The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-04 00:00:00

to France by this time. The seizure of the Turkish
fleet on the coast of Syria, and its return to Con-
stantinople in the presence of all the sail of the line
France has in the Mediterranean, would be an act
of fearless courage on the part of the British Ad-
miral, perfectly compatible with the absence of any
boasting of our naval prowess in the newspapers of
Great Britain. If our modesty will not allow us
to insult or irritate our neighbours, we have a right
to expect that those for whose feelings we manifest
such tenderness should not assume cowardice as the
motive of our forbearance.

But though in general the tone of the Paris
Papers of Sunday was more moderate, the Govern.
ment was carrying out its scheme of military prepa-
rations on a very large scale. On Saturday the
Minister of War informed the Committee of Ar-
tillery that a sum equal to 240,000/. sterling was
employed in the purchase of horses, saddles, har-
ness, &c., for that department. On the same day
saddlery to the amount of 68,0001. sterling was ac-
tually purchased. Everything here will go well till
the settling day comes. Every franc thus expended
will form an item in a new tax,- which when it
comes to
,be levied, will put France in a very diffe-
rent humour.

We find it whispered in the German Papers that
M. THIERs, notwithstanding the French horror of
secret treaties, has entered into a secret treaty with
MEHEMET A Li, the particulars of which have not
yet transpired. This may account for the obsti-
nacy with which France opposes the policy of the
Four Powers.

The Madrid Papers received are of the 2fith
tilt., but their contents are unimportant :
If it were really intended to reply to the Convention of the
Four Powers which isolates France, it was to the Rhine
that 200,000 men ought to be sent. In the prospect of a
partition of Turkey, France ought to hold herself in readi-
ness to conquer Belgium and the provinces on the Rhine ;
but evolutions of squadrons in the Mediterranean will not
frighten the English, and will leave the field still open
for diplomatic negotiations. For the rest of the noise
which is now made is designed to divert attention from the
importance of an act which is even less serious on ac-
count of its immediate object than of its future conse-

quences.
We have the following letter from Perpignan, of the
28th July :
" We have news from Barcelona of the 26th, at which
date the city was calm, but considerable fermentation
prevailed, which is a natural consequence of the san-
guinary scenes that have taken place.
" On the 22d eleven persons were killed in the streets;
this was still civil war, and party vengeance. The mode-
rate party were seized with such terror, that all the vessels
in the port, and several men-of-war on this station, were
crowded with fugitives.
" The day before yesterday, a column of 3,500 Car-
lists arrived at the camp of Perpignan. Yesterday a re-
served column of 2,500 men came from the encampments
in Upper Roussillon, all belonging to the Catalonian faction.
" An estafette arrived very early this morning with news
that between midnight and one o'clock the Government
vessel Rainier had arrived at Port Vendres, with 18 pas-
sengers on board, coming from Barcelona. We arc igno-
rant of the reason of this voyage, and of the names of the
passengers."— Gazette de France.

ST. PETEMBURGII, JULY 25 —The Grand Duke
Alexander arrived yesterday at:yeterhoff, from his visit to
Germany.
An Imperial manifesto, dated the 18th of this month,
orders a general body of recruits in the whole empire, by
which, in some parts of the empire, five men, and in some
six men, from every thousand souls are to be furnished.
The levy begins on the 13th of November and on the 13th
of January, 1841. The introduction to the manifesto is
as follows :—" We having, in our constant solicitude for
the welfare of our beloved subjects, introduced partial
levies of recruits instead of a general body in the empire,
we likewise, (or the greater relief of our subjects, limited
the levy to what was required by absolute necessity; but
the consequence of this is that our army becomes every
year more incomplete, and calls now for an increased levy
from the Governments whose turn it is. But in considera-
tion that those Governments would be thereby too heavily
burdened, we have thoughti fit this time, as an excep-
tion, to order a general levy of recruits in the empire, in
order to fill up the deficiency in the army, and in future to
continue the system of partial levies."

Since we received the important information
relative to Syria, which appears in another part of
The Sun, we have been itiformed on good authority
that it is most probably much exaggerated. Some
partial success may have been obtained in
the neighbourhood of Beyrout, but it is scarcely
possible that the whole mountain population, who
were in insurrection, have either been subdued
or have surrendered. The beneficial effect
which this news had on the French Funds, and
from them on our own, may give rise to a suspicion
that it was exaggerated for that purpose. This effect
would be heightened, too, by the supposition that
if the insurrection were at an end, the possibility
of an immediate conflict, by any accident, between
France and England, would be done away.