The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-07 00:00:00

EGYPT.

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ALEXANDRIA, DEC. 23.
The Great Liverpool arrived here at sunset on the
and Egypt.
eveningy
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ethe 16rtehenirndsttn aftere
Captain Engledue left Falmouth five at o'clock in the
afternoon of the 2d instant, arrived at Gibraltar at eight
o'clock in the morning of the 7th instant, departed at
six o'clock in the afternoon, arrived at Malta at six
o'clock P.M. of the 11th (a four days' run), left Malta at
ten o'clock P.M. next day, and arrived off Alexandria at
six o'clock P.M. on the 16th. The sun had set, and no
pilot would venture out, otherwise the steamer might
have entered the harbour the same evening. The total
time was 14 days end one hour between Falmouth and
Alexandrie, of which 12 days 11 hours were spent as
sea, and 38 hours in the harbours of Gibraltar and
Malta. This is a great improvement on the previout

. ,•.e -•-

Th

r

• voyages, and is ascribed principally to the good effects
of the better quality of coal employed on the present
trip. Capt. Engledue brought a letter to the Pacha from
the Directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Company,
acknowledging their sense of obligation which he had con-
, ferret' on them, in common with all their countrymen in-
terested in the free, safe, and speedy intercourse with
India, by the liberal protection he had granted to their
enterprise at such a crisis. The letter was accompanied
by presents of some valuable varieties of young apple
trees and strawberry plants, specimens of preserved
fruits of every kind that England could furnish, and
some splendid fresh turbot and salmo❑ brought out in
ice. The Pacha was much pleased with these tokens
of acknowledgment, and was particularly struck with
the fine condition of the fish, brought 3,000 miles, and
still as fresh as if just caught. The wonder rang
through the palace, and even the very cooks were con-
vinced of the superiority of steam navigation in the
hands of the Inglese.
We have to regret the early appearance of the plague
here. Two " suspicious cases" occurred last week in
two private soldiers of the 20th Regiment, one in the
Egyptian fleet, and one on there. Then came the
official notification of a decided case on the 16th—a
boy who died in the vicinity of the Paella's magarmes in
the western harbour. The following day another death
from plague was notified as occurring in the 20th regi-
ment. Again, on the 21st inst., a third death was an-
nounced at Raselteen (beside the Palace) of an artiz in
employed in the arsenal. The disease has set in thii
year a month before the time of its appearance last
season, and it is feared that in the crowded state of
the city serious consequences may ensue before it runs
its course.

These occurrences will also have a depressing effoct
on travelling and commercial intercourse in the Medi-
terranean. The quarantine at Malta will be increased
to twenty-five days, the rapid steam communication be-
tween Egypt and England deprived of half the advan-
tage that justly attaches to it. It is a disgrace to civi-
lization that these tedious impediments to free inter-
, course should be still suffered to exist, when it is ad-
mitted by every medical man who knows anything about
the plague or its symptoms, that two days are quite
sufficient to allow the peculiar appearances to develope
themselves in anybody seized with the disease. The
fact of its never being carried into the holy cities by tens
of thousands of pilgrims annually, nor into Persia, nor
across the desert anywhere, nor even into Upper Egypt,
the grand route of the Nile, ought to convince every in-
telligent mind that it is an affair of locality.
The dangerous state of affairs in Syria still claims con-
siderable attention, both on the part of the Pacha and of
the allied forces. Sir Charles Smith arrived here in the
Hydra steamer on the I 7th inst., and had an interview
with the Pacha on the morning of the 19th. Subse-
quently to the ceremonial of pipes and coffee, the attend-
ants were ordered to withdraw, and the remaining por-
tion of their intercourse was carried on in haled, as the
Turks express it, which is not precisely equivalent to
tete-a-tete, for there is the Draeoman's head and tongue
in addition. Three subjects of the Paella's conversation
have, however, transpired—the continuous mischievous
intermeddling with Russia in his affairs, to which he at-
tributes the greater part of the opposition his pacific pro-
positions have experienced at Constantinople ; the shift-
ing and shuffling conduct of France, with which he is
now heartily disgusted ; and lastly, the very peculiar po-
sition in which Ibrahim Pacha is compelled to remain,
despite the wishes of everybody to the contrary. He
had just received information, through the British
Vice-Consul, that the state of disorder still prevailing in
Syria was attributed by the Allies to the prolonged stay of
Ibrahim at Damascus :—" But how can he or I help it,
concluded Mehemet Ali, " when your Admiral stops and
sends hack my messenger who bore the order for Ibra-
him's return ?" It appears that the Paella and Sir C.
Smith agreed upon this point, and the good result has
been, that yesterday tho Hyd:a was despatched to the
A liniral, at Nlarmorica, with a letter from the Minister,
Boghos Bay, of which the following is a translation—

