The Sun.
London, England, 1821-04-24 00:00:00

I'?;1;U:1,1ZECTION OF THE GREEKS.

CONSTANTINOPLE, MArten 15.—1 n a country
where the subjects are forbidden to raise their
voices to make known to the Prince their wants
and their v ishes, where it is almost impossible
for the Prdvinces.to make their complaints heard,
where those who are sometimes so imprudent .as
to become the organs of such complaints gene-
rally pay for their courage v. ith their lives, where,
as a natural consequence of such a state of things,-
it has become an established rule that the Sultan
is first apprised by the conflagration of part of the
capital of the discontent of the Janissaries, and
of that of the provinces by the revolt of their in-
habitants, it was natural that the news of 'the
insurrection of part of the Ottoman dominions
should take the Divan by surprise, and till it
with consternation. The late events in Albania,
which ought to have opened the eyes of the Su-
blime Porte, has only served to give it a blind
confidence and false security; it considered
the failure .of the late attempts of Ali
Pacha to excite the mass of the Greek
population, PS affording sufficient to trust
to their fidelity, • not considering that their
hesitation on this occasion had not at all
lessened their desire to throw off, the yoke ;
and• they waited but for a more favom able oppor-
tunity, and above all, a leader, more worthy of
them than Ali Pacha, covered with crimes and
blood, who for 60 years had been one of the most
cruel persecutors, though they acted prudently
in joining the standard of the Porte, preferring-
a regularly established despotism to the dominion
of a tyrant in a state of rebellion ; yet it was evi-
dent.that their inclinations wou6l display them-
selves with the more energy at some time. The
first account of the troubles in Wallachia did not
seem worthy of much attention, and it was hoped
that the pillage and burning of fifty villages;and
the affixing the heads of afeW hundreds of the
rebels to the gates of the Seraglio, to spew that
the ancient practice was not forgotten, would put
an end to those troubles. The news of the insur-
rection in Moldavia has produced a very diffe'rent
effect. Confounded by them,on the news that Prince
Ypsilanti WSS at the head of the insurrection, the
Divan was extraordinarily convoked, all the great
Officers of State attended, and they met several
days successively. In the first alarm all those
measures were adopted which might be•expected
from people wholly unprepared for such an event.
Expresses were sent in all directions,*ordering
the PaChas of Europe and Asia to collect and
put in motion without delay all the troops which
they could command. These alarms were in-
creased by the news continually received from
the neighbourhood of the theatre of these events.
They were increased to the highest degree' when
the news was spread that the insurrection had
gained Bulgaria, and was thence spreading like
lightning 'to the adjacent provinces. Already
their terror represented Ypsilanti and Ali as de-
scending from the mountains and joining in Ru-
tuella. Already they seemed to fancy that the
enemy was'at the gates of Constantinople. It will
be easy to judge from the view lately given of
the forces, of the Empire, and from the geogra-
phical position of the revolted provinces be-
hind the mountains which command Rumelitt,
that we are far from being reduced to this
extremity: Though yet ill prepared 'to carry
the war into the revolted countries, we have
happily is the capital sufficient force to oppose to
any rash enterprise; and what is by no means
probable, should the Greeks be so rash as to pass
the mountains of Thessa!y and the Balcans,
were their head-quarters and their seat of Go-
vernment at Adrianople, and their vanguard half
way between that city and the capital, there is a
point which they probably would not pass. The
angle, the apex of which is the point of the Se-
raglio, and the base the narro\v space of land ex-
tending from Rodosto in the sea of Marmora to
the Euxine, is a line difficult to be forced ; which
may be compared to the celebrated lines of
Tores Vedras before Lisbon, forming a natural
barrier, which would baffle the best troops,
if but tolerably defended. Lastly, should the
Greeks become masters at Constantinople, and
place at -once_ their standard on the Seven
Towers, and the Cross of St. Sophia, be as-
sured that withoutmost powerful foreign aid they
would be more easily placed than kept there ;
be assured that if ,the Ottomans could be for a
moment forced back to Asia they would soon re-
appear in Europe, stronger, more united, endow-
ed with • more energy arising from their very re-
verses. As for the present moment, it may per-
haes be imagined that the calamities that me-
nace the empire, the cruelties exercised on the
Turks by the Greek insurgents are the chief
sources M alarm among the faithful servants of
the Porte. Far from it, they are influenced by

