The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-15 00:00:00

provided him with serious occupation. The tribes that in-
habit the Oasis of the desert are under the authority of an
. Aga named by the Bey. This Aga was Farhat-ben-Said,
r a rich and enterprising man, to whom the Sheiks under his
orders were warmly attached. His influence disturbed the
; suspicious Achmet, who destituted him, and appointed his
• uncle, Ben Gannah, to succeed him. The tribes refused
I to recognise the new Aga, and had recourse to arms. Ach-
met was obliged to march against them in person, and to
participate in the successive victories and reverses which,
for a long time, occupied his undivided attention, and di-
verted him from his views on Bona—a city the possession
of which he had long anxiously desired, in order to establish
there a commercial emporium for the exportation of the ag-
ricultural production of the Beylik.
The inhabitants of Bona, dreading the domination of
Achmet, had repeatedly solicited the assistance of the
French ; and on two occasions—in 1830 and 1831—a tem-
porary occupation had taken place. At length Ben Aisha,
Kalifah of Achmet, succeeded in introducing hims Af:nto the
place. In 1832, as is well known, Bona fell definitively
into the power of the French, through the memorable bra-
very of the commanding officers, Armandy and Yussuf. Ben
Aisha destroyed the town, gave it up to plunder, set it on
fire, and carried away with him to Constantine nearly the
whole of the population. On the arrival of our troops to
take possession, the place offered the most deplorable spec-
tacle that can be imagined.
After the fall of Bona the atrocities and exactions of
Achmet raised a host of formidable chieftains against
him. In 1832, Farhat-ben-Said had invoked the assist-
ance of the French against the tyrant, and sent an embassy
to the Duke of Rovigo to promise him 'the support of all
the tribes under his command. The Prince of Turgurth.
the sheiks of Merjanah, of Hannasha, of the Oolad Maadi,
and of Hora, have, at different periods, offered to co-ope-
rate in the extermination of a man who has become an ob-
ject of universal execration. The envoys of Sheik Farhat
were received by the French authorities with marks of par-
ticular favour and distinction, and valuable presents were
bestowed on them ; but on their return they were attacked,
ill-treated, and completely stripped by the tribe of El
Oofiah, who had been excited by the emissaries of Achmet.
The severe vengeance which the Duke of Rovigo took of
this outrage is sufficiently known.
All negotiations entered into with Achmet have proved
ineffectual. That conducted by the Moor Hamdam, during
the administration of the Duke of Rovigo, led to no result.
Achmet at first consented to pay tribute, and to recognise
the sovereignty of France, on condition of being allowed to
establish a custom-house at Bona ; but shortly afterwards
he made fresh demands, and of so exorbitant a character
that it became necessary to renounce all hope of an ar-
rangement. Immediately after the rupture of the negotia-
tions, Hamden came to Paris, announced himself openly as
the agent of Achmet, and he has since assumed the same
title its his intercourse with the African Committee.
Hamden has had the command of large sums of money,
forwarded to him by certain merchants of Tunis, and, dur-
ing his sojourn at Paris, it is that a multitude of artful writ-
ings have appeared, intended to lead astray that public opi-
nion lately so enthusiastic in favour of Algiers.
It is very probable that Hamden has done all this, while
being in reality false to Achmet, and that his object in
trying to persuade France to abandon Algiers has been less
to serve the interests of Achmet than to substitute the au-
thority of the Moors for that of the French.
For a long time Achmet had looked with longing eyes on
Medeah, a place of some importance, as capital of the pro-
vince of Tittery, and more so on account of its position,
which commands both sides of the Atlas. The town was
garrisoned only by the inhabitants, and he hoped to obtain
possession of it without difficulty. The occupation of this
place would have doubled hii power, and placed him at the
very gates of Algiers ; but, on his march, he was attacked
by several tribes that lay in wait for him, completely de-
feated, and obliged to return precipitately to Constantine.
This defeat was a signal for a general revolt of the Arabs
against the sanguinary authority of the Bey, which he was
only by continued severity enabled to suppress. In August,
1835, on one. day, he took off seventy heads belonging to
the tribe of El Amamarah, guilty of disobedience to his
orders.
The anthority of Achmet is not recognised throughout
the whole province of Constantine ; it extends, in reality
only to the tribes within his immediate reach. The others
act in unison with him only in case of common danger.
