The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-31 00:00:00

STATE OF SYRIA.

BETROUT, JUNE 20.—The time for recalling this Pa-
cha or that Pacha is gone by. The question that must
now come before the Great Powers is—what parcelling
of territory, or what species of European military occu-
pation will rescue this noble country from the frightful
anarchy into which it is plunged ? To allay its fierce
and discordant elements would require the political intel-
ligence, the discipline, the disposable material, strength,
and the spare finances of a well-ordered European State.
It is therefore needless to say that the civil and military
servants of the Sultan are unequal to the present crisis.
By their sloth and corruption, joined to their fanaticism
and obstinacy, they are accelerating the termination of
their Sovereign's rule in this country. If any impor-
tant part of Syria should rise, the others will also rise,
and a general massacre of the Turks is a thing not at all
unlikely to take place.
I say nothing of the south ; for, notwithstanding its
association, it contains no great point where interests
come into concentration or collision, for the wretched
Greek and Latin Monkish intrigues do not deserve a re-
cord. The Sultan's rule is, from the last accounts, quite
nominal in the Mutsellimic of Jerusalem, and in Na-
plouse does not exist at all, except in the villages in
which Arnauts happen to encamp, and within the walls
of the town itself! The Mutsellim of Naplouse, who had
been suspended by Medjib Pacha, recovered his place by
means of a douceur ; his tenure of office was, however,
very short, for he was poisoned the day after his return
from Damascus. The Arnauts are only loyal to their
paymaster, and, as in the case of a Prussian, Colonel
Laue, whom they wounded severely, are as ready to de-
stroy the friends as the foes of the Sultan.
The communication between Jerusalem and Cairo by
the Desert is totally stopped by the Bedawees, and no
man in his senses would travel from Jerusalem to Da-
mascus without a strong escort. An American mission-
nary, lately arrived at Damascus, in coming through,
gained the gate of Naplouse by a bard gallop. His es-
cort, not being so well mounted, were plundered, and
came into the town without a rag to cover their nakedness.
I now come to the centre and north of Syria—Leba-
non, Damascus, the Harrah, and Aleppo.
The mountaineers are in a state of armed suspense.
At the great mutiny of Ain Aneb, they detailed their
grievances to the Sultan, but their petition has never been
forwarded. If their demands regarding a modification
of the tariff are not promptly complied with, the Moun-
tain will be in a revolution from one end to the other be-
fore long. The pressure of the new system upon them
is easily explained. In the middle ages the fanaticism
of the conquering Mussulmans drove an immense num-
ber of Christians and other sects into the mountains.
Lebanon is not like the Alps or P3renees, covered with
verdure, periodically renewed by refreshing showers.
Lebanon has little soil, little pasturage, and almost the
sole resource of the inhabitants is silk. To paraphrase
Farquhar, they eat, drink, and sleep upon silk ; they are
clothed in silk, and in travelling through the mountains,
if you ask what is the income of such and such a Skeikh,
the answer is so many rottali of silk ; consequently, there
is no deceiving them on this question ; it comes home to
every man's door : to use a strong, but often abused and
misapplied, expression, it is a pure knife and fork question.
The raw material is produced in the Mountain, and
manufactured in the great cities of Damascus and Aleppo.
The expense on a rottalo of silk, under the former sys-
tem, was— Piastres.
Mule carriage to Damascus
Brokerage
Customs' duty

13i-
The expense at present is— Piastres.
Mule carriage
Brokerage
Customs' duty

~ 2115 paras.

