THE LEVANT MAIL.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 33, 22 November 1842, Page 3

THE LEVANT MAIL.

Letters from Constantinople/ Alexandria, and Malta, were received in town by express on Thursday morning, and the following are extracts from the most important subjects contained in them:—

Constantinople, May 5. A Turkish steamer is daily expected from Beyrout with eight Druse chieftains, recently arrested by order of the Seraskier, at Beteddin, near Deir el Kamr. The cause of their arrest is thus accounted for.

In order to insure the tranquillity of the Lebanon, and to prevent a renewal of the sanguinary struggles that have so repeatedly broken out between the Maronites and Druses, and, above all, to check the audacity and unprovoked aggressions of the latter upon the Christians, it has been held advisable by the Porte to disarm both tribes, as far as such disarmament was practicable. But the people, encouraged by their Sheiks, refused to comply; and these Sheiks, especially those arrested, menaced the Turkish authorities with a general revolt of all their clans, should forcible measures be adopted to produce submission. Upon receiving this information, and that a revolt was about to break out, the Seraskier deemed it necessary to adopt instant measures for enforcing the demands of the Porte. The best mode that suggested itself was, if possible, to obtain possession of the persons of the Druse Sheiks, and to detain them as hostages for the good conduct of their kinsmen and tribes. As this measure could not be effected forcibly without much bloodshed on both sides, it was resolved to have recourse to stratagem. Consequently, the principal Sheiks implicated in the plot, were summoned to a council, by Omer Pacha, at Beteddin. The demands of the Porte having been renewed, and again rejected by them, they were surrounded on issuing from the Governor’s palace, seized, and disarmed by the Turkish troops, and then sent to Beyrout, when the proofs of their intended revolt were exhibited to them, and they were then forwarded as prisoners to the Sublime Porte.

Some importance has been attached within the last week to a note upon Syrian affairs, said to have been written in strong terms, and transmitted by Count Nesselrode to the Porte. No direct note has, however, been addressed by the Russian Cabinet to that of the Sultan. It is reported that the misunderstanding between Sir S. Canning and M. Pisani has been

arraigned, and that the lattei 1 has been restored to his functions.

Oh Monday the 2nd instant, the Sultan, attended by his ordinary suite, inspected the naval arsenal, and the dock-yard, and then Went on board the huge Mahmoudieh, and the Corvette recently presented by the Dey of Tunis. Tfie Saltan was attended by the Captain Pacha; Yavar Pacha (Admiral Walker), and by the shperintendents of the different departments, among whom was Mr. Reeves, from the United States, who is the principal naval architect. The Riala Bey and captains of the fleet were assembled on board the Mahmoudieh to receive the Sultan, who minutely examined every part of the stupendous vessel, and conferred various distinctions upon officers and men. The fleet/ consisting of about nine line of battle ships, and as many frigates and corvettes in commission, will quit the harbour for its summer station in the Bosphorus, as soon as the whole are ready. It is understood that Taher Pacha has obtained the contract for the customs duties of Constantinople. He has obtained this contract fpr fifty millions of piastres. There can be mb doubt that, if properly administered, these customs ijire susceptible of producing a much larger su^. The Transit through Egypt. —The Desert of Sixer bids fair to become, in a very short time, almpSt as much a frequented thoroughfare as thy Great North Road. Arrangements on an extensive scale are in the course of progress, by the Egytian Oriental Transit Company, for facilitating the intercourse with India, &c., through Egypt, both for passengers and goods j and the Pacha had offered his aid to the undertaking by the appropriation of 100,000 dollars (20/000/.) from his treasury, to be laid out for improving the road; in building a large hotel at Suez, in transit depots; &c:, which were to be rented of him by the company. Meantime, competitors against Hill & Co. have started, for the conveyance of passengers between Cairo and Suez, who have provided a considerable number of carriages, horses, &c., and have issued circulars, offering to convey passengers across the Desert on much more moderate terms than what have hitherto been demanded by Hill & Co. Opposition hotels and station-houses in the Desert were even talked of.

The British merchants residing at Smyrna have recently addressed a letter to Lord Aberdeen, representing the expediency of a direct steam communication between Great Britain and the Levant. According to this memorial, j;he advantages in the way of communication possessed by continental over British manufacturers in the Smyrna market are so great, that, in default of some alteration of the present system, there is danger of the British being driven out of competition altogether. A letter from Alexandria, 26th ult., in the Leipsic Gazette, states, that the chief of an Abyssinian tribe, at war with Egypt, having been taken prisoner in a conflict with some Egyptian troops, Mehemet Ali has ordered that he shall be retained as a hostage until M. Blondel, the Belgian consul, who, whilst travelling in Abyssinia, was made a prisoner by this tribe, on the pretext of his being a spy, shall have been released. Greece Letters from Athens of the 28th April state, that several violent shocks of an earthquake were felt in various parts of the Peloponneses; on the 18th, at Sparta; the shocks lasted from 25 to 30 seconds each. The inhabitants ran terrified out of their houses. On the same day, and in the course of the night, four or five other slighter shocks were experienced. Beyond the Eurotas an immense rock fell from Mount Menelas, near the village of Drouchas. An old tower situate in the town of Magoules was thrown to the ground. At Mistra the soil trembled with more violence than it did at Sparta, and a portion of the Hellenic College and several houses were destroyed. The water of the springs and wells became, turbid, and an enormous rock, having detached itself from the summit of old Mount Mistra, rolled:With terrific noise into the town. At Calames the first shock, felt at half-past 9 o’clock, lasted between 40 and 50 seconds, and there were ten others from that hour until midnight, at intervals of three-quarters of an hour. Most of the houses were damaged, and several in the neighbourhood actually gave way. Upwards of 50 dwellings were thrown down at Areopolis, and 15 towers crumbled at (Etylus. Many persons were buried under the ruins of their houses in the province of Maina. At Antrousa several churches fell in. On the 25th ult., at about 4 o’clock a. m., another shock was felt at Patras, which lasted a minute and a halfe.

ThePuseyites in Liverpool. —Perhaps our readers are not generally aware that the clergyman appointed to the church lately built in Warwick-street, conducts the service on the Puseyite principle. He reads the prayers arid preaches in the white gown, and last Sunday morning, after a collection had been made, the money-boxes were handed td him at the communion table, where he had gone at the conclusion of the sermon. He took the boxes and placed them on the communion table, and offered Up a prayer, dedicating the money to

the service of the Church. Another ofitwardpeculiarity is, that the minister reads the hymns which are sung, instead of the clerk doing so, as iri churches generally. The man who acts somewhat in the capacity of clerk, by.leading in the responses, takes his scat in the first pew on the ground. floor, no reading desk beingprovided. The number attending is very small. — Mercury.