TURKEY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 636, 11 December 1858, Page 4

TURKEY.

The concession for laying down the submarine telegraph to Alexandria has been definitively granted by firman to Mr. Gisborne. who represents an English company with a capital of .£600,000. The line will start from Cape Hellas,, pass by the islands'of Chios and Candia, and will hare one branch line on Smyrna, another on Beyrout, and-a third on Malta and Corfu, uniting with "Great Britain. -'The Elba is immediately to bring the cable from England, and Captain Sprat t, of the Medina, steamer, now at Smyrna, is to be charged with the task of superintending the laying of it down.

A letter from Bagdad states that Omar Pacha had been obliged to shew great determination, and even to threaten to destroy the city, in order to make the inhabitants receive the Turkish troops under his command.

Accounts from Boukara mention that on the Ist Sept. the Mussulmans attacked the Christians iv the village of Djezme, but had "been repulsed.

The ' Times' Paris correspondence contains the following relative ' to' the " Sultanas' Eevolt :"—

" A French correspondence from Constantinople, dated the Bth Sept., contains the following paragraph, which I translate as a good story and not unlikely to be true, but without in any degree guaranteeing its correctness. The Seraskier Eiza Pacha, who, as is known, has been placed at the head of the commission charged to elucidate the accounts of the civil list, and to repress for the future the mad extravagance oi the palace, gave the severest orders in the seraglio to prevent the sultanas from henceforth indulging in their habitual prodigalities, enjoin-" ing them at the same time to moderate the luxury in which they went abroad. Thereupon one of the favourite sultanas, shocked at this novel tutelage, resolved to show that she was not disposed to endure it. The very day after the orders had been given, she ordered her -full dress caique to be got ready, had it covered with gold and silver stuffs, commanded a large retinue of slaves and servants, and went, in this pompous-equipage, to fetch one of the Sultan's daughters, with whom she rambled about all | day. Magnificent equipages awaited at various landing-places the pleasure or caprice •of these ladies, and the sultana ordered her attendants to purchase whatever hit her fancy in shops and bazaars. On her return to tbe imperial palace the first thing she did was to send to lliza Pacha to inform him of all she had done, and the sum of money her freak had cost. Efz i Pacha, astounded at this audacity, went to the Sultan, made his complaint, and besought his Highness to give orders that he should in future be better obeyed. The Sultan listened to him with some attention, and replied, with an air of friendly interest, that all'that Riza Pacha said was good, but that he advised him to leave that sultana quiet, for that otherwise she might play him some ugly trick, for which he, the Sultan, would be sorry. Another sultana has been suffering from a whitlow, arid was operated upon the day before yesterday, by a Greek physician, professor at the School of Medicine at ,Galata Serai. The Sultan caused a sum of 50,000 piastres (about £400) to be given to the operator. After such facts as'these occurring at the very moment of the adoption of the measures of economy, about which s<^ much fuss has been made, how can we consider as serious the scene the Sultan made to his relatives and the orders he gave to put an end to the dilapidation of the Treasury. I repeat to you, scandal will have been the sole result of all that."