The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-30 00:00:00

AFFAIRS OF TURKEY.

A letter from Constantinople, dated October 17,
says :—The return of Mehemet Kiprisli Pasha to
Constantinople has not yet led to any material
changes in the Administration. Aali Pasha, who
acted as the Grand Vizier's Caimacam during his
absence, has resumed his functions of President of
the council of the Tanzimat. He also undertakes
the office of Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs
until Fuad Pasha's return, in lieu'of Savfet Effendi.
So far as one is enabled to judge from the very
limited expression of public opinion which obtains
in this country, all hopes are centred in the pro-
jects of reform which it is believed the Grand
Vizier will now inaugurate. Those hopes are, I
fear, doomed to disappointment ; for, giving
Mehemet Kiprisli Pasha credit for every good in-
tention, I do not see how he can succeed in his
efforts to place the administration of affairs on a
more satisfactory basis. Almost without exception,
his colleagues are is political opponents ; and many
of them are even now, I have reason to believe,
plotting his downfal. Foremost among his enemies
is Riza Pasha, the Minister for War, and favourite
of the Sultan ; his Majesty, too, is supposed to look
with bat little real affection upon the only man who
enjoys the confidence of the nation, and whose
popularity might otherwise suffice to appease a
gathering storm, fraught with no small danger to
the throne. To make matters worse the whole
weight of French and Russian influence is thrown
into the scale against the Vizier. Sir Henry
Bulwer will, I believe, afford him some support ;
but it remains to be seen how far this will avail
against the many adverse influences.
Both M. de Lavalette and Prince Labanoff pro-
test against the decision by virtue of which Mehe-
met Kiprisli Pasha was recalled. They maintain
that his mission has been a failure in the provinces
which he has visited ; and yet, with singular incon-
sistency, demand that his tour of inspection shall be
extended to Bosnia and the Hersegovina. It is
easy to listen with some degree of equanimity to
complaints of oppression of her subjects preferred
against the Porte by a French Ambassador • but I
confess to losing all patience when similar charges
emanate from the mouthpiece of such a Government
as that of Russia. Would even Prince Labanoff
venture to say that the condition of the rayah is
not immeasurably preferable to that of the Russian
serf ? Nevertheless, if I be not mistaken, the
European Powers will very shortly hear a reiteration
of Prince Gortschakoffs complaints and demands
against the Turkish Government. He in his ortho-
doxy is the man without sin who may cast the first
stone.

I have, on more than one occasion, alluded to a
practice, by which numbers of rayahs, after a short
absence from this country, return metamorphosed
into subjects of Russia or some other foreign State.
It was necessary to put an immediate and effective
stop to these proceedings, and the Porte has been to
blame for allowing the abuse to pass so long unchal-
lenged; I think, notwithstanding, that Turkish
Ministers have been ill advised in issuing the circu-
lar sent to all the Legations here, and a translation
of which was published in the Times of the 3d inst.
That circular could not but give great offence to the
Russian Government, at a time when all unneces-
sary cause of offence should have been sedulously
avoided. It is, however, open to graver objections.
In the first place, it appears to me to savour of
harshness to order all " these newly protected per-
sons" to sell their property and to leave the coun-
try with their wives and children. Moreover, all
the blame is thus cast upon the shoulders of the
recalcitrant rayahs, and none upon, the unoffending
Governments. In the second, to decide that " these
newly protected persons shall be subjected to the
laws of the Ottoman Government for all affairs
previous to the epoch of their change of na-
tionality," is, in some measure, to admit the
validity of their transformation. Surely, the alter-
native allowed by the circular itself would have
sufficed, without any intimation at all to the Lega-
tions. A simple instruction to the Governors of pro-
vinces to treat all such newly protected persons as
subjects of the Porte, and not to permit the inter-
ference of any Consul in their behalf, would have
been a more quiet and equally efficacious remedy.
However, the abuse, which had assumed serious
proportions, will probably be carried no further, for
I am told that the Russian Minister has entirely
failed to convince M. de Lavalette of the propriety
of insisting upon the recall of the offending circular.
A letter from a person necessarily well informed
has just reached me from Syria. I will not trespass
upon the dominion of your correspondent there by
giving any detail of the operations against the
Druses. I may, however, perhaps bd permitted to
say that the General commanding the French troops
appears to have received instructions not quite in
consonance with the protocols signed in Paris. By
manifesting a disposition to adopt an independent
line of action he has caused Fuad Pasha some em-
barrassment. Great complaints, too, are made of the
atrocities committed by the Christians, who follow
his march, eager to take vengeance upon their
enemies now that they fancy they may do so with
impunity. On the Ist inst. the French camp was
at the bridge on the River Littany, on the road to
Damascus by Pjob-Jenin and Rasheya. Fuad
Pasha had gone to 11uktera.
On Wednesday morn:_ls last Prince Couza left
Constantinople for Bucharesi. During his stay here
several Poles were arrested on .
a charge of con-
spiring to assassinate him. I cat: not, however,
learn that there is any evidence to support the
aocusation.

The origin of the fire which I mentioned in my
last letter, and which broke out in one of the cell tre
portions of the second bridge across the Golden
Horn, has not been ascertained. The story told by
the Turkish authorities is that some soldiers passed
over the bridge just before the occurrence; that
some of them were smoking in opposition to express
regulations to the contrary ; and that it is supposed.
the end of a cigarette, thrown on the bridge, set fire
to it. Another version is to the effect that the
bridge in question having been recently opened to
the public free of charge, the farmers of the re-
venue of one of the other bridges paused it to be
burnt. I believe, however, there is not the slightest
foundation for the rumour. A third, and not the
least current report is, that the bridge was fired by
persons engaged in a conspiracy against the Go-
vernment. The fleet and a considerable portion of
the town were to have been destroyed, and the con-
fusion would have enabled those engaged in the
plot to take their measures. For this, too, I should
be sorry to vouch. One thing, however, appears
certain ; had not the wind first changed, and then
fallen entirely, the fleet must have been destroyed•
The election of the new Greok Patriarch took
place, after much violent discussion, o: sToaukeisndoasY,
last. The choice fell upon Monsignor
Archbishop of Cyzicus.

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