Achmet has forbidden the Arabs, on pain of death, to
sell their produce to us, so that the whole trade of the rich
province passes now to Tunis. He has agents at Tunis, at
Tripoli, at Cairo, and at Constantinople. His perseverance
in a struggle against a powerful nation has rendered him an
object of admiration to those of his own religion, who sup-
port him with their prayers and their secret succours. He
is known have offered to place himself under the sove-
reignty of the Ottoman Porte, and to pay a considerable
tribute to the Sultan. These negotiations, it seems, fur-
nished a pretext to the Porte to demand an indemnity for
the loss of its rights of sovereignty over the regency.
Volumptuous to the extreme, notwithstanding his ad-
vanced age, and not more rich than avaricious, his insa-
tiable cupidity and desire find continual aliment in the
women and treasures of his subjects. His varied acts of
violence have reduced a multitude of the inhabitants of
Constantine to seek safety in flight. Acts of the most re-
volting atrocity are attributed to him, and he' has crowned
his crimes by the assassination of his uncle and benefactor
Ben Gannah, who had sheltered his infancy and preserved
his life. Public opinion attributed this murder to a desise
to obtain possession of the immense fortune of the deceased.
But among all the atrocities which stain the character of
this barbarian, he is known to possess one quality, the
more commendable as it is one of rare occurrence among
the Arabs, namely, a faithful observance of a promise once
made. On this point his reputation is firmly established.
In IS3O, Hussein Dey said to General Bourinont, " If
Achmet engages to submit to you, you may repose yourself
confidently on his word ; he has never been known to
break it."
It is difficult to know his exact age, this being a point on
which an Arab is himself seldom very correctly informed.
Achmet appears to be between fifty and sixty ; his physioe-
'
nomy does not bear the impression of the ferocity of his
mind ; his features are animated, and full of intelligence ;
he is below the average height, but well formed and active,
and speaks with great volubility, a circumstance of rare oc- .
currence among the Arabs, who usually affect a grave and
pompous diction.
When our troops advanced against Constantine he sent
his treasures, his harem, and even his furniture into the de-
sert ; he even quitted the town himself, leaving to hls
Ben Aisha, the care of defending it. Nor on our retreat
did he pursue us in person ; but, on his return to Constan-
tine, he put to death eight members of the Council who
had shown themselves most favourable to a capitulation.—
ilforning Post.

Many of the Roman physicians having refused to
attend cholera patients, the Government has issued a no-
tice, that all medical men withholding their assistance on
the present occasion will be disqualified from practising
hereafter. The Jesuits and Capuchins appear to be the
most zealous of all the monks in their attendance on the sick.
The schools and courts of law are all shut, and the general
appearance of Rome, according to the latest accounts, was
becoming every day more gloomy.
TOBACCO.—It is a remarkable instance of the per-
versity of the human will when left to itself, that while
coffee, with all its singular powers of cheering the mind
and refreshing the nerves, took nearly four hundred years
to make itself known in Europe ; and while the potatoe is
scarcely more than coming into use in a large portion of
the Continent, tobacco took little more than halt a dozen
years to be known as far as ships could carry it ; that it is
now the favourite filth of every savage lip within the cir-
cumference of the globe ; that it fills the atmosphere of the
continent with a perpetual stench ; that the Spaniard sucks
it, as he says, for the heat—the Dutchman for the cold
the Frenchman because he has nothing else to do—the
German because he will do nothing else—the London ap-
prentice because " it makes him look like a gentleman ;.'
and all because it is in its own nature the filthiest, most
foolish, dullest, and most disgusting practice oa the face of
the earth.—Blackwood's Magazine.
A camp meeting of Primitive Methodists, or Ranters,
was held on Canwick Common, Lincolnshire, on Sunday.
At nine o'clock the leaders started from the chapel in Mint-
lane, and went singing and praying through the streets,
attracting, of course, universal observation, but gaining no
accession to their numbers till they arrived on the Common,
where, in the course of the day, they were joined by about
a hundred " sisters and " brethren." Some one or other of
the members prayed, sung, and preached alternately, under
the direction of a man dressed like a farmer. An old wo-
man held forth in prayer several times, and a tniddle-aged
respectably dressed woman preached a short sermon. The
elderly woman put herself in the most violent contortions of
limb and feature, observing that it was hard work preaching
in the open air, but that the Lord was present to help them.
~The " camp" broke up about 5 o'clock ; and the " brethren"
and "sisters" afterwards adjourned to a love-feast.—Lin-
coin Gazette.