21 DECEMBER 1878, Page 2

It is remarkable, considering how important the subject is to

Englishmen, how little we hear of events actually passing at Con- stantinople. According to accounts which must be substantially true, a kind of revolution has occurred in the Palace. The Sultan has detected a plot for placing his brother Resheed on the throne, of which his own brother-in-law, Mahmoud Damad, is the centre. He has accordingly imprisoned his brother, and exiled his- brother-in-law to Tripoli, and by the last accounts was dailysending away officers and Pashas implicated in the affair. He is said to be wild with terror, and all accounts point to great discontent among the soldiery, who are paid in paper-money, which will not buy them sufficient food. They are therefore open to offers from the leaders of the disaffected. The palace is now guarded like a fortress, but it is notable throughout the history of Turkey that no one plans an dmeute directly against the Sultan, unless there is a fair prospect of success. Of course, negotiations in such a con- dition of affairs are tedious, and indeed hardly real. The most careful plans may be overthrown at any moment by a pair of scissors.