The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-03 00:00:00

LEVANT MAIL:

j By an extraordinary conveyance from Meta, the Prome-
theus steam-packet, proceeding to Genoa to embark Lady Can-
ning for Constantinople, we have accounts from that island to
the evening of the 18th of May, at which date the fleet under
the command of Vice- Admiral Sir E. W. C. R. Owen, Con-
sisting of the Queen, 110, flag-ship ; Impregnable, 104; Cal-
cutta, 78 ; Vanguard, 80 ; Cambridge, 7.s ; and Devastation
war-steamer were all ready for sea, with four months' provisions
on hoard, and boats all in, but its destination was a profound
secret, and it was generally supposed that the ships would
weigh anchor immediately. Sir Francis Mason in the Howe,
with the Thunderer and Savage in company, were signalised
on their hourly expected return from Tripoli. In consequence
of the inability of Sir Samuel Roberts to resume the command
of the Calcutta, at any rate for some time to come, being still in
a precarious state of health, the Commander-in-Chief has
appointed Captain Rich, of the Queen, to the Calcutta, and
given an acting order as Captain of the Queen to Com-
mander Henry, of the Devastation, appointing to this latter
also, with an acting order as Commander, his Flag-Lieutenant
Robinson. Sir Samuel Roberts has not invalided, and will,
consequently, continue drawing full pay. The Phoenix, war•
steamer took her departure with the mails for Corfu and Pa-
tras on the 15th.; and the Alecto steam-packet, for Gibraltar,
with the mails for England, on the 16th instant, on which
day the-Vesuvius war-steamer was dispatched to the eastward,
report says, for Tripoli; the Inconstant is looked for from
Bey rout.
Our Malta Correspondent furnishes us with dates from
Naples to the Bth of May, Tripoli in Barbary to the 12th, Con-
stantino?le to the sth, Alexandria to the 6th of May, and Bey
rout to the 27th of April
NA rLEs.—The anticipations of a rupture with Holland and
Naples appear to have been premature, and the Lastiness of the
Neapolitan sovereign to show his weakness by recommending
the mercantile racy to borrow other colours, cannot be ac-
counted for. What with the panic of war and the impress-
ment of all merchant seamen into the navy, to man a squadron
destined for the Brazils, to do honour at the nuptials of the
Emperor with his Sicilian Majesty's sister, has so distressed
commercial shipping that the owners are dismantling some.
Tnirom IN BA ABA ItY.—The affairs of this ill-gaverned
Pachalic, neglected as they have been for many years, appear
to have at length attracted the attention and notice of the
British Government. Steamers arrive continually from MAO,
with despatches for the_ British. Consul, which are answered
instantaneously, and this has called forth the anger of his
Highness the Pacha Askar Ali. Two important objects,
it is said, the British Government has in view—the
abolition of the inhuman traffic in slaves, and the re-
moval of the obnoxious Pacha. Lately, and immediately
after the arrival of the Devastation steamer of war from
Malta, an appeal, printed in Arabic, was posted up at the Bri-
tish Consulate, inviting and entreating in the name of her Ma-
jesty's Government, all those now engaged in the slave-trade
to abandon such heartless traffic, as revolting to justice and
humanity; and the whole is wound up by setting forth that
such are not the only personal feelings and desire of her Ma-
jesty the Queen of Great Britain, and her Ministers collec-
tively and individually, but of the entire nation, and that on a
future day her Majesty might have occasion to show her good
intentions towards the people of Tripoli. This document, by
express directions of the Pacha, was torn down, and ever since
his desire to pick a serious quarrel with the Consul has been
incessant. An Arab of the advanced age of sixty has been
thrown into prison heavily ironed, and is in jeopardy of losing
his head, for no other crime than having been seen conversing
with the son of the British Consul. This latter having had
the commander of the Locust (who lately materially assisted a
Tripoline schooner of war off the rocks), lining with him,
sent his dragoman to solicit a permit for the British offi-
cers to l ass the town gates after the usual closing hour, a
permit which has heretofore never been refused to any of
the Consuls, whereupon the Pacha spat in the messenger's
face, and heaped upon him the most insulting epithets, Zilch
will not bear repeating. Several British subjects signed a de-
claration, to the effect that such was the excited feeling of the
l'acha towards the nation, that they considered their lives in
jeopardy ; this docoment was dispatched to the Admiral, at
Malta, on the 3d of May. Abdel Gelil, the Arab chief, has
been much encouraged by the late visit of the British Consul,
and is said to have not only defied, but absolutely threatened
to attack the Pacha. Some assert that the Arabs are march-
ing in a strong force against Misurata, and others go the
length of saying that the garrison have already had a skirmish
with the people of the desert; that these latter came off vic-
torious, and were close upon Tripoli ; which, added to a report
of the approach of a British naval force, had in some mariner
intimidated the Pacha, who nevertheless refused to render sa-
tisfaction to the British Consul for the acts of insolence offered
to him and others under his protection.
Abdel Gelil has solemnly promised to liberate 4,000 slaves,
and pass the most rigourous laws and enactments for the aboli•
tion of slavery, immediately his tribes are freed from the yoke
they are now under by the removal of Askar Ali, and the no-
mination of an Arab chief to the Government of Tripoli, under
the obligation of recognizing the Sultan's supreme sovereignty
by a heavy annual tribute.
CONSTANTINOPLE.—The divan appears exclusively engaged
in deliberations upon finance schemes, which appear to be of
difficult decision, inasmuch as the Imperial treasury is nearly in
a state of bankruptcy, notwithstanding which, strange to say,
the Sultan continues pensioning his favourites.
BEYBOUT. —The Druse chiefs continue in durance vile, and
nothing is yet known as to what is to become of them. Seve-
ral Maronite elders have been invited by the Seraskier Mus•
tapha Paella to repair to Beyrout, to assist at a general con-
ference ; but these, having the fate of the Druses so recently
before them, have declined the invitation, fearing to be en-
trapped.
Albanian troops have arrived from Salonica, and horrible
excesses are looked for, from the well-known bloody disposition
of this undisciplined hand.
Mustapha Pacha, desirous of limiting within the narrowest
bounds, if not destroying in toto the influence of foreign
Powers in Syria, has called upon several of the Consuls to
withdraw their protection from several rayas. Colonel Rose,
the British Consul, has been attacked outside the town gates,
when on horseback, by an Albanian, who presented a pistol to
his breast, but which happily missed fire, and the Colonel was
indebted to the swiftness of his Arab charger for saving his life.
The Turkish authorities pretend they have been unable to
trace the delinquent. The plague rages in various parts of
Syria, but more particularly at St. Jean d'Acre, Sevi, and Dar-
,
el -Kam ar. . _