ALEXANDRIA, Dec. 21, 1840.
" Monsieur l'Amiral,—Your Excellency will have
perceived, on perusing the letter addressed by the
Viceroy my master to his Highness the Grand Vizier,
that we had been indirectly informed by an overland
despatch, dated the last days of Ramazan, that his
Highness Ibrahim Pacha proposed to effect his retreat
from Damascus o❑ the 3d or 4th of Chavral (the 26th
or 27th of Novembar), and to re- enter Egypt with all
his army. This news has, it appears, been further con-
firmed by advises received by your Excellency, and in
consequence of which you have thought proper, Monsieur
l'Amiral, to send back to Alexandria Hamid Bey, who,
conformably to the clauses of the convention concluded
with Commodore Napier, had been forwarded to your
Excellency with despatches for his Highness Ibrahim
Pacha.

" Mr. Larking having made known to me, that, ac-
cording to the information forwarded to him by the
steam-boat which brought General Sir Charles Smith
to Alexandria, that the state of rebellion in which cer-
tai❑ parts of Lebanon still continued against the autho-
rity of the Sublime Porte was attributed to the pro-
longed sojourn of the Egyptian General-in-Chief at Da-
mascus, and having further expressed to me his opinion
that it would be proper to forward to his Highness Ibra-
him Pacha a repetition of the order to evacuate Syria,
I hastened to submit this information to the Viceroy.
His Highness having been pleased to take it into his
consideration, has ordered me to state to your Excel-
lency that the communication by land with Syria is corn
pletely interrupted in consequence of the state of anarchy
in which that province is plunged at present ; and that it
appears to him impossible to keep his Highness Ibra-
him Pacha au courant by that route, of the results
of tlae late negotiations. His Highness also re-
minds your Excellency, that the return of Hamid Bey
(who was previously charged to forward his orders to
the General-in-Chief) had left him no other resource,
no other means of communication. Considering the
existence of-these difficulties, the Viceroy wishes (if the
apprehensions of Mr. Larking are well founded, and if
your Excellency still possesses any means of communi-
sting with the head-quarters of the Egyptian General)
that you would be pleased, Monsieur l'Amiral, to send
a steam-boat to Constantinople to carry anew to Syria
Hatnid Bey, together with the English officer who may
be charged by your Excellency to second him in his
mission to Ibrahim Pacha.

" Your Excellency is in a position to form a just
idea of the actual state of things in Syria, and I beg you
will do me the honour to transmit to me, as soon as
possible, your opinion on this important point, to the end
that we may promptly conform to it our ulterior pro-
ceedings.

" I avail myself with eagerness, Monsieur l'Amiral,
of this occasion to offer to your Excellency the expres-
sion of my high consideration, Sto„
" BOGHOS JOUSSOUF.
" To his Excellency Admiral Sir .Hobert Stopford,
Commander-in-Chief of her Btitounic Majesty's
Naval Forces in the Mediterianeart."

