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 more 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 then, 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 reporter that the misunderstanding between Sir S. Canning and M. Pisani has been arranged, and that the latter has been restored to his functions.
The Illustrated London News, London England, Week Ending May 28, 1842