The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-18 00:00:00

DISTURBANCE AT PERA

(Further particulars from the Lelpsic Allgemeine Gazette)
CONSTANTINOPLE, JULY 22.—Within this week past the
whole of the Greek Rayas have been plunged into dreadful,
indeed indescribable, distress, and every heart has been deeply
moved. Early in the morning of the 13th of July a Greek
woman with her daughter, a beautiful child only eight years
old, went to fetch water from the well's at Bulanca, a village
near the Seven Towers. While conversing with a female
friend, her attention was withdrawn from her daughter, and
when about to return home she found that her child had dis-
appeared. A Turkish woman, feeling for the distracted mo-
ther, told her that another female Turk had carried off her
child, and that they were in Scutari. The mother instantly
passed over in a boat, and proceeded to the house Which had
been described to her, and there she found her child clothed
in the Turkish costume, with her nails stained red. The mo-
ther claimed her child, and insisted on taking it with her,
but the Turkish lady asserted that the girl was her own child,
and with a bleeding heart, the poor Greek mother was obliged
to depart. Following the advice of her friends, she repaired
to Raouf Pasha, the Grand Vizier, and solicited his assist-
ance. He replied, in rather a surly manner, that she should
have it, and that she must come to him again on Thursday,
the Kith, when her 6ttild should be there.
On the appointed Way, the Greek woman, accompanied by
the priest, the judge, and several inhabitant of her village,
repaired to the Porte, where she found the Grand Vizier, sur-
rounded by officers and servants. Meanwhile, Raoul Pasha
had sent a Kavass-Baschi to Scutari to bring the child, who,
however, had been previously worked upon by presents to
le her to deny her mother. The Kavass-Baschi on

Pt-
the way back applied the like inducements, but when brought
before the Vizier, the force of nature prevailed. On seeing
her parent, the infant ran to her, crying, " mother, mother,
save me." The mother burst into tears, and held her child
fast in a convulsive embrace. Raouf Pasha, reddening with
rage, seized the infant by the hair of the head, while the
attendants beat the mother severely with their fists. 'Having
torn the child from the mother's arms, the Pasha gave it to
another Baschi, who immediately disappeared with it.
The priest and the other Greeks who were present could
not restrain their indignation, and exclaimed, ' How ! you,
the first minister of the state, who should set an example to
others, do you dare to use the subjects of your soveieien in

this manner? Is this the fulfil. ...le hopes wt..—
people were lataly taught to place in you ? Are you making
good the benevolent promises of the Sultan's Matti Scheriff,
by which equal rights and equal protection with your own
people were guaranteed to us ? Do the precepts of your
heretical religion permit this injustice to be done?” On
hearing the concluding reproach all the Karvasses and at-
tendants attacked the priest and the Greek villagers, bastina-
doed them in the most cruel manner, and sent them off to
prison. The priest, however, availed himself of the confusion
to slip out of the way, and succeeded in making his escape.
The poor woman, dreadfully ill-treated and abused, was
thrown in a state of insensibility into the street. As the priest
could -,,lowhere be found, the Greek Patriarch was summoned,
and it was notified to him that he must answer on his life for
the appearance of the offending ecclesiastic within eight days.
Thus, up to the present time, the affair remains ; what has
become of the child nobody knows. Every one is curious to
know what course the rigid and just young Sultan will adopt
with respect to this transaction, as the complaint was pre-
sented to him personally on his last visit to the Mosque.
Every one, too, endeavours to account for the extraordinary
and revolting conduct of the Grand Vizier, who was lately
President of the High Court of Justice, and which is the
more remarkable at the time when a new code declaring Turks