It would appear that Commodore Napier's convention
for the evacuation of Syria is in a- fair way of being car-
ried out after all, although it is freely denounced by the
allied authorities " as an act of insubordination."
The Paella's two steani-boais and a corvette have
had orders to hold themselves in readiness to take on
board the sick and wounded, who it was expected
were at Gaza, but by a courier recently arrived we
learn that not a single man of Ibrahim's army had
reached that fortress. As far as we can learn
he is still at Damascus, whither he had returned with
all his army, after having suffered considerably in
health from his recent attempt to penetrate southward.
He was very ill before the march commenced, and
was obliged to travel in a litter. His attendants laid
him down on the road two or three times, thinking
he was dead, but by the latest accounts he still sur-
vived, though much reduced by dropsy and recent at-
tacks of dysentery. The state of Damascus is said
to be truly lamentable at this crisis. " The reign of
terror" was established there, and accusations of
treason brought destruction on the heads of numbers.
The commercial houses at Cairo in correspondence
with the disaffected or suspected had been closed ; for
a little sufficed to compromise a man. Report bad
been spread that Scheriff Paella had bee❑ massacred
by the inhabitants of Damascus, and that Menikli
Achmet Pacha had deserted Ibrahim's standard with
500 men, but tilie two assertions are discovered
to be without foundation. The report, however, o
the sufferings of :the Turkish troops at Acre and the
other garrisons from dysentery, and similar causes, is
too true, and it was at one time an open question whe-
ther any British soldier or marine should be left o❑ land
in Syria. By the last arrivals, the hospital at Acre
contained only 101 patients, and the deaths had fallen
from eight or ten a-day to one or two.

I translate the follo-wincr letter, which has just arrived
in Alexandria ; though the date is not very recent, still
it contains interesting news to us. However, now that
the blockade has been officially raised by the Porte, we
may daily expect to hear more important intelligence :
" Beyrout, Dec. 9, 1840.
" On the 2d and 3d inst., we had here a tempest so
violent, that it threw upon the coast eleven merchant
vessels of the country—not one European. Among the
number were three from Alexandria, laden with corn,
and just arrived. The cargoes are all lost. Such a
storm is not on record for the last eighty-five years.
The Austrian corvette La Lipsia has been seriously
damaged, and was obliged, in the ensuing calm, to be
taken in tow by an English steamer to be repaired at
Marmorica. In the Bay of Acre, at Kaiffa, the Eng-
lish brig of war Zebra had been driven on shore, where
she still lies without hope of being helped off ; and her
companion, the Pique, had her masts carried away. All
the Arab barques and boats in our road and harbour
have been destroyed without a single exception, and all
the coasts whence the news has reached us have suf-
fered similar calamities.

" By these shipwrecks, we are left in a serious defi-
ciency of grain, and, but for the arrival to-day of two
vessels laden with corn from Alexandria, the scarcity
would have been felt both in town and on the moun-
tains ; and we should, perhaps, have had an insurrec-
tion on the part of the mountaineers, deprived, as they
are, of supplies of grain from Jaffa and Kaiffa by their
new Governors, for reasons which nobody knows. The