...... .
ALExannnta.—His Highness the Pacha arrived from
Upper Egypt on the night of the 30th of April, and took up
his residence at the Palace of Ras-el-tin, where, on the day
following, amidst the salutes from the batteries and ships of
war, he received the European merchants, and, indeed, one
might almost say the entire population of Alexandria. Learn-
ing the stagnant state of trade, he immediately set about a
movement by selling off 200,000 ardebs of wheat and beans, the
former at 66, the I atter at 36 piastres, but which prices, being
purchased payable in assignments, or Government bonds,
which bear a discount of about 25 per cent., reduces them to
53 and 31 piastres respectively. Several ships have been taken
up for Malta at fourteen to fifteen tari freight per salm, which
is an advance of from two to three tari upon what has been
lately paid. A Greek house has purchased from 30,000 to
40,000 ardels sesame seed of the sew crop, deliverable by the
peasantry in five and six months, at 125 to 130 piastres per
ardeb, and the Pacha promises to reduce his pretensions for
cotton, for which thus far he has held out for ten dollars
the kintal. The Egyptian navy has at length adopted the
Sultan's uniform, and no doubt the army and marines will
do the same before long. Mehemet Ali continues in his deter-
mination of devoting the remainder of his days to benefiting
the country. An engineer has received orders for damming
the Nile in a mode to protect against overflows on the one
hand and scarcity on the other. The plague still hovers over
the place. A French Company is about establishing itself at
Cairo, to undertake the conveyance of passengers through the
desert, at prices much under those of Hill and Waghorn.
JESUITICAL PLOT HAPPILY DISCOVERED, AT
MALTA, AGAINST THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.
You will see by the Mediterranean newspaper. of which I
send you two copies by this mail, that a Maltese canon, of the
name of Annetto Casolani, the son of Sir Vincent asaloni,
collector of land revenues, and of whose family one is to be
found in every public department of the island, has been de-
tected in corresponding with the Papist Peer, Lord Clifford, in
a manner ill becoming one who, through the intrigues of his
lather, was raised to one of the highest dignities of the church,
over the heads of hundreds, at the early age of 14 (! !), by the
very Government be so unwarrantably and ungratefully abuses.
'I he pretended excitement of the people against the Governor
for suspendino. the Jesuits' preaching is false ; the pretended
interference of the Italian refugee is equally false, for whatever
may have been their crimes against their own Sovereign here
at Malta, they are the most inoffensive characters in existence.
Attacked as they have been by the beardless canon and Lord
Clifford, doubtless some unpleasantness might have been anti-
cipated, but nothing of the kind has occurred. The Rev. Mr.
Casolani fled this morning, in the French steamer, for the
Levant, where it is hoped he will find a wider field to exercise
his jesuitical talents, and indeed, but for the high wind which
prevails, it was intended to mark the auspicious event of there
being one Casolani less on the island by a general illumination.
St. I'aul, in freeing the island of venemous reptiles, appears to
have overlooked some ancestor of this snake in the grass. The
British Government are much indebted to Lord Clifford's
having bunglingly published that which was never meant for
the public eye.
MALTA, MAY 19.—The Vesuvius steam frigate, which left
Malta on the 16th, returned to port yesterday afternoon,
having been off Tripoli to order back the Howe, 120 (bearing
the flag of Rear- Admiral Sir Francis Maion, second in com-
mand), and the Thunderer, 80 ; both of which have just an-
chored here. It appears that these ships, whowhich left Malta on
the 19th inst., having. reached Tripoli, stood off and on for
several days, during which frequent communications were kept
up between Colonel Warrington, the consul on shore, and the
Rear-Admiral, by fumigated despatches, through the medium
of the Savage brig of war, which vessel, on the arrival of the
Vesuvius, was sent in with orders for the commanders to land
and proceed in person to the Consulate ; whereupon, the steamer
and liners 'withdrew before, as it is reported, bringing the Pacha
to his senses. Such a proceeding is very impolitic, for if they
had no orders to carry their point, they ought not to have been
ever sent. Admiral Sir E. Owen continues in port, with the
fleet under his command. Lieut. Bedford has succeeded to the
acting flag lieutenancy.

