The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-20 00:00:00

MALTA.

VALETTA, Oct. s.—My last went by the Rhadamanthus
steam-frigate, which, having been relieved on this station by
the Stromboli, took her departure for Gibraltar and England
on the 30th ult.

Her Majesty's ship Vanguard, Captain Sir David Dunn,
arrived, yesterday, in 20 days, from Cork, bring Lieut..
Colonel Hamilton and 11 other officers, 271 men, 29 women,
and 31 children, of the 19th regiment, as a reinforcement to
this garrison, which has been left for some time one regiment
short of its usual strength. By this arrival the British force,
under Admiral Sir Robert Stopford, will be increased to 13
line-of-battle ships, 6 frigates, 2 post corvettes, 1 sloop, 5
brigs, 2 steam-frigates, 3 other powerful war steamers, 1
steam-tender, 5 steam-packets, 2 surveying vessels, 1 receiv-
ing ship, and 1 coal depot—making in all 42 pendants, of the
burden of 47,549 tons ; mounting 1,391 guns ; carrying 9,605
officers, men, and boys ; and 2,741 marines, and marine ar-
tillery. The combined strength of the steamers is 2,200-
horse power.
We continue without any fresh intelligence from Syria.
From Alexandria there is nothing of importance up to the
26th ult., as you will hear by the letter of your correspon-
dent thereat. The trade of Malta has been this moment no-
tified officially that the blockade of the ports and coasts of
Alexandria and Egypt is to commence on the 13th instant.
The French steamer brings from Constantinople Kerran
Effendi, Ambassador from the Sultan to the Bey of Tunis,
for whom a Tunisian corvette is in port here to convey him
thither.

The three gun-boats, which were reported as Neapolitan,
proved to be Romans—the Fedelta, the San Pietro, and the
San Paolo, arrived here on the 90th ult., bound to Alexan-
dria, having on board a mission and presents from his Holi-
ness the Pope to Mehemet Ali. In consequence of the dis-
turbed state of affairs they remain in port. The Sovereign
transport, with condemned store and invalids from the regi-
ments in garrison (embarked to-day), takes her departure
for England to-morrow.
The following are the letters notifying the blockade of the
coasts of Egypt and Syria, above alluded to :
(Copy.) " Chief Secretary's Office,
Valetta, Oct. 5.
_ _ _

" Sir,—l am directed by his Excellency the governor to
transmit to you, for the information of the British mer-
chants, copy of a letter he has received to-day, from Viscount
Ponsonby, enclosing copy of a notification issued by the
Sultan, announcing that the blockade of Syria and Egypt is
to commence on the 13th instant.—l have the honour to be,
sir, your most obedient humble servant,
(Signed) " H. GREIG, Chief Sec. to Gov.
" To the Chairman of the Committee
of British Merchants, Commercial-rooms, &c."

TURKEY.
CONSTANTINOPLE, SEPT. 23.—We have received no di-
rect news from Syria, though a steamer from the fleet has
been anxiously looked for for more than a week past.
Through various indirect channels, however, tolerably au-
thentic intelligence has reached us, which all tend to confirm
our suspicions as to the difficulty of again raising the inha-
bitants of the Liban, overawed as they are by powerful corps
of troops stationed at different commanding positions. Our
ministers seem to have placed too blind a reliance on the
Syrian insurrection, which every one, who knew the state of
the mountains and the eternal divisions which reign among
the tribes, as well as the overwhelming force which Ibrahim
Pacha could immediately direct against them, could have
predicted at the commencement would be speedily sup-
pressed. It is true that the flame, though partially smo-
thered, is not extinguished, and that the assistance of a
corps of troops would, in all probability, again arouse the
crushed, but not subdued, spirit of the mountaineers, and
even shake the fidelity of the cautious Emir Bechir. Lord
Palmerston seems to have felt the necessity of preparing a
small corps of British troops to co-operate with the Turks,
and to have actually had it in contemplation to send 3,000
men to the Mediterranean, when Mr. Hume, who had got
scent of his design, and popped the question, wrung from
him a reluctant No ! Under pretext, however, of relieving
several regiments at Gibraltar, Malta, and Corfu, we are
happy to•see that a few regiments are now on their way out,
which no doubt will be employed as circumstances may re-
quire. Reschid Pacha has prepared a long expose of the
Egyptian question, in which the rebellious acts of Mehemet
Ali are painted in the blackest colours, while the long-suf-
fering patience of the Sultan, and the important sacrifices he
was ieady to make to prevent the effusion of blood, along
with his magnanimous intentions towards his subjects of all
denominations, are elaborately commented on in five pages
of Turkish print. Sixteen thousand copies of this document
have been printed, in order to be distributed throughout
Syria and Egypt, as occasion shall offer. The foreign con-
suls are still at Beyrout. Abbas Pacha has been detached
with four regiments to reinforce the garrison of St. Jean
d'Acre, and Ibrahim Pacha has left Balbeck to take up his
quarters again at Marasch, from whence it is said he medi-
tates a forward movement.
CONSTANTINOPLE, SEPT. 27.—A report was brought by
the French steamer, which arrived on the morning of the
25th, that hostilities had commenced on the Syrian coast,
and that Beyrout had been taken. The first has been con-
firmed,
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for. The attack on Beyrout had commenced, and after se-
veral days' cannonading, during which the town had been
fired in several places, a partial breach had been made in the
eastern wall. It was supposed that the heavy cannon of the
steamers would soon render the breach practicable, but the
small number of troops (barely equal to the garrison of the
place), which could be employed in an assault, would render
success doubtful. Meantime the Turkish troops, supported
by a body of marines, had been landed on the rocky tongue of
land called Boodroun, on which they immediately proceeded
to construct a redoubt, strengthened by
.a line of outworks.
The redoubt was garrisoned by the marines, and the defence
of the outposts was entrusted to the Turkish regulars, under
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command of European officers, a thing unprecedented in
Ottoman story.

MONTE VIDEO.
An arrival from Monte Video brings dates from thence to
the 24th of July, and from Buenos Ayres to the 22d. The
Alcyone French sloop of war from Brest had arrived at Monte
Video on the 22d of July, but nothing was known on the
23d of the nature of the despatches of which she was the
bearer. It was believed, however, that one object of her
mission was to stop M. Martigny, the French consul, from
drawing more bills on the French government. He had be.
fore contracted to advance Rivera, the chief of Monte Video,
200,000 dollars, 100,000 of which on crossing the Parana in
his operations against Rosas. Rivera crossed the river, and
received the money. The other 100,000 were to be advanced
subsequently, and the Alcyone, as supposed, carried out in-