The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-26 00:00:00

T 1-1 E LEVANT MAIL.
TURKEY. •
CONS:TA NTINOPLE, JULY 7.—Sir Stratford Caning has
jog addressed a note to the Porte, accompanied with a report
of the horrible cru:ities which have been recently perpetrated
by Ashkar Pacha at Tripoli. The murder in cold blood of the
Arab chiefs, clchlul .feleel and Seif-ul-Nasr, who, with forty
other prisoners, had been betrayed into his hands, and whom
he had gone into the interior to seize upon in person, is the
:east revolting feature of the dark tragedy, whose details, bar
pily for the ends of just ce, he has not succeeded in burying
with the bodies e.f his victims in the desert. The Arabs,
who under promise of reward had given up the above-
mentioned chieftains, and the children of the latter—mere
infants—shared tl,e:r fate, having been barbarously massacred
sod their bodies thrown into wells. The motives of
the monster for what looks almost like wanton and gra-.
'uitous wickedness, are nevertheless, it is to be feared, but
•on consonant with the usual maxims and antecedents of
Oriental administration ; since, by some of these murders,
he disposes very satisfactorily of pecuniary claims, and those of
hereditary vengeance by others. Sir Stratford, therefore, has
hastened, by the most impressive, and, at the same time,
friendly warning, to prevent the Porte from compromising
itself, or inadvertently assuming the responsibility of these
crimes, by leaving the author of them unpunished ; and in
order that the chances of retribution may be the more certain
(and if left to the Grand Vizier, who is himself stained with
guilt of a dye almost as deep, they would, indeed, be slight and
i,recarious), he particularly requests that the report be laid be-
fore the Sultan. The humane and benevolent disposition of
his Highness affords every reason to hope that he will view
these atrocities in a proper light. At all events it is only right
that our Ambassador should spare no pains to open his eyes on
the subject. If policy requires that we guarantee the integrity
of the Ottoman empire, humanity not less than policy demands
that we exert whatever influence we may possess in mitigating
the tyranny of its administration, and encouraging the progress
of civilization under it.
About a fortnight ago Sarim Effendi, the Minister of Ft"
reign Affairs, had addressed a note to M. Titoff, in his double
capacity of Russian and Persian Charge d'Affaires, calling his
attention to the hostile attitude assumed by Persia on the
Turkish frontier. Mahmoud Pacha, a Kurdish chieftain, wh°
had been expelled from the Government of Sulymaniah
.
Ali Pacha of Bagdad, having taken refuge in Persia, revel/cu
there a subsidy of three thousand men, by means of whom be
succeeded in forcibly reinstating himself in his Pachalic. The
Iffimadi-devlet, or Persian Prime Minister,
had made a simul
taneous movement from the north, and advanced upon Bayaahl•
In complaining of these unprovoked attacks to M. Titent
Sarim Effendi appealed to the amicable intervention of Russia' -*-
since otherwise, he added, a declaration of war would be
to
evitable. As a sequel and consequence of this commu-
nication, a second note was presented only a few days eel
informing: M. Titoff, that Abdourahan Bey, who ha'
been named by Ali Pacha to the Government of Silly-
maniah, had defeated and put to flight his intrusive compe-
titor ; and that intelligence had also been received of a decisive
victory gained by the Turkish troops over the Iffintadi.devie!
at Bayazid. The loss of the Persians is said to have amounted
to more than four thousand men. The intervention of Russia, •
which had been previously invoked, has thus, by the 'valour
the Osmantes, been rendered superfluous ; nor does valour
at
a 1 conceal his satisfaction at such a result ; for whatever ides
he may have formed as to the extent of Russian influence over
the Persian Government, he certainly could have no great cow
fidence in regard to the manner in which it would be exer-
cised, seeing that nothing had been hitherto done on the part
of Russia to prevent the aggression which had taken Ilece:,
while the political fermentation to which she is evidently
stranger in Servia, Wallachia, and Moldavia, and her ceaseless
efforts for the subjugation of Circassia by no means tend to re-
move the suspicions he may entertain as to the effect of her
agency in Persia.•
I mentioned to you in my last letter that the Turkish Gel
vernment was concentrating an army in the neighbourhood °of
Alonastir. Two regiments of foot, one of cavalry, and 00
artillery, have been marched from Constantinople ; and four
regiments of foot and three of cavalry from Adrianople. Afer ;.
than twenty field-officers, aides-de-camp, &c., proceeded !
~
few days ago by steamer to Salonica. Various surmises esoi;
as to the object of this expedition. But though the gererof
belief be that these troops are intruded for the protection.
Thessaly, which is menaced from the side of Greece with le:
surrection and propagandism, I think also that the movemeol,i:
not unconnected with the disturbances in Bosnia, and in 1".;
country of the Montenegrins. Among the late appointtnee/
at the Porte has been that of the Nafiz Pacha, ex-Ministque.
Finance, who has just returned from exile, to a seat in the 'I"
preme Council. He has, however, by order of the Sultl
changed the name of Nafiz, which he had disgraced, to that °_,
Abdourahman ; he is thus, like other convicts who return lrebil
transportation, furnished with a respectable alias, and sisal
mistaken for an honest man under it.