THE INSURRECTION IN SYRIA.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 600, 3 May 1851, Page 4

THE INSURRECTION IN SYRIA.

Letters from Constantinople,' vid Trieste, dated the 9th November have come to hand; they make no mention less than those alleged to have been received, of the death of the . Sultan by poison. A large army had been marched from Damascus by Emir Pacha/ to put down the insurgents of Aleppo. The latter, seized with terror, abandoned the city, and fled to the mountains, where they mustered in the defiles to the- amount of several thousands. The insurrection of Aleppo was part of a vast conspiracy for the uprising of the whole of Syria, the day fixed for the explosion being the second of the festival of Courban Bairam (the 17 th October.) Whilst the people of Aleppo were in insurrection, the Arabs and others, in the environs of Balbek, raised the standard of revolt, their chiefs being the Harbouch family, men of eminence in their tribe. A large force from Damascus succeeded in "putting down this Balbek demonstration. The •troops arrived before Balbek on the 16th of November, and the insurgents retired to the defiles to the number of 4000 to 5000. The Turkish troops attacked, routed the insurgents, and killed a great number (400); besides, they made several prisoners, including the chiefs of the Harbouch family, who were brought in chains to Damascus, and paraded around'the streets. These chiefs were afterwards sentto Constantinople for trial. Zarif Pacha, governor of Aleppo, whose guilty supineness led to the massacre’of the inhabitants, has been dismissed, and Mebemet Pacha, late envoy to London, appointed in his stead.