The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-18 00:00:00

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MURDER ON COMBE DOWN.

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Early yesterday (Wednesday) morning our city was
much excited, by a report that a murder had been com-
mitted on the previous night on Combe Down. From
all that we have been enabled to learn at the time at
which we write, it appears that four men, two of them
named Bancroft and Stinnard, had been drinking toge-
ther at the Carriage and Horses public-house, on the
Down, kept by Mr. Payne. During the evening a dis-
agreement arose, and the parties appearing inclined to
fight, the landlord dismissed them from his house. A.
fight subsequently ensued out of doors amongst the par-
ties, after which Bancroft went up and offered to shake
hands with Stinnard, when the latter immediately up-
lifted his hand and struck Bancroft on the breast. He
immediately fell, and never rose alive again, for, upon
being lifted up, a large clasp knife was discovered stick-
ing in his breast, and which appeared to have been for-
cibly plunged in up to the haft. From the instantaneous
death which followed the blow it is conjectured that the
murderous weapon must have pierced the heart. Mr.
Massey, surgeon, was immediately sent for. He drew
out the knife, but -all efforts to save the deceased were
vain. The men who were engaged in the affray. together
with the man who stabbed the deceased, went off to their
respective homes to bed, where they were severally
apprehended and brought into the city. They under-
went a short formal examination at Chandos House
yesterday (Wednesday), when they were remanded, in
order to await the result of the Coroner's inquest, which
will be held this morning (Thursday) The assassin is
a sullen-looking youth, and betrayed a dogged indiffe •
rence about the proceedings, which did not appear to have
the slightest effect upon him. So great was the excite-
ment occasioned by the horrid occurrence, and the
numbers of people who followed the prisoners on their
way from the gaol to Chandos House that it was deemed
advisable to escort them by a number of. the police.
These unhappy effects of passion appear to be awfully on
the increase. Scarcely a week passes but some fatal re-
sult is recorded, in some part of the kingdom or other,
from the un-English use of " the knife."—Buth chronicle
of this day.

THE LEVANT MAIL.
TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Ocr. 27.—Yesterday morning the
Nile steamer arrived here from Alexandria, bringing
back Tafiz Bey, the Turkish Envoy, and a further in-
stalment of tribute, amounting to two and a half millions
of piastres. From the frequency of these remittances,
though their amount be not very considerable, it woilld
really appear to be the Pachles intention to fulfilMs
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pecuniary obligations with the Porte. The prospects of
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cannot really discover any consolatory or redeeming fea-
ture to dwell upon ; for if we turn from the internal
affairs to the foreign relations of the Porte, the indica-
tions of weakness and decay are still more palpable. The
fact is, that in her transactions with the European
Powers, Turkey has lost all sort of independence, and
their Ambassadors and Ministers arrogate the right of
dictating to her not only in matters of foreign policy,
hut also of domestic economy ; whilst the least scrupu-
lous of them, and such as have most to bestow in the
way of bribery to the Turkish Ministers, are sure to
obtain a preponderating influence here.
M. Titoff, the Russian Minister, presented a few days
ago a note addressed in the most patronising tone to the
Porte, in which he informs it that the local Government
of Servia have, at the special request of the Emperor,
duly reprimanded the subordinate authorities who had
countenanced the revolt of the Bulgarians on their fron-
tier. The Porte is further informed in this very conde-
scending epistle that certain Servian deputies who had
through Russian influence been exiled, and are at present
residing at Constantinople, will be permitted to return to
Servia. All this officious and insolent interference in the
internal affairs of the country is, to say the least, of the
most evil augury for its welfare and independence.
Another affair in which the French as well as the Rus-
sian Ambassador has interested himself, is a dispute be-
tween the Catholic and Greek clergy of Syria. A formal
complaint has been made by the latter that the Roman
priests by adopting the Greek language and costume, and
cunningly suppressing and changing certain parts of their
own liturgy, such as designating the Pope chief of the re-
ligion, &c., they have succeeded in seducing from the
folds of their proper pastors nearly the whole of their
flocks, who have thus been unable to distinguish the one
from the other ; the number of the members of the
Greek church, which was originally two hundred thou-
sand, has been reduced by this means to sixteen.
What they require is, that the Catholic clergy shall
henceforth be compelled to wear some distinctive dress or
badge. The Catholics, on the other hand, who are sup-
ported by M. de Pontois, the French Minister, as the
Greeks are by M. Titoff, declare that the Greeks, as the
less numerous body, should be made to wear these dis-
tinctive marks, more particularly as they are of their
own seeking. The affair has not yet been settled.