The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-26 00:00:00

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rote if thanks to the Sceretary and the oaken of the
o4abliahment, which having been ottrriod unaaimoubly,
the meeting separated.

LEVANT MAIL.

CONSTANTINOPLE MAY 7.—lt appears at last to be pretty
.well decided that Ashkar Pacha, the Governor of Tripoli, in
Barbary. whose conduct for a long time past can hardly hare
given satifaction to his Court, is about to be removed, Lord
Ponsonby, long before he left this embassy, had to Make known
to the Porte severe complaints against his tyranny and corrup-
tion, and'on several occasions it was Honig/it that he would be
put down ; but the Porte had enough of other matters on its
hands at the time, and he remained for a more favourable op-
portunity, which has now, they say, occurred. Azmi Bey, who
went to Tripoli, with funds to pay the troops, an his return
brought with hilt a representation, ugued by some of the principal
people of the regency, engaging that, if Ashkar Pacha were
recalled and replaced by a Governor collecting the revenue
on fixed principles, they undertook that it should amount
annually to 40,000 purses (160,0001.) which would, after
the expenses of administration were retained there, yield
the Porte a handsome surplus to go into the 'Treasury, in-
stead of drawing large sums from it, as heretofore, and the
Government, who could not be averse to this salutary eco-
nomy, has taken the matter upon the footing recommended.
I have heard that Said Pacha, of Adrianople, has been in-
vited to Constantinople, where, it is possible, he may be made
even mushir of the palace, in the place of the Riza Pacha,
whose health, though he is young, is materially suffering. He
will be sent elsewhere for " change of air." Some speak of
the change of Ries Effendi ; Sarim Effendi, the present in-
cumbent, being " too much of a Turk" to agree well with the
anti-Turkish Frank embassie . The Sultan is undoubtedly
acquiring great firmness of character. He has declared that
he is determined to ameliorate the state of his country, morally,
financially, and politically, and to this end will devote the major
part of his private revenue.
The Custom-house of Constantinople is up at auction, and
although it has never yet rendered the Porte more than
56,000 purses annually, already arc 80,000 purses bid for it.
This would yield a difference of about 120,0(101. a year in favour
of the Government, which, in addition to their profits. the
contractors are to replace by the prevention of smuggling.
The affair, if thus decided on, will be a grand thing to the
fair traders, at the head of whom are certainly our own
countrymen here. Contraband will still take place, but not
to the enormous extent that has existed hitherto. It was
quite time to see a stop put to it. Another point has still to
be looked to, viz.: the advantages enjoyed by the Russian mer-
chants over others by the payment of higher duties and supe-
rior protection. Whilst other traders have for some time past
been losing money, or, at best, hardly making head against
their current moderate expenses, the Russians flourish extra-
ordinarily. I could mention the instance of a Russian pro-
tege at Adrianople. who, in a short period, has realised 8,000/.
or 10,0001., whilst his less fortunate neighbours arc all drop-
ping into the background. '1 hey pay duties on silk, and so
does he, but less by 18 piastres per oke, or exceeding 10 per
cent, on the present value. On other goods he has equal ad-
vantages, and besides enjoys a protection which knocks down all
obstacles in his way, whilst others make complaints which f: e-
quenily go unredressed.
ALEXANDRIA, MAY 6.—The principal news is naturally
the arrival of the Pacha on the Ist, and with him his Foe, Sa'd
Pacha (fatter than ever) who will assume the command of the
Egyptian fleet. In the meantime, however, his time has rot
been unprofitably employed, anti the system of supplying the
want of native capital, energy, and enterprise, by the appro-
priation of shifliks in the hands of the great officers of that state
has succeeded well. Said Pacha, with Abbas Pacha, and
Ibrahim Pacha the younger, have already entered the market
as the sellers of a portion of the produce of their agricultural
labours, and have contracted for the whole of their growths of
sessamun seed, now about to be sown, at most flattering prices.
deliverable in November next. Ibrahim Pacha, the elder, re-
serves to sell when his produce will be ready for the market.
There is no longer any question of the free trade which is
officially (verbally) announced by the Minister to be in force;
and that of the coming harvest, and the cotton now planted,
all persons who wish to do so, may proceed to purchase on the
spot. Many European agents of commercial houses here have
already proceeded to the interior to make purchases. The
Pacha on his arrival here told the merchants it was his inten-
tion to sell his present deposits and the future produce
of his own shifliks, by public auction at regular in-
tervals, as formerly practised. We were not, therefore,
a little surprised to find, after three days of expectation,
it was rumoured that two merchants had privately bought
from the Government the greater portion of their pre-
sent grain deposits at the very prices so long up-
held by the Minister, and which, in the absence of the Pacha
no person would pay. The sale was announced of 115,000 ar-
delis beans, at 36 piastres, and 60,000 ardebs wheat, at 65
piastres, payable, however, on treasury assignments, which
assignments, owing to the want of proper organisation in the
Egyptian finance department, are always to be purchased at a
very heavy discount, dependent upon the prospect of their
prompt or remote payment by the Government; for instance,
a week ago these assignments were to be bought at 30 per cent.
discount, while to-day the discount is only 14 per cent. This
discount, however, enables the buyers to resell in the place for
cash at the very price which the merchants would have paid
the Government in the cash they so much wanted many weeks
ago—they have only nominally obtained a price which it
was ridiculous to pretend to; but the Minister has carried
his point, and has shown the Pacha that the prices lie
exacted were really obtainable, while the Pacha can be
easily kept
,in ignorance of the extent of the discount to
which his " promises to pay" are subjected. The cry-
ing evil of this country, the incubus upon its progress
in the scale of nations, has been a perpetual succession of
financial blunders, and trying to do too much, taxing the
country far beyond its powers; but an unprejudiced observer
may already perceive the progress a few months of peace and
the direction of the energies of its ruler to its internal develop-
ment have already produced. Two or three years of peace and
quiet government will change the face of the country, and al-
though the amelioration of the condition of its people may be
more slow, it will nevertheless be sure, and in their present
unsettled state the sluilik system will work bettter than any
other. Innumerable canals, unused for centuries, have been
already opened under the immediate superintendence of the
Pacha and his superior officers, and immense tracts of formerly
uncultivated lands have thus again been brought into cultivation,
which will, with a favourable Nile this year, more than
treble the average produce of the country, while the Pacha,
shorn of the glory of the possession of Candia, Syria,
and the Hedjas, is spared the exhausting drain upon the
Egyptian treasury and the cultivators of his soil, which
crippled the noble resources of this country; and by continuing
to direct for a few years longer his mighty energies in their
present channel, Egypt may yet hope to live in wealth and
civilisation, with its former position in the scale of nations.
Orders have already been given for the re-commencement of
the " barrage," at the head of the Delta, fur the better irriga-
tion of those provinces—a plan long since abandoned as im-
practicable, atter immense outlay ; and so it will, I fear, again
be found. Egypt is not yet the country in which similar
gigantic operations can be attempted. Similar attempts may
be considered the errors of a great mind ; but still they arts
errors most prejudicial to a State hardly emerging from the
exhaustion of protracted foreign wars, and most imperfect in-
ternal administration. Adventurers will not be wanting to
suggest the facility with which unprecedented undertakings can
be carried through, as long as they can thereby ensure profit-
able employment for themselves ; but surely the signal failure
of the previous attempt to carry through this undertaking ought
to have been a sufficient warning.