The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-16 00:00:00

CONSTANTINOPLE.

We extract the following from a Constantinople
letter of Aug. 3.—Sir Edmund Lyons came down
yesterday from the Black Sea, on board the Aga-
memnon, which cast anchor at Therapia, near the
palace of the British Embassy, on the Bosphorus.
The object of this visit is generally considered to be
to urge the Turkish authorities to hasten the com-
pletion of the preparations for the landing of troops,
87c., pontoons and other apparatus being con-
structed in the Turkish arsenal. The 4th Light
Dragoons have arrived, or board the Simla ; also
a detachment of Rifles ; and yesterday the Colombo
cast anchor, with the 20th regiment on board.
The cholera has also broken out in the English
camp. It has, however, somewhat abated.
At Varna it has been very bad—as many
as seventy deaths a day ; and the accounts
from Gallipoli are still worse. The war is
shoved pretty well into the background ; nothing
but the disease is talked of—a subject which inte-
rests people in common more nearly than the shots
that are being exchanged on the Danube. Constan-
tinople has as yet been but slightly visited by the
malady. A few cases have occurred amongst the
lower orders of Stamboul, and on the Bosphorus,
two or three at Galata, and one at Pera. We still
flatter ourselves that Constantinople will not be se-
verely visited by it, as it never was very severe. A
good many deaths have taken place at the French
hospital. Marshal St. Arnaud has been spending
a few days here. Madame St. Arnaud and a small
circle of French ladies are living at Yenikoi, on the
Bosphorus. A short time since the marshal's lady
expressed a wish to visit the Sultan's harem, and,
on its being made know to Abd-ul-Medjid, he
immediately appointed a day on which lie not
only would open his harem to her inspec-
tion, but on which he would be happy to
receive her and a few of her female friends in pri-
vate audience at the Imperial palace. On Monday
last Madame de St. Arnaud, the lady of General
Yussuf, and his mother, had an audience of the
Sultan at his palace of Tcheragan. Abd-ul-Medjid
conversed with the French ladies for upwards of a
quarter of an hour, and, on their taking leave, he ,
graciously presented each of them with a valuable
set of ornaments in brilliants. They were then
conducted to the Imperial harem, where an elegant
collation awaited them, the daughter of Karabet
Bey acting as interpreter, or female dragoman
—a very rare specimen of the tribe. The Turks
do not much like these visits of Giaour ladies
to the Padisha—they are unprecedented. They
ought, however, to reflect that so also are the
circumstances under which they have taken place.
All the engineer officers in the Turkish service
have been ordered to the Danube at the demand of
Omer Pa.cha, who is desirous of permanently forti-
fying the left banks of the Dannbe, and of increas-
ing the works already existing at Giurgevo, 01-
tenitza, and other places. This by no means looks
as if the Turks were at all willing to allow the
Austrians an exclusive occupation of Wallachia.
Dervish Paella, who has been appointed commis-
sary to join the Austrian army in Wallachia, and
to reinstate the hospodars, is still here, and there
is not any prospect of his leaving for some time to
come.

Uncertainty still seems to hover about the exact
time fixed upon for the expedition to the Crimea.
The sth of August is mentioned as the day for the
embarkation of the first troops at Varna. Persons
are, however, not wanting who speak of Anapa, on
the coast of Circassia, as the destination of those
forces. Wherever the troops may be sent, it will
be preferable to their remaining in their present
quarters, which are most unwholesome, and will,
with the increasing heat, daily become more so.
Devna is well known to be the most unhealthy,
swampy spot that could have been found, and yet
it was fixed upon for a British encampment.