very different fears, they tremble at the possibi-
lity of seeing their Sumptuous residenc'es.on.the.
Bosphorui occupied before autumn by new mas-
ters—at the idea that they may be prevented
from going, during the heat of the dog-
days, to respire, in their Kiosks, the refresh-
ing Lephas of the Euxine. Nothing less

than such apprehensions. were necessary to
rouse our Statesmen from their long and
fatal apathy ; and if they should happen on
this occasion to show more energy, we shall be
indebted for it entirely to their egotism, alarmed
for their own interest, their safety and their per-
sonal enjoyments; but if we are not deceived,
their danger and ours is not so great as we had
first reason to fear. While all. measures for
defence and attack are making, we have received
communications from abroad, which have in-
spired great confidence. The assurance of the
Emperor Alexander that the rebels have no
countenance whatever to expect from him, de-
prives the Greeks of half their strength, by tak-
ing away. a support on which they placed great
reliance. Yet if the P?rte could not find means
last year to reduce a single .revolted province
and one Pacha, who had only a few hundred
men left, may it not be feared that an insurrection,
which threatens to involve the whole Greek po-
pulation of the Empire, will be the signal for an
endless war, which, after many years of desolation
and excesses, would leave victory uncertain, and
not bring the Greeks any nearer to their object of
founding an independ?nt empire ? Perhaps this

war would only have the poor result of rendering
independent two or three provinces, and giving
e sovereignty of them, to some, powerful fami-
lies, such as that fd Ypsilanti, which would still
pay tribute as vassals, unless wha't often happens

in civil commotions, the authors of the revolution
shouldevt be called-upon-to reap the fruits,' but
some much more powerful hand than that of Yp-
silanti should in- the sequel appear to seize the
fragments of an empire, the destruction of which
this rash youth, in the excess of his imprudence,
.could only have begun.

I

EASTER TUESDAY.—HoIiday at the Bank, Exchequer, East
India and South Sea Houses.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW.
horning, 35 minutes after 7. I Evening, 8 minutes 'after 8.

THE SUN.

SOLEM QUIS DICERE FALSUM AUDEAT'?

LONDON,
TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1821.

Paris Papers. of Friday last arrived this morn-
lg. The following are extracts : •

" PARIS, APRIL 20.

" A letter from, Turin,• of, the leth, announces that intelli-
gence had just arrived there, that an English squadron had
appeared before Genoa.—CollsTiTuTlON:iiEL.
" A report from M. Bellart has been presented to the Cham-
ber of Peers relative to proceedings at law against a self-styled
accomplice of Louvel. The Chamber decided that there were
no grounds for prosecuting, the accusation.
" M. Schoerer, the banker, 4.ied,yesterday morning.

" A private letter from Bayonne of the 14th states, that in a
Secret Committee of the Cortes, it had been proposed, in order
to prevent the shame of invasion, to make such modifications in
the Constitution as the Holy Alliand, demand, but that that.
proposition had been rejected by a small majority.
•
" MADRID, Arlin 19.

" The proposed law on the constitution of the army has been
approved by the Corte. The principal articles are that all
Spaniards from the age of 18 to 50 shall be called out for the
defence of the country, and that the abuse of an armed force is
high treason, when employed in. the two following cases : Ist.
To insult the sacred person of the King. 2nd. To oppose
the free election of Deputies."
" Letters from Portugal, received at Cadiz, announce that a
frigate and two brigs of war have sailed for the Azores, to assist
in establishing the Constitution, and to bring the Captain-
General to Lisbon, who has opposed the wishes of the inhabi-
tants for its proclamation."

" APRIL 13.—Thirty-six men, commanded by one of the
Lieutenants of 3lerino, were taken near Burgos. Merizio, him-
self has. redraft° Atienza in the mountains of Alcarria. All
the National Guards of, Guadalaxara and the neighbouring
towns have been sent in pursuit of him. •

" The Minister of the Interior has addressed a circular to the
political chiefs of the different Provinces, by order of the King,
communicating the late events in Naples, and expressing
his 51*sty's sentiments on the occasion in terms similar to
the :‘,lessage delivered to the Cortes by the Minister of the
Interior, on the part of the King, at the sitting of the Bth inst.

[The substance of this message was given in our Paper yester-
day.] In the sitting of the Cortes on the 12th, a Petition was
read from the Body Guards stationed in the quarter of St. Je-
rome, requesting to be eLiployed in any part of the peninsula'
that might be deemed necessary, against the factious and evil-
disposed, who, under the name of Royalists, are the greatest
enemies of the King. The Petition was referred to the Go-
vernment.