exportation have been made at Sarre, Rassebone, Larressore, Ainboa, Arcanguez, Arassa, Urdos de Raigorray, Lasse, Harnavalt, &c.)

I may affirm that not more than seventy horses reached the other side of the frontier until the 7th of this month. (Here follow details, of which we reserve the publication for a future period.)

... The price of each horse is considerably increased on his arrival on the other side of the frontier.

Still this smuggling trade was carried on, on account of private persons, who with two horses ransomed themselves, or their sons, from the service. Don Carlos, on the demand of the Commander-in-chief, Villaréal, has just changed this regulation, by exacting one thousand two hundred francs. instead of horses; because, as happened last year, these young horses can with difficulty support the climate, and two or three months pass before they become capable of rendering good service.

Three-fourths of those which were exported last year died during the winter, without having been employed in the service.

People dread in Spain the requisition for horses, and many of them are taken to the Carlists, who pay pretty well for them, and thus receive them accustomed to the climate. I am certain of the truth of this report.

The circumstance above-mentioned explains the fact of the resumption of the smuggling trade, and I have even learnt this morning, from persons coming from the country, that families are in a state of destitution, because they have been refused by the officers of the Carlist cavalry.

Finally, your Excellency's orders are a new motive for us to redouble our watchfulness.

EFFECT OF "THE PORTFOLIO"

ON THE

POPULATIONS OF TURKEY, CIRCASSIA, AND GEORGIA.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM CONSTANTINOPLE.

September 20th, 1836.

The publication of the "Portfolio" has produced amongst the nations of the East a sensation to which there is no parallel. Translations of it are constantly being made into Turkish; and although they are not printed, they are handed about from family to family; but the fact, the mere fact of such a publication, is quite sufficient for the Turks. They know the Russians. What they want to learn is something about England: and the publication of Russian Despatches in England, laying bare what they have no doubt of, viz., the projects of Russia, fills them with exultation and hope; and is worth ten thousand homilies.

But chiefly is it on the Circassians that this publication has produced a powerful effect. They look on it as their own, fancy it as possessed of some talismanic power, fling it among the Russians, and threaten them with it. It has also found its way into Georgia. The betrayal of the conspiracy of the Georgian Princes was stated in one of the Numbers as having been made by Mehemet Ali. Now the Russians have industriously spread the report throughout Georgia that it was Abbas Meerza who betrayed that instrument to Russia, so as to exasperate the Georgians against the Persians, and to put an end to every future chance of co-operation between them. The number of the "Portfolio" which states the transaction as it really occurred has been translated into Georgian and sent to Tefflis.

We have just received a most interesting report from Circassia, which will be given in our next Number.-ED.

BRITISH INFLUENCE AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Portfolio.

Constantinople, October 5, 1836.

The long expected answer from our Government on the Churchill affair arrived on Sunday last, brought by Mr. Bell in eighteen days, and fully approving of all Lord Ponsonby's conduct. The definitive despatches were only to be forwarded a few days after, so that it yet remains to be seen what communications our Ambassador is authorized to make to the Porte on the subject, and how any demands are, in case of refusal, to be enforced. It is high time that our dignity should be rescued from the discredit thrown upon it by the late arrogant message of M. Boutenieff against Pertez Effendi, and the insinuations in the continental journals, that Lord Ponsonby had been abandoned by his Government, as having advanced farther than it dared venture to follow up. To coincide with the credit, on the contrary, given him by the Cabinet for the spirit he has displayed, he must be instructed to insist on the dismissal of Achmet Pacha from the councils of the Sultan, no matter under what form carried into effect, or we shall be bearded and taunted by Russia as much as ever. Has our Ministry then resolved to go the whole length required in the Turkish question? For all this is involved, in order to ensure the Sultan's compliance with the terms, which would restore our Ambassador to the proper position and influence befitting the representative of the British Sovereign.

The termination of the war in the Kurdistan was not achieved without a near approach to the junction of Persia with the rebels. An act of treachery on the part of that Court missed taking effect, which is almost unparalleled in modern politics: at whose instigation could this have taken place? certainly not that of England. The subserviency of Persia to Russia has been already discovered and signalized ; and the latter, if unjustly accused of any participation in the intrigues of her protégé, must throw the blame on the proverb, "noscitur a sociis." Ravenduz Castle was the last stronghold of the rebel Curdish Pacha, Mohammed. When pressed to extremity, he had a few days before his surrender entered into a compact with envoys from the Persian Miri Asker, or commander on the frontiers, to receive the assistance of twelve thousand troops, the greatest part only five hours' distant within the Turkish territory, and the third division on its march to follow. A portion of the price stipulated for this succour, and for an asylum in Persia in case of need, had already been paid, when the rebel Pacha was induced to dismiss its emissaries, and forego the desperate resource. He surrendered instead unconditionally to the Turkish General-in-chief, Reschid Pacha, and has thrown himself on the Sultan's mercy. The Persians not only had the perfidy to offer support to a rebel against his Government with which they were at peace, but previously tendered the co-operation of their army to the Porte against the same chief, in order to receive double wages. Had the intrigue succeeded (of which the particulars given are perfectly authentic) Kurdistan would still have remained unsettled, and the presence there of the main Turkish army been indefinitely prolonged, or as soon as it evacuated the country after the conquest of Ravenduz Castle, the rebel Curd having first escaped, would have returned from Persia to renew the same horrible disorders. Persia must also

have connected herself with his cause, and entered as a principal into the war, if the Porte did not choose to overlook an egregious injury and open affront. These are the fields in which Russia gathers her harvest-can it be doubted that she has been the sower?

We have her again at work here to embarrass the finances of the Porte, in the remittance of the last instalment of the indemnity for the evacuation of Silistria. This sum, amounting to twenty-five millions of piastres, £250,000, had been paid over in Turkish coin, under a verbal understanding between the mint and the Russian mission that it was to be exported in the same specie, and some compensation made for the loss. It was ascertained, by the unusual demand for bills during two posts previous to the last, that part of the money had been secretly invested by friends of the Russian Court Banker, and this in bills purchased from the Turkish Mint Agent, with which he supplies the market to any extent, in order to keep down the exchanges, and prevent the exportation of gold. The effect was to raise the exchange, which it already has done, two per cent., and prevent the mint continuing its purchases of bullion-forcing it, eventually, to issue its own coin at a loss, or resort to a further depreciation, fatal to the character and interests of the government. The Turkish authorities insist on the engagement having been given not to interfere with the exchange, and are highly indignant at its violation-but what can the Porte do whilst fluttering in the talons of the Russian vulture?

Our Consul-General in Egypt has been giving a specimen of his zeal for our commercial interests, which cannot be too highly appreciated by the country. Russia having a more advantageous tariff with the Porte than England, especially for internal trade, had induced Mehemet Ali to consent to its introduction in his territories. Representations on the