*,_

wheat discharged from the two vessels was sold at 17
piasters the roubi, which equals 123 piasters the ardeb.
Mis supply will not last above a week, for both the
mountain and the plain are unprorided. We are ob-
liged, from want of wheat, to make flour of barley.
This grain sells at Bto 8-4 piasters the roubi. If we
do not receive additional supplies from you, we do not
know what will become of the country, or what the
price may become. Rice is 175 the couffe (basket),
but as soon as the communication with Damascus shall
be thrown open the price will increase.
" Ibrahim Pacha is still at Damascus. From confi-
dential letters received yesterday, dated the 4th inst.,
we learn that he had taken the precaution to put his
troops into winter quarters there, placing them in houses
throughout the city, which he had obliged the owners
to evacuate for their use. The Druzee Sheik, Jous-
snuff Ahmed, with 600 men, had ventured to attack a
body of Egyptian troops encamped outside the city, but
the assailants were surrounded by a superior force, and
nearly all destroyed. Eleven prisoners had their heads
c it off before the gates, and suspended over the walls,
as a warning to the mountaineers, who will probably find
an opportunity, before the Egyptians leave the country,
to retaliate with interest."
It appears that the retreat of Ibrahim to Damascus
(after having quitted it subsequent to the period above
mentioned) was influenced, not only by the fact of his
own bad health, but by the vengeful opposition of the
mountain tribes, through whose territories he would
have to pass, encumbered, as he was, with immense
numbers of women and children, who followed the camp
for safety and sustenance ; and, also it is said, by in-
formation which reached him overland of the negotia-
t.ons in progress to procure him and his army a safe
r, usage home by sea.
The opinion is not now merely general among the
Franks of Alexandria, but universal through the Le-
vant, that the fact of the distribution of 30,000 stand
of arms amongst the mountaineers has rendered them
virtually independent of the Sultan, and that hence-
forth they must be allowed to govern themselves accord-
ing to their own notions of right and wrong.
Letters from Candia say that Prince Vogorides, of
Samos, is paying his court at Constantinople, and mak-
ing every exertion to procure his nomination to a new
Princedom and Government of the island of Candia.
To-day Lord Exmouth's yaeht, " The Rover of Yarrow,"
arrived from that island in four days' sail.
The proceedings of Mehemet Ali in Alexandria still
:eresent a riddle to the uninitiated. One day we have
eymptoms of peace, conciliation, and goodwill to man ;
the next we see evidences of obstinacy or tours de Jorce
for stage effect, or the ruling passion for warfare carried
to a pitch of monomania difficult to conceive. The
engineers are now busy with their platforms, sandbags,
and breastworks in the Eastern harbour adjoining the
Parlamenta building, and all this week the artillerymen
have been kept in practice, either firing the guns in their
batteries along shore, or pretending to fire them. One
ay we have a hot press for conscripts for the National
Guard ; the next the most active recruiting agent is
bastinadoed, and all individuals in the service of the
Franks are formally exempted.
Recently 80 pilgrims :(Turks and Arabs), on their
way from Cairo to Mecca, were set upon by 250 of the
Bedouins well armed and mounted on dromedaries.
The pilgrims were also armed and fought stoutly, but
suffered severely in the conflict. All were plundered,
some were wounded, and some were killed outright.
Speaking of the sinews of war required by the Pacha,
he has recently been offering to public sale quantities
of rice, saffron, flaxseed, senna, coffee, gumarabic, lentils,
and beans ; but the sales effected have been very.trifling
—viz., 4,291 ardebs of Rosetta rice, at 216 piasters
per ardeb, one-half payable in two months, the other in
tour months ; 72 cantors of senna, at 105 piasters per
canter ; 500 canters of gumarabic, at 126 piasters per
canter ; and a lot of flaxseed, at 25 piasters per canter ;
the three latter articles payable in ten days. A cargo
of beans was also sold to-day, at 30 piasters the ardeb,
duty free (164 ardebs of beans equal to 100 quarters
British).
The Pacha seems to he aware that his finances do
do net receive the most disinterested management, and
he has been heard to say lately, " If I could find six
honest men to help me, I should be a rich and happy
Pacha. I stand alone, without any one but Boghos
Bey to second me." At present his attention is directed
to working profitably the land he has taken into his
awn management, and several individuals have already
been appointed to oversee his different estates, with a
view to the establishment of a better system.
Messrs. Briggs and Cu. received intelligence from
Cairo yesterday of the arrival of the steamer at Suez
on the 18th, at 3 o'clock p. m. The Indian mails, 18
passengers, immediately proceeded to Cairo, accompa-
nied across the desert by an escort of 20 of the Pacha's
regular cavalry, and 40 irregular (Bedouin) horsemen.
They had arrived safely at Atte at half-past 9 o'clock
his morning, and were embarking at the Mahmoudicb
canal when we last heard of them, but they had not
reri‘.ed in Alexandria at sunset, their passage being
retarded by a strong northerly wind.

