The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-21 00:00:00

and that if they are to be tempted to prefer a boot
to idleness or dissipation it must be by offering theta
something pleasing to their palate. No reason-
able person can expect to rouse a feeble appetite
into vigour by placing before the patient dif
and unpalatable food. Hay and horsebeans would
be about as reasonable an offer to a convalescent as
Greek Grammars, stale Directories, and haling
Pharmacopoeias to soldiers.

10 p.m.:—Last night's gale seems generally con•
sidered, by persons who have been out here since
the first landing in the Crimea, as violent as any
that has been experienced since the disastrous tem'
rest of the 14th of November, 1854. It is to he
feared that we shall shortly hear of wrecks and
misfortunes at sea. A cattle-ship came into
Balaklava to-day with half its cargo dead from the
pitching and rolling of the vessel. The booth
broke away and fractured the captain's leg in twe
places.
The latest report is that the Third and Fourth
Divisions aro to more down to Inkerman and the
Tohernaya to relieve the French, who suffer gioatlf
from sickness. The mortality in the French arms
is said to amount to 170 men a-day, and, although
the exact number cannot be positively ascertained/
there is strong reason to believe that the above
statement is near the truth. lam assured that io
three days 570 men died. There may be exaggera'
tion in this, but it is certai❑ that the number of
sick is very large, and that the French Commissariat
is badly off. This severe and fickle weather must
he trying to an army which is chiefly under can'
vacs, and, as I believe, insufficiently rationed. _

MARCH 8.

We have had a bitter cold night, anTtheotitl
is iron-bound with frost. The mail due on Thurs'
day has not yet arrived.

