The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-17 00:00:00

THE LEVANT MAIL.
TURKEY.
CoNsTANTrsiorLE, MAY 27.—The representatives of the
five Powers are this morning engiged in a conference with
Sarim Effendi, the _Minister of Foreign Affairs, at his house
the Bosphorus. It is supposed to have reference to the affairs
of Syria. Mohamed Pacha, late Go.•ernor of Angora, has been
appointed to the government of Tripoli, in the place of Ashkar
Pacha, who has been withdrawn in consequence of the ester-
getie representations of Sir Stratford Canning. This is the
fourth funetiona:y of that rank whom he has caused to be
disgraced.
Although the transactions referred to in the annexed note
may be intrinsically of no great importance, and though, as far
as the interests of the parties are concerned, the Porte may
consent to a satisfactory arrangement of the question, still it
involves a principle, the discussion'of which, from the very
careless way the commercial treaty. was negotiated here, will
have to be revived, at a moment, too, when the pressure
and multiplicity of other business renders such additional
embarrassment peculiarly inconvrniert. You are aware that
one of the boasted effects 01 that treaty was the abolition of
all monopolies. In reckoning, however, on this enlightened
concession of the Porte, we reckoned, it appears, somewhat
without our host; for in the Turkish version of the treaty
the word monopoly is rendered by a phrase ( iedi rabid)
(single hand), whose application is at once much wore li-
mited, and much more indefinite. There are other gross
oversights in the treaty, both in the spirit and in the letter,
which earl for immediate revision.
NOTE OF SIR STRATFORD CANNING.
" The undersigned, her Britannic Majesty's Ambassaeor
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, has the honour to submit
the following remarks to his Excellency the Minister for
Foreign Affairs :

" liepeated complaints are addressed to me of the injury
done to our trade by the refusal of the authorities at Salonica to
allow the salt imported there by cur merchants to be sold in
the ordinary way. Several large cargoes of that article have
been now detained for many months, to the prejudice and
heavy loss of the importers. this is not only a gross injustice
to the individuals concerned; it is also a national injury, inas-
much as it operates to the discouragement of British trade, and
is also an infraction of our commercial treaty with the Porte.
The only reasons alleged for the refusal are, that salt is a re-
served article, that it is produced at Salo&ca, that the sale of it
is farmed, and that the interests of the farmer, and consequently
of the Government, will suffer by the importation and sale of
other salt. It is true that salt is a reserved article in some
countries ; in Turkey, also, it may have been so formerly, but
there is no such reserve in the treaty. The second article
stipulates the suppression of every monopoly, without any ex-
ception whatever, as well as the liberty of trading in every kind
and article of Turkish produce. This must be deemed conclu-
sive. Had the Porte thought proper to make any reserves,
they should have been expressed in the treaty, and in that ease
nu doubt the saerifices made by Great Britain in consenting to
a large increase of the duties would have been diminished.
With respect to any inconvenience or loss devolving upon the
Porte, in consequence of the treaty—it may or may not be a
reason for proposing a reconsideration of its articles by mu-
tual consent ; but it will not warrant a refusal to give effect to
the existing stipulations, especially when that refusal is ac-
companied with a heavy loss to individuals trading on the faith
of those stipulations. Had the trade in salt been prohibited at
Salonica, notice should have been given to the merchants. They
looked, no doubt, to the provisions of the commercial treaty,
and finning no exception specified there, ember ked their capital
with confidence in the traffic of salt. They have therefore a
just claim on the protection of the Minister ; and the
Porte, who has merited reputation for scrupulous at-
tention to treaty engagements, cannot but do justice
to the representations of her Majesty's Ambassador. In
truth, the question has already been decided by the Porte
itself. No less than two years ago a case similar to the
present occurred at Yanina, and the Grand Vizier of that time
did not hesitate to comply with the representations of the
British Embassy, and to give orders 'for the sale of the salt im-
ported, grounding his decision on the commercial treaty, and
expressly directing that eves), facility should be given to the
trade of the English in salt, as in every ether article. The un-
dersigned avails himself of this opportunity to repeat to his Ex.
cellency, the Minister for Foreign Affairs the assurances of his
high consideration.
(Signed)
" Pera, May 12, 1842."
The day before yesterday the old Veil or covering which had
been removed horn the Prophet's tomb at Mecca, and which,
agreeably with the custom at the commencement of every
reign, had been replaced by another, the gift of the present
Sultan, was carried in procession to the seraglio, where it was
deposited with other relics of the same description.
An application was last week made by Baron de Hubsch, the
Danish Minister for a firman, authorising the passage through
the Dardanelles of a frigate having on board Prince Frederick
de Hesse Cassel, nephew of the King of Denmark. The
Porte, however (somewhat uncourtcously, I think, considering
the occasion), has refused to grant the firman, alleging for ex-
cuse the provisions of the treaty of London, by which ships of
war are excluded from these waters.
EGYPT.

" STRATFORD CANNING.

ALEXANDRIA, MA I' 26. —The Mahmludieh Canal has
again been filled with water, so that travellers will not have to
contend with the same difficulties as unfortunately they ex-
perienced this month. The Pacha will also be enabled to bring
his produce to market. He is much in want of money ; he
lately borrowed a considerable amount from the European
merchants established here. His troops are still twenty-three
months in arrears. Great discontent prevails amongst them at
this ill usage. The Pacha this morning determined to levy
the three per cent. ad valorem duty, reserving to himself the
right of all inland and other municipal duties. Although this
measure is perhaps the least burdensome on trade, it is in
direct opposition to the hatti scheriff, which established five
per cent. at places of import, in lieu of every other inland duty.
All the Sultan's firmans, hatti scheriffs, and treaties of com-
merce, are quite dead letters with the Pacha, and always will
be so, as private interests and his open bribery of the Constan-
tinople officials conduce to such ends. The accounts which
reached us from India say, that the steamer India would not.
leave Calcutta before the Ist of May, consequently she may be
expected at Suez in the beginning of next month. • .
I here is a report in town that the English Government is
making arrangements, with that of Austria, to convey her India
mails from Ostend, across Germany to Trieste, and from thence
by the Lloyd steamers direct to this. They say also that the
Danube Company will soon be again plying from this to Con-
stantinople.