the two towns would be utterly impossible.
The so-called high road between them is so infa-
mously bad that the hundreds of mules which pass
weekly between the cities are taken by any mountain
path that is most convenient, or along which their
drivers have most friends. Thus there are not one, but
a dozen different roads from Damascus into this place.
In fast, the only effective quarantine we could by
any means establish here against Damsons would
be by keeping out of Beyrout all men, animals, pro-
visions, and merchandise that come to the town from
the Lebanon chain of mountains. This however
would hardly prove an effective quarantine, for those
who wished to evade the cordon would only have to
turn aside some twenty miles off, either to the north
or the south, and thus enter the town as if coming
from Tripoli or Sidon. In short, if any contagious
disease is prevalent at Damascus, it .ia pretty certain
to reach Beyrout in a week. The report was that
the animal caravan of pilgrims returning from
Mecca bad brought the plague with them,
and that while their camp was yet fourteen
days' distance from Damascus several hundred
individuals were dying every twenty-four hours.
The panic in Beyront was great, until some letters
describing the wmptems of the epidemic reached
town this morning, which shows that it is a
very severe form of dysentery, and not the plague
—nor anything like it—that is killing so many
psnoes amongst the many hundred pilgrims who
are returning from Mecca. As you may imagine,
not a soul his been taken ill in Damascus, and
therefore the minds of those at home who have friends
or relations in Syria and in Palestine may be per-
fectly at rest. I have myself read three letters from
the Pilgrim camp, and two others from Europeans at
Damascus, all of which describe the sickness as one
of violent purging, which ends by passing blood,
wsakeniog the sufferer, and killing him in four or five
days. The caravan first caught the malady at some
very brackish spring, in the desert, where, contrary to
custom, they encamped several days; and a total want
of nourishing food, of doctors, or medicine, united
with great fatigue and the usual apathy of Mussul-
mans, bas caused it to spread like wildese. But,
thank Heaven.-seer old enemy the plague has not
again appeared amongst as.
Yesterday morning, about 2 a.m., we had two vary
severe shocks of earthquake here. The first lasted
nearly ten minutes, the latter about five. I live in
the upper part of a very solid•built stone house, three
times as large as a Belgrave-square mansion, and yet
the whole room and my bed—a very large one—
shook under me, as if the former was the cabin of a
small steamer in a storm, sad the latter a cabin with
only a plank between me and eternity. The whole
town was in an uproar with praying men and scream-
ing women, for there has been nothing of the kind on
this mat for the list twenty years. The Mahometan
and Christian natives alike say that this earthquake
is a sure sign that something terrible is going to
happen to the government of the Porte.
Kerim Pubs, who behaved so well at Bars under
Sir F. W. Williams, landed here last wsek from Con-
stantinople, and after a sojourn of some days, started
on his way to Damascus, the seat of his new govern.
ment. He te to be civil as well as military ruler of Syria.
He wu visited in state by M. de Lessen, the French
consul-general, accompanied by all the French sub-
jects and all the natives under French protection now
us Beyrout. Strange to say, the English consul-
general never thought it worth his while to corns
down from his country house—some three hours
off in Lebanon—to visit this noted general
of the Ottoman army. But, however sad
it may be to say so, the tact is patent to all, that
we English are daily losing our influence in Syria,
whilst the French are hourly increasing theirs. Why
don't you stir up the home government about our
Levant consular system, or rather about the men
employed as 000suls everywhere in the Eut ? Oor
consul here is a worthy and honourable gentleman,
but a most sleepy, apathetic man, who in sober
earnest does tithing. He comes down to the Coo-
sulate-oftios one day in woven during the hot weather,
whilst the representative of France is seen every-
where, does everything, and is called by the natives
the head Pasha of Syria. It was far otherwise when
Colonel (now Major-General) Rose we. consul-general
here. In those days we had the greatest possible in-
fluence all over the country; and amongst the Dress
inhabitants of Lebanon, English influence woe as
great an that of France among the Christians of the
same region, or that of Russia amongst the Greeks of
Constantinople. A Drum chief of the mountains
told me the other day that were it sot for the Eng-
lish merchants of Beyront all hie tribe would at once
put themselves under French protection. "If we
go to see the English emend at his offloe," said he,
•• we either find he is not there, or are kept waiting
in an outer room ; and if we go to his country house,
we are told that he does no business there, but will
be in town next Monday." "In fact you appear to
have," he continued, " no wish to stand well with us.
Whereas, the Maronite Christian chiefs, when they
go to see M. de Leneps (the French consul), can
always see him and are at once received with
honour."

No later than three days ago the Turkish soldiers
passing through here on their way to Damascus,
seized amongst other beasts el burden a mule belong-
ing to an English silk factory in the mountains. The
muleteer not being able to get up to see his own
master at the factory, complained to an English mer-
chant of this town. That gentleman sent to the
English Consulate for redress, but although only
three o'clock the office was abut up. The merchant
sent hie own man with a civil message to the Pacha
of &Trout (a very worthy man indeed), and the mule
was at once given up. Is it the intention of Lord
Clarendon that in this land every Englishman
should be is own consul ? If so, let us kno e.

•
It has been my fate to travel in many parts and to
see many lands, but I never yet witnessed so decided
an improvement or so steady progress in advance-
' sent es Is made year by yeu, almost month by
month, in Beyrout.

The Animal de Ratufort says that the article in
thi Paris Morsitarr relative to Naples peons otos non
"that ths Emperor Napol•oti ought to be regarded as the
spirit of the sew holy anises., &stilted to wet& enr pie•
paa sad sidling's, Wed spa 091111.1Vatir4 sal *lda.,