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, March lO.—This is A time Of
respite for the Turkish Government. The open'
ing of the conferences has rivetted public attention,
and party spirit is, if not silent, at least less active
than usual ; it is gathering strength and waiting
for the result of the conferences. Meanwhile the
Ministry is employing its time in councils and dis-
cussions about the establishment of a bank. I told
you in one of my former letters that there are nu-
merous projects proposed daily.
With such a large field for commercial enterprise
as Turkey will offer after the war, the greater the
number of private banks, the more rapidly her re'
sources will be developed. But the first step in
Turkey, as well as in every other country which is
only beginning to develope its material resources,
is to cancentrate all its efforts by creating a na-
tional establishment of this kind.
This is, I think, the object of the councils and
discussions held at present. Several of the leading
merchants and bankers have been summoned by
the Minister of Finance to give their opinion on
the subject.
The chief danger to be incurred in the creation
of such an establishment is, that it might become
a good job for the benefit of a few individuals, like
the attempt made some years ago when the Go'
veinment granted privileges to a few houses who
gave only their names and shared the profits,
while the whole expenses and risks were borne by
the Government. The object of this bank was to
keep the rate of exchange down, and, like all such
forced financial operations, it ended in failure.
The only safeguard against this danger is to
make such a bank of credit a national and not s
Government establishment, and to afford the
greatest possible facilities for native capital to have
an interest in it. I alluded some time ago to the
large amount of dead capital in Turkey whieb
could be thus made profitable. The death of Bali'
Pasha, the Sultan's brother-in-law, which took
place last week, may serve as a proof of this. Ele
had been repeatedly employed in high offices, espe'
cially as Minister of Marine, which affords, per-
haps more than any other post, facilities for mak-
ing a fortune, and he has left behind him 18 mil-
-1 ons of piastres in ready money alone ; and yet
Hall Pasha was more anxious than any other
Turk not to let his money lie idle, as one may see
from the circumstance that his daily revenue front
houses in Galata and landed property is valued at
9,000 piastres.
I told you in my last of the endeavours made by
the English and, I hear, by the French Ambassa-
dor also, to get Omer Pasha, the Governor of Row
tuella, removed from his post on the charge of pecu-
lation. I have since inquired into the antecedents
of this gentleman, which throw a curious light on
the administrative system of Turkey. He was
recently governor of the province of Kurdistan,
where, together with the Defterdar, he pursued 6
wholesale system of exaction and robbery, which
did at least as much as Russian intrigue to drive
the Kurds into open rebellion against the Porte.
In spite of the powerful protection which be
enjoyed at Constantinople he was recalled, as well
as the Defterdar and Arz Odassi. The highest
tribunal took steps to prosecute him for his mis'
conduct. All the papers were ready when his
powerful protectors succeeded in having him ap-
pointed to the governship of Roumelia which put
practically an end to the inquiry and enabled hint
to follow up his former disreputable career.
What is the use of proclaiming every year that
corrupt officials will be punished if the Government
itself protects the offenders in the face of the most
glaring facts ? It is a simple mockery. Examples
are required, and not in the usual style, when men
convicted of having committed the grossest abuses
are sent for a short time into some pleasant spot
;n the Archipelago, or to the baths of Broussa, until
the storm has blown over, and then are recalled
and placed in 4 better situation than before. JA-
criminal who is guilty of murder has a chance even
now to be condemned to death or to rot in prison,
but the Pasha who has brought dews. misery on
whole province, and caused, as in the case of Omer
Pasha, the deaths of hundreds, is sure to escape.
In all things the Turks go into extremes. For-
merly too many heads were cut off ; now there are
too few ; verily, if one sees the consequences of
this system of false and interested philanthropy,
one would be inclined to wish back the times when
pashas' heads were no uncommon sight on the gates
of the seraglio, and dishonest bakers ran a fair
chance of having their ears nailed to their own
doors.
The divided command which seems to follow the
Eastern war like an evil genius makes itself felt in
the smallest things as well as in the largest. The
port of Constantinople forms no exception. What
with a Turkish harbour-master, several admirals,
and as many military authorities, every-body does
as he likes. That the police regulations of the
port are, under these circumstances, wretched need
scarcely be mentioned. Lately a gang of sailors
have begun to avail themselves of this state of
things, and carried off systematically bales and
cases from the quays. Three nights ago three of
the ging, having taken away from the Custom-
house quay a bale of goods, tried to carry it off in
a boat, which was likewise not theirs. They were,
however, seen by the Turkish guard and pursued.
When they saw that they could not escape they
w, n alongsi le the Vestal—a steamer lately bought
try the Theesalian Mining Company—and, leaving
bale and biat lehind, they scrambled .on board.
The Turkish gu rd was soon after them, but when
they tried to wet up, one of the fugitives took up
a l roken grindstone and threw it down into the
beat, killing one of the Turkish boatmen. The
chief officer of the steamer, who heard the noise,
came on deck, with the steward, both armed with
revolvers, and asked the intruders what they
wanted. They pretended to be pursued by some
Turkish soldiers, who had threatened to kill them,
and asked the chief officer to assist them. The
latter, although he knew nothing of what had hap-
pened, thought the thing rather suspicious at that
hour of the night (about 11 o'clock), and ordered
them to be gone, threatening to shoot them if they
refused. At this the fugitives ran up on the paddle-
boxes, whence they jumped on board another
steamer alongside, and thence to a third—the
Austrian Lloyd steamer ; there they found a boat
low end, got into it, and went off.
The chief officer of the Vestal having got rid of
the intruders, and not hearing any further noise,
went down to his cabin, and it was only next day
that the whole thing was explained, when he was
summoned to give his evidence, and was informed
that a Turkish boatman had been killed. The
strangest thing seems to be that the companions
of the killed man did not attempt to come on board
the steamer ; they were afraid as it was an English
steamer. This is just the curse of the separate juris-
diction in the port. The Turkish guard is afraid
to interfere, in order not to came in collision with
the foreign authorities.

A great movement of troops has taken place here
lately. Several thousand men have passed through
from Malta, and all the convalescents have been
sent up likewise from Scutari, so that the Crimean
army has got a considerable addition.
A regiment of Bashi-Bazouks has arrived here
from Adrianople ; four others from Shumla aro
likewise expected.
The two Crimean mails arrived at the same time.
The last mail was detained by bad weather at
Kamiesh.

The telegraphic wire across to Scutari has been
broken lately ; the necessary orders have been,
however, given for its reparation, and a boat put
at the disposal of Capt. Spurvey, R.A., for the
purpose. The accident has been caused by a yes
e'6 anchor.

I wrote in my last that Ismail Pasha (of Ralafat
celebrity) has been appointed Commander-in-Chief
of the army of Anatolia. General Kmety will ac;
company him; it is, I think, not yet decided whe-
ther as Chef d'Etat Major or as commander of a
a division. The choice is very good. Ismail Pasha
is one of the few Turkish commanders who is