We must also recollect that nine per cent. additional
is imposed on the manufactured article, if sent, for in-
stance, to Asia Minor, or any other part of the Ottoman
dominions, where the peculiar striped silk stuffs are in
use. Then again, as the Mountain produces little or no
grain, but as Beyrout is the entrepot for the grain that
comes from Damietta, Jaffa, and Alexandria, before a
mulberry planter can call a kail of grain his own, he must
make a clear sacrifice of 25 per cent. Have the fine city
of Aleppo, and the truly venerable city of Damascus, no
claims on the sympathy of Europe ? What would an
Alabama planter say if a heavy duty were imposed upon
raw cotton at the gates of Lowell ? or what would a
Macclesfield or Coventry manufacturer say if, after hav-
ing paid a heavy duty on cotton, he must pay an addi-
tional duty on his finished goods, exposed at the same time
to foreign competition ? In Europe the native manufac-
turer, when placed in a better position than the foreigner,
often succnnibs ; but here we have the native placed in a
more disadvantageous position than any European manu•
facturer, both as regards cheapness of raw material and
facility of export. If the seat of the plant and manufac-
ture were wide as the poles asunder, the change would
soon tell on the price, and generate discontent ; but be-
ing, as one may say, next door to each other, the evil is
too palpable to admit of delay. I have travelled over
the Druse and Maronite country, and my impression is,
that had the Government given way on the tariff ques-
tion, a very fair compromise might have been made with
regard to the fixed tribute. Bat it is now almost too late.
The Druse country is the scene of much outrage. In
addition to the plot to murder the Sheikh Djoubelat (the
richest and most powerful Druse Chief, who, using the
lex talonis, caused the plotters, his nephews, to be killed)
we have this month the seizure of the property of the.
Emir Abdullah (a Maronite Prince related to the Emir
Beshir), by the other great Druse house of Abou Neked,
as well as more seizures of property belonging to the
late Emir Beshir, now in Malta.
The Druses profess to like the English, and, from a
certain respect which, notwithstanding their eccentric re-
ligious views, they undoubtedly have to the Koran,
could, under any tolerable Government, be made to
render some services to the Sultan ; but, like all the
others, they are disgusted with the new system, and
will fight sword in hand against the tariff. The Maro-
nites are in reality seeking independence, and desire
the coast from Saida to Tripoli, including Beyrout, and
it is really impossible to foresee what they will do. They
are all ripe for revolt, and made fully aware of the weak-
ness of the Sultan. I believe the end of all this will be
the formation of an Arab Christian state, but what then
are you to do with the grand plain of Damascus, with
its fanatical Mohammedan population cut off from the
coast, and thelhuran, which would be similarly situated.
Travelling in the north and centre of Syria is very
unsafe at present. The whole of the Desert line, by
Horns and Homah, up to the very foot of Anti Lebanon
and Mount Cassius, is as much in the power of the Be-
dawees as ever. When the merchants of Aleppo send a
letter to Damascus they give it to a man in an old can-
vass shirt, without a farthing in his possession. The
Bedawees cannot see a Spanish dollar, because there is
no Spanish dollar to 'see, and the messenger least liktly
to sutler in his breeches pocket is the man who has no
breeches at all. As for a trip to Palmyra, it is now
quite as perilous and romantic an affair as it was in the
days of Wood and Dawkins.
The anecdotes related of the plunder of the Hauran are
so numerous, that it is needless to repeat them. The de-
feat of Shibly Arrian gave courage to the Bedouins, who
carried off into the Desert all that was portable ; the re-
sult is, that provisions at Damascus continue to rise in
price. Nedjib Pacha has, by means of bribes at Constan-
tinople, and a plausible catalogue of ancient services, re-
tained his place ; but it is believed he must go ; public
opinion against him is approaching a climacteric which
he cannot withstand. This has been an awful year for
Damascus. The Egyptian occupation was succeeded by
months of scarcity, and the stoppage of the badge or
grand pilgrimage to Mecca ; then came the derangement
of commerce by the tariff, the persecution of the Chris-
tians under the auspices of Nedjib Pacha; and now the
Hauran, which is the granary of the city, is plundered,
and its inhabitants, who are extensive consumers of Da-
mascus goods, are impoverished.
In Aleppo, the Government is as imbecile as ever.
Major Boccaciampi and the British Proconsul had gone
out to make an arrangement with the Sheikhs of the An-
nadis, who were menacing the environs, but they had
not the good fortune to meet with them.
The two Euphrates steamers had arrived at Beles
from Bussorah, and passed up to Biredjek. They had
got through the Lemloon marshes, and over the Camel-
ford at Anna, without any impediment. It would ap-
pear that, after all, the latter is the only difficult part of
the river.
The coast towns have also had their troubles. The
ravages of the plague in St. Jean d'Acre have been until
lately ve-y great. When the malady was at its height,
So
decay of
there were ;in this small place upwards of fiftyt casualties
o, much for
incomplete.
t
per day, in consequence, it is supposed, of
hmiantdteorlebneciengintanrodtycalenand
iinngcotmhep
animall'urkis
Tri-
poli a deadly hatred has been generatede between • In
Alussulman and the Christian population, etween the
have commenced. The plague has , and the fevers
and the cordon has been taken off. Aceased at Beyrout,
revolting instance
occurred of Mussulman fanaticism has here. A Chris-
tian had a dispute with a Turk, and on the trial the
latter produced his friends as witnesses, but the Chris-
tian on proposing to adduce the
c
friends in waiting, was told that tohuentecr-hre.stian vidence of his
friends evidenceis
was inadmissible. In vain was the
invoked.h
The mufti said that he was __ a i-sc ien __
judge only by Mahometana Mahometan, and would
law, and this man was con-
demned to thirty days' im • prisonment. The British Con-
sul interfered, but the penalty was increased, and it was
only through the Seraskier that the man was liberated.
lew vessels of state can withstand a strain on several
parts at one and the same time without foundering. It
is therefore impossible, in Considering the state of Syria,
to shut our eyes to what is now passing in Candia, Bul-
garia, and other provinces of the empire. Not only is
Turkey destitute of the moral and physical power to
meet the exigencies in Syria, but her hour seems to be
come. It is in vain to attempt to uphold the integrity
of the Ottoman empire, because the Ottomans will not
be upheld. It is the same thing throaug_hotut et
dSaryria
whether a man call himself a pacha,d
4
kiahia, or a musteschar, be caresot
buttwothe immediate
amassing of money by the p '
strawse rfor any
cause, or any policy,
or
any interest,lunder of the Sultan and his
subjects. Stores, howeveT extensive, provisions which
which the troops could not con-
the Egyptians left, and
all have melted away like the
slime for years to come,
April snows of Sannin.
There is no hope for the Turks
here, for they have neither hope nor confidence in them.
selves.

Her Majesty's ship Belleisle (74) arrived at
COW last evening at seven o'clock, and anchored nearly
opposite Haulholine. The Indus (80) is looked for
hourly. She will be followed by others, and it is ex-
pected that our harbour will, in a few days, present the
spectacle of several men-of-war floating on its waters.—
Southern Reporter of Tuesday.
There is iron enough in the blood of one of one
man to make a chain of strength sufficient to bind him.
The quantity of "brass" in his face is not so readily
ascertained.