THE RXILROAD QUESTION IN

FRANCE.

----- - _
The Chamber of Deputies rejected on Tuesday the three
bills relative to the railroads of Strasburgh to Basle, Bordeaux
to La Teste, and Paris to Versailles, along the left bank of the
Seine. The Ministry had proposed to authorise the former
to borrow 6,000,000 f. for the completion of the works, but the
Chamber on being assured that the Company possessed ample
means to complete them, and that one of the proprietors still
held 34,000 shares unsold, thought proper to withhold the
authorization. By the second bill, the Minister of Public
Works asked to be empowered to lend 2,000,000 f. to the
Bordeaux and Tes!is Railroad Company, and to dispense the
Paris and Versailles Company with paying the interest of a sum
of 5,000,000 f., loaned to it last Fear, until the Ist of January,
1859. This demand was likewise negatived by the Chamber,
and the ballot on the three bills produced only 63 votes in their
favour, arid 206 against their adoption.
The Journal des Debate fears " the Chamber of Deputies
will have reason to regret the rejection of the Bill brought in
for the purpose of assisting the directors of the Strasburg and
Basle Railroad, together with that from Bordeaux to La Teste,
and that from farts to Versailles. The bill prayed a loan for
the Bordeaux line of two millions—a trifling sacrifice in favour
of a department which is suffering so much, The demand for
the Strasburg Company was still less. The bill merely prayed
that the company might be permitted toborrow the sum neces-
sary to complete the road, without which both Strasburg and
Basle will be deprived of all advantage from it. This would
appear to be the least which could be done for a railroad des-
tined to form an integral part of the great line from the Medi-
terranean to the Rhine, and which its skilful and enterprising
contractor completed in four years less than the stipulated
period at his own risk and peril.
" The vote appears to be the more to be regretted, because
it is of a nature to extinguish all spirit of enterprise, and is
calculated to diseout age the formation of companies, or if in
future any should offer themselves, it will be on terms un-
favourable to the public."
The National observes, that the result of the vote on the
I Strasburg and Basle Rrlroad Bill in the Chamber of Deputies
on Tuesday last, will be
I, that henerforward no compani l
be found to undertake the construction of the lines reserved for
public competition by the Railtoad Bill which passed the C. ham
iber of Deputies. Hereafter the late bill will becomeinexe-
eutable. " We congratulate our:elves on this result,l adds.the
National, ~ but we would Tattier not have obtained it at

th e cost of private misfortune, as was the case on Tuesday,
co nsequ nee of the improvidence of the Chamber, and ihruugh
the incapacity of the Minister.
" The present season may be considered as one to be added
to all those already lost in regard to 1 üblic works of utility.
This last check is dus to the Ministry, Ile most impotent which
has yet appeared. M. Guizit was twce defeated, and aban.
Boned even by his friends, on the English question. Again,,
on Saturd iv last, the Minister of Marine was obliged to accept
3,000,0001. which he did net wish for, and which M. Lacare
Laplagne, so prodigal towards M. Rothschild, declared to be
beyond the means of the Treasury. On Tuesday, M. Test. saw
his system of public wo ks fall to pieces. We ask, then, where
is the Ministerial majority ?"