30 OCTOBER 1852, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

AGAIN an Eastern question is thrown open by France, and in a manner far more formidable than the aspect of affairs presented in 1840. Although the money-market dispute respecting "the Turk- ish loan ". burst upon the public suddenly, it has been only by de- grees that we have come to understand that something more than a money question is in agitation : but we can now farm a conjec- ture as to the actual state of affairs. The present crisis may be said-to take its origin in three different sources. One of them is a chronic cause of uneasinessthe oveiwhelming power of Russia, generally aided by her rival Austria. The acute and more im- mediately exciting Causes are the disorganized state of . Turkish finances, and the new operations of France. '

• The Sublime Porte labours under difficulties which aggravate the usual irregularities of Mussulman taxgatherers. Of the amount collected from the people in semibarbarous countries the portion that usually reaches the Central treasury is small; but to this general characteristic we' maYridd, that the Sublime Porte is bound to maintain a very, sublime splendour of state—tint new- fangled attempts at imitating European improvements , in corn- memo and manufactures have been made under-court patronage, and have only become new opportunities for official robbery—and that the necessities of the state have drawn around its Government a host of mercantile sharks. The finances of ConstantinoPlelabour under the two almost incompatible inflictions—the constant ten- dency of the revenue to leave off, and the no less constant tendency of the regal expenditure to go on. In the Bank of Constantinople was vainly expected an instrument for bringing finance to .a better .condition.

The other of the exciting causes must be sought in Paris. Louis :Napoleon-Bonaparte, whom we do not know at present whether to call President or Emperor overtly -confesses to the-Aream of carry:- ing out the projects OrhislJnele, 'and "in` respect to the East he has marked the purpose of his future career,by proposing to call himself "Protector of the Holy .Places." His Ambassador, 31: de Lavalette, made good his entrance into the Bosphorus-in an armed ship, against the rules of international law and the Protests of the Turkish. authorities ; and he claimed to do so on the score of the peculiarly tender interest. of France in Orientalaffairs. M. de lAvalette took up his abode in Constantinople; and, find- ing his friend the Sultan in difficulties, what more natural than to offer assistance and advice P We next find these concurrent fads M. de Lavalette urgently advises his friend in difficultias to seek assistance in the willing money-markets of Paris and Lon- don; and the Bank of Constantinople, in which-we believe there-is a French partner, is authorized by the Sultan to contract a loan of 200,000,000 piastres-2,000,0001. sterling—in those markets. The money would have come very opportunely; but in the mean time a difficulty occurs.

Probably—for we have only the results and no statement of the causes—the representative of Russia took alarm at the singularly intimate position of the French Ambassador, who came to save the Sultan as his master had saved society ; and we next find the Sultan, confessedly under Russian influence, withdrawing his sanction for the loan. Speculators in the London and Paris markets are in a rage, for they are disappointed; but so are the Ulemas and the Conservative party of Turkey, who have prejudices against money dealings, especially with infidels. France is angry ; Russia and Austria come to the support of the Sultan; and the English representative, it is said, now takes the same aide. Thus the matter stands at present. The French Ambassador threatens to withdraw. The Sultan and his supporters adhere to the status quo. The occasion which has allied Austria and Rus- sia so intimately on Turkish ground must be one of grave import-

since ; and in this- Oriental crisis about a paltry money loan, the advoeates of " peace at all price" should see how little depends upon the mere negative will of this country. The crisis exists ; the con- -sequences cannot be calculated ; and England must be prepared for .what may happen.