ALEXANDRIA, DEC. 24, NOUN.
The Great Liverpool is starting with the Indian mail
and passengers, and I have only time to mention that
the Pacha has received intelligence (through the
French Consulate at Damascus) that Ibraham Paella
had a desperate engagement with the Druses on the
4th of this month, at Zahle, in which he had defeated
them, with the loss of 5,000 men, and twenty of their
chiefs. The latter were put to death after the battle.
Ibraham's force is estimated at 70,000 men, with
:;0,000 women and children. He had put his troops
in winter clothing, and was intent on resuming his
march southwards, to enter Egypt as soon as the wea-
her permitted.
The mails and passengers from Suez have crossed

the desert in safety under the Pacha s escort of horse,
arrived here an hour after midnight, and were taken on
board without delay this morning.
Sir Charles Smith is also on board the Liverpool,
going certainly as far as Gibraltar, perhaps to England.
He leaves Colonel Mitchell in command on the coast
of S)ria. Reinforcements are spoken of as absolutely
necessary to compensate for the sickness experienced
there by the British as well as Turkish troops.
The Cleopdtra steamer left Bombay on the Ist of
December, and arrived at Suez on the 18th, at three
P.M., and at Alexandria on the ?4th, at one A.M.

MALTA, DEC. MEHEMET ALI'S SUBMISSION. 28.
Up to the moment of departure of the Acheron for
Marseilles, the steamer expected from Marmorica, with
the result of Captain Fanshawe's mission, has not ar-
rived, but we may venture to anticipate it by stating
that we have strong reason to believe that the Sultan
will not receive the submission, and consequently refuse
to reinstate Mehemet Ali, in which case the Pacha
will resist to the last, and will, if pressed, retire into
the interior, even as far as Sennaar, with Ibrahim Pacha
and his army ; but it appears doubtful whether the
troops will remain faithful ; in a contrary case, Mehe-
met Ali and his son will be obliged to surrender, should
they escape with their lives. Unfortunately for him,
his submission was only nominal, and not accompanied
by acts. He should have shown his sincerity by at
once sending back the Turkish fleet, which he could
readily have done, as the Turkish seamen remaining
were sufficient to navigate the ships, and, if not, he
had only to add some of his own. Should the Sultan
refuse to reinstate him it will be highly interesting to
know whether France will interpose, or leave the obsti-
nate Pacha to his fate.

The Messager (the Evening Official Journal of
the French Government) published on Monday
night the following most important despatch, ad-
dressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs by the
French Consul at Malta :

TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCH.
" MARSEILLES, JAN. 2, Six O'CLOCK IN THE EVEN-
ING, RECEIVED IN THE AFTERNOON OF THE 4TH.
" MALTA, DEC. 28.
" THE CONSUL OF FRANCE TO THE MINISTER FOR

FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
" Kurruck Singh, King of Lahore, died on the sth
of November. During the funeral ceremony his suc-
cessor, Nou-Nehal Singh, was killed by accident.
Shere Singh was to mount the Throne.
" The affairs of China are on the point of being set-
tled. The English are to receive three millions ster-
ling as as indemnity.
" Dost Mahomed has definitively surrendered to the
English."

AVERAGE AGE AT WHICH PERSONS
MARity.—l subjoin the result of an examination of the
recorded ages, in 4,858 marriages, which, as they are not
selected instances, but belonged to districts varying greatly
in situation and character, and included every marriage in
such districts, thus comprising persons of every class, may
be presumed to be a fair example of the ages at which
marriages occur throughout the whole kingdom. The re-
sult of calculations founded on this abstract shows, that
the average age of marriages was, for men, about 27
years; for women, 25 years and a few months:—
Age. Men. Women.
15 and under 20 159 688
20 ... 25 2,586 2,327
25 . 30 1,150 861
30 —. 35 398 320
35 ... 40 219 157
40 ... 45 156 234
45 ... 50 103 76
50 ... 55 70 38
56 ... 60 35 17
60 ... 65 19 6
65 ... 70 4 4
70 ... 75 4
0
1
75
... 80 0

4,858
Genera..
4,858
school for the Instruction of the
Second Annual Report of the Registrar.
schAoolmsaisntgerisng of day-schools and Suaday-ichools, is shortly
to be opened at Exeter Hall, under the patronage of the
National Education Committee.

---SpITALFIELDS SCHOOL OF DESIGN.—O❑
Monday evening a preliminary meeting for establishing a
Branch School of Design, in connection with the parent
institution at Somerset House, was held.

MORN INO EDITION.

DEATH OF EARL SOMERS.

