A telegram has been received in London this week which
may prove to he valueless, or of the last importance, according to events. It is asserted, and at Constantinople believed, that a powerful tribe in Yemen, the southern Red-Sea division of Arabia, of which Mecca is the capital, has proclaimed a Mus- sulman of Bombay, Mahmoud Shereef-ed-din, supreme Khalif, Mahmoud claims to be a descendant of the Prophet—and probably is, as the pedigrees have been well kept—and, of course, asserts that he is the Mehdi, or Messiah, whom the Mussulmaa world is now so eagerly expecting. If the movement is stamped out at once, no more will be heard of Mahmoud. Shereef-ed-din, or of the subject, till the next Mehdi appears ; but if it is not, a new Khalif, with Arabia behind him, would shake the Sultan's throne more decisively than any European attack.
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