.meat of t'

and Ray as equal before the law has just been published
as, for some years past, both here and in the provinces, many
handsome Greek and Armenian girls, of from six to ten, have
been stolen from their grieving parents, and as this virgin
robbery is believed to be a new branch of industry, a specu-
lation, having for its object to get the children reared in
secret by mercenary wretches until they are of age to be sold
for the harems of the rich, the general opinion is, that Raouf
Pasha had cast his eyes on this one child and given a com-
mission for stealing her. In consequence of the suppression
of the pirate system of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli,
no booty of this kind can any longer be had, in the Mediter-
ranean, and as Greece, Georgia, and Circassia are withdrawn
from the dominion of the Porte, it is found very difficult to
procure a sufficient number of white slaves for the harem.—
It appears, therefore, that child-stealing has been resorted to
as the means of supplying the want so sensibly felt. This
much, however, is certain, that before the downfall of
Khosrew Pasha and the Russian influence, the Greeks would
have been safe from such arbitrary proceedings as those to
which they are now exposed. The fermentation among the
already discontented Greeks is greatly augmented by this
business.

Another affair has occurred which may also have important
results. Near the Artillery Barracks, beside the great ceme-
tery above Pera, there is a field of considerable extent
cultivated by the soldiers. On Sundays and festival days,
when great numbers of the inhabitants of Pera are walking
about, sentinels are placed on the outskirts to prevent the
. . .

people
_from treading on the parts of the ground which
are planted. On the 19th of July a drunken Picdmontese
thought fit to pay no regard to the order of exclusion.
In vain was he admonished not to force his way over the
line, and .the:,Sentinel was at. la 4 obliged to arrest him.—
TWO- Oung French officers, jusf,lieturned from Persia,
took upon themselves to oppose the sentinel, and, with
the arrogance and levity common to their nation, insisted
upon setting the Piedmontese free. Some soldiers came
from a neighbouring post, and an affray quickly com-
menced. One of the Frenchmen disarmed the officer of the
post, and blood was flowing on both sides, when a strong pat-
rol arrived, and the whole of the Franks on the spot, together'
with some inhabitants of Pera, were arrested. So great was
the rage of the soldiers, that on the prisoners being brought
into the barracks, they gave them heavy blows with the but-
ends of their muskets, and then carried them before the Pasha
of Topshana : in spite of all the reclamations of the French
embassy, they had to pass that night in prison. In the morn-
ing the Seraskier consented to listen to their applications and
set them at liberty. Though it was clearly proved that the
French officers were in fault, and had insulted the sentinel,
vet the embassy demands satisfaction and indemnification.
We shall, therefore, in the course of a few days probably see
officers and soldiers who have done their duty degraded and
bastinadoed. The two inconsiderate fools, the French offi-
cers, make no claim for any sort of pecuniary compensa-
tion, but the Dragoman of the embassy, to whom the busi-
ness is referred, persuades them to the contrary. Indiffer-
ence does not suit his way of dealing, for he well knows that
a considerable part of the sum will find its way to his purse,
and so good a job does not come in his way every day. But
how does all this accord with the boasting of the French, that
they alone are civilizing the Turks, and creating for them an
army which is to be feared and respected, since they are the
very persons who constantly discourage them in the most
mortifying manner, trampling on honour and duty—on every-
thing that ought to be held sacred by the soldier?
HALF-PAST Six O'CLOCK 1N THE EVENING.—My let-
ler of this day's date is sent to the post-office, and I cannot
recal it. I must therefore write a postscript on another
sheet to tell you, that all the warehouses and shops of the
Greeks (those who are subjects of King Otho) are closed by
order of the government, and that it is notified to them that
they must return to Greece within eight days, or become
Rayas. There-is now nothing but confusion—women crying,
men storming. The police has put seals on all the warehouses
and workshops.. The unfortunate Greeks are now wandering
in groups through the streets. It is a sad thing to see so
much distress, so many eyes moistened with tears. Amidst
general excitement, nobody knows to what cause so extraor-
dinary a re-action is to be attributed—whether to King Otho's
rejection of the commercial treaty, or to the manifestation
of sympathy by the Greek population in favour of the de-
posed Grand Vizier, Khosrew Pasha, arid Russia. God help
these unfortunate beings, and preserve them from yet more
horrible scenes of cruelty ! I tremble to find my forebodings
ooner realised than I expected.