The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-29 00:00:00

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, OCT. s.—An English Cabinet mes-
senger, Mr. Bell, arrived here on Sunday with despatches
for Lord Ponsonby. In the very equivocal position he finds
himself, in consequence of Russian intrigues, these com-
munications from his Government must have relieved him
from much anxiety, particularly as it is positively asserted
their tenor is favourable, and approving highly of the steps
he had taken in the Churchill affair. It is understood that
another messenger is now on the road, with instructions for
his Lordship how the affair is to be finally adjusted. There
is another individual to whom there is little doubt this in-
telligence will be equally welcome : I mean the Minister of
the Interior, Pertef Pacha, whose zeal and integrity in
the cause of his country, and his honest espousal of
British interests, have drawn upon him the whole weight
of Russian resentment. M. Boutinieff is determined
to crush him if he can. Since the establishment of his
ascendancy over the Divan, by the expulsion of his
rival, Akif, the late Reis Effendi, more has been done
to counteract the machinations and overthrow the bane-
ful domination of Russia that has been effected since
the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. The whole army of Rus-
sian spies and agents, with Logothete at their head, has
been put to the rout, and expelled from the Palace and the
Porte—the money-changers driven from the temple. His
crowning measure with respect to the Greek Church must
have driven them to despair, and is no doubt in great
measure the secret motive of their late outrageous attack
upon him. To rescue that Church from their influence,
under which, with the assistance of Achmed Pacha and
the late Reis Effendi, they had contrived to place it, by
the nomination to the patriarchal chair of a creature of
their own, he has obtained the sanction of the Divan to
some organic changes which will render the Patriarch com-
paratively powerless. The whole authority of the church
will henceforth be vested in a synod, composed of six arch-
bishops and two counsellors, and in which the Patriarch
will only have a place as President. The Porte has re-
served a veto for itself in the election of these dignitaries,
and thus one of the most powerful levers on which Russia
calculated for the overthrow of the Government has
been literally broken into pieces, out of which she
will find it difficult to re-construct an effective instru-
ment for her purposes. So formidable an opponent to
her designs Russia is resolved to ruin, if possible ; and
taking advantage of the protracted silence of the English
Cabinet on the Churchill affair, M. Boutinieff has suc-
ceeded for a time in exasperating the Sultan against his
faithful Minister, by representing that the dismissal of the
Reis Effendi, at his recommendation, was a needless humi-
liation to the Porte. It is to be feared that the Sultan
has lent but too ready an ear to these representations, if we
may judge from an open manifestation of his sentiments
towards Akif Effendi, the discarded Minister, which oc-
curred on Friday last. One of his courtiers, Osman Bey,
was dispatched with presents to him, consisting of some
splendid brilliants, jewellery, &c., and was also commissioned
to convey to him the expression of the Sultan's esteem, and
hope that he would soon be enabled to avail himself of his
distinguished talents in a post where they would find a
fitting sphere of action. To these gracious marks of his
Highness's favour and condescension, Akif replied in a
strain of affected humility and philosophic resignation—
t!:at although he should deeply regret the quiet and seclu-
sion whose sweets he bad began so recently to taste, his
services were still, as they had always been, at his High-
ness's disposal. The Sultan's band of musicians, who had
accompanied his messenger, were then directed to regale
the cars of the ex-Minister with the most dulcet sym-
phonies, in which he no doubt detected above all " Hove's
delighted measure."
Mehemet Ali's superb steam-frigate the Nile, is now at
anchor near the arsenal. She has come for the purpose of
taking back to Alexandria the Paella's daughter-in-law, for
whom she also brings some thousand purses of piastres, as
presents from the Paella's harem. Dispatches from Col.
Campbell have also come by her for Lord Ponsonby. From
these it appears that the Colonel has succeeded in obtaining
the withdrawal of some commercial privileges, by which
Russia was exempted from the burdens and restrictions by
which our tariff and that of other nations are still shackled.
Now, as we had much to gain and Russia little to lose by
those commercial regulations, the most obvious as well as
the most rational plan would have been to have placed our
tariff on the same equitable and advantageous basis as that
enjoyed by Russia, rather than to have reduced hers to our
own, which is clearly against our treaties with the Porte,
whose , operation ought to extend to Egypt. This is
making bad worse ; and there is no doubt that Russia
willingly abandoned her exclusive rights, rather than
compromise the monopolising interests of her inalienable
ally Mehemet Ali. The extent of his services to her
has not yet been entirely brought to light. His en-
deavours to defeat the object of the British Govern-
ment in the navigation of the Euphrates have, it is
true, been made known ; also the ingenious document which
he sent to the Porte, in reply to the Sultan's firman on
this occasion, wherein he exposes the ulterior designs of
the British Government, which, under commercial pretexts,
was paving the way to military possession, and all which ho
attempted to prove by a circumstantial reference to our pro=
gress in India. Now it was clear that all these arguments
and ideas, clever as he is, could never have proceeded from
Mehemet Ali, that they were as much the offspring of his
brain as the treaty of St. Petersburgh itself. In short, he
was put forward by Russia, who had failed in carrying the
point directly with the Divan. It has just been discovered
also that she has been making precisely the same use of
him to support her influence and favour her views at the
Court of Teheran. Dispatches have been intercepted in
which Mehemet Ali warns Persia against the ambitious
policy of England, and exhorts her to frustrate it by a cor-
dial co-operation with Russia. This friendly advice he pre-
tends to give from the interest he feels in the welfare of a
Mucoulman State thus exposed to the unprincipled designs
of infidels.
These facts will serve to show pretty clearly with what
deocrity Russia can handle, for her own purposes, the semi-
barous Governments of the East, combining or embroiling
them whenever she pleases, Though we have no direct
proof of it, it is more than probable that she has been en-
deavouring to produce a rupture between Persia and
Turkey, There has been a serious fray between some
Turks and Persians at Erzeroum, in which one of the latter
lost his life. Essad Effendi, however, who was passing
through that city on his return from his mission at the
Persian Court, writes to his Government that the business
may be easily accommodated. But there is another and
tam. graver pound of complaint, which were the Porte in
the Otnation fp notic9 AS Its dignity requires, must inevit-
ably have led to a war; ft 14s pop Wert:€l;rl I.:cygnet a
doubt, that the Persian IVliri A.sker, pr commander-th,chief,
had engaged to furnish 12,000 troops to the rebel chief,
Mohammed Bey of Itavandoliz, whose surrender to Res-
chid Mehemet Paella I cornim-iniPaOd in my last letter.
The Kurd had Already forwarded the sOpA,ated sum he
was to pay for their assistance, arnl two divisiens of their
army were within five hours march of lavandouz, when,

being hotly pursued by the Paclin, be WAS induced to ca-
pitulate.

The plague is greatly on the increase, and is making
great ravages at Constantinople. The number of deaths
reported last week from the Greek hospital was upwards of
90, which forms but a small proportion of the whole mor-
tality. The Government is now entertaining a project, on
a grand scale, for the gradual suppression of the plague in
Turkey.