This Noble Earl, who warn his 81st year, died at
Brighton on Tuesday morning, soon after six o'clock.
His Lordship took a carriage-airing on Monday
afternoon, and after dinner complained of serious illness.
He was ill during the night, and shortly after six o'clock
he requested to be taken out of bed and placed in a chair,
when be almost immediately expired.
John Somers Cocks, Earl Somers, Viscount Eastnor, of
Eastnor Castle, in the county of Hereford, and Lord So-
mers ; Baron of Evesham, in the county of Worcester, and
a Baronet ; Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of
Herefordshire, Recorder of Gloucester, and Chief Steward
of Hereford, was born on the 6th of May, 1760. His Lord-
ship was married, first, on the 19th of March, 1785, to
Margaret, only daughter of the Rev. Treadway Russell
Nash, D D., who died on the 9th of February, 1831 ; and
secondly, on the 3d of June, 1834, to Jane, fourth daughter
of his uncle, the late James Cocks, Etq., and widow of the
Rev George Waddington.
The late Earl has left two sons and one daughter—
Viscount Eastnor, who succeeds to the titles; the Hon.
and Rev. James Saniers Cocks, Prebendary of Hereford
Worcester, born the 9th of January, 1790; and Lady Mar.
Garet Muria, born the 6th of August, 1791.
Viscount Eastnor, now Earl Somers, M. P. for Reigate,
and Colonel of the Herefordshire Militia, was born on the
l 9 it of March, 1788, and married, on the 4th of March,
1815, to Lady Caroline Harriet Yorke, fourth daughter
of Phillip, third Earl of Hardwieke. By this lady, who was
born onthe 15th of October, 1794, his Lordship had issue :
—The Hon. (now Lady) Caroline Margaret, a Maid of
Honour to her Majesty, born the 6th of August, 1817 ;
thu Hon. Charles Somers (now Viscount Eastnor), born
the 14th of July, 1819 ; the Hon. (now Lady) Harriet
Catherine, born the 23.1 of January, 1823 ; and the Hon.
(now Lady) Emily Maria, born the 16th of November,
1829.

By the decease of the late Earl, and the accession of
Lord Eastnor, to the Peerage, the Lord Lieutenantcy of
11,2referthltire, and a seat in Parliament fur the borough
of Reigate, become vacat.
DE

ATH (ii? REAR-ADMIRAL SIR
PHILLIP VERE BROKE, BART, K. C.B.

The melancholy intelligence of the death of the above
gallant naval officer was received at the Admiralty on TUN
day morning. lie died on Sunday last at Broke-hall his
seat in SufLik. The deceased Admiral was son of Mr. P.
B. Broke, and was born in 1776, and married, in 1802, Miss
:Middleton, daughter of the late and sister of the present
Sir Wm. Middleton, Bart. The date of his entering the
navy is Jan., 1789, arid his commissions are dated as fol-
low :—Lieutenant, Aug. 19, 1797 ; Commander, Jan. 2,
1799; Captain, Feb. 4, 1801: and Rear-Admiral, Jan.
22, 1830. When midshipman he was in L'Eclair at the re-
duction of Bastia, and in the Romulus in Lord Hotham's
actions in 1 795. Was Lieutenant of the Southampton
when she so gallantly cut out the French Corvette
L'Utile from under the batteries of Porquerolles in 1796.
\Vas in the battle of St. Vincent, and was in the Amelia
at the capture of La Hoche by the squadron of Admiral
Sir J. Warren. When commanding the Shannon was ac-
tively engaged at the surrender of Madeira, and subse-
quei,tly commanded that frigate in its memorable engage..
ment with the American frigate Chesapeake in 1813, n hen
he was severely wounded. For his brave conduct on that
occasion he was created a Baronet and received a gold
medal. He was also presented with the freedom of the
City of London, and received many other public testimo-
nials commemorative of that hard-earned victory. In
January, 1815, he was nominated a K.C.B. The de-
ceased Baronet, who was brother of Sir Charles Broke
Vere, M. P., and Major G. Broke, leaves tit° sons and-a
daughter, the eldest one, Philip, succeeding to the family
honou: s.