FOREIGN NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 19, 17 May 1851, Page 3

FOREIGN NEWS.

"We extract tlie following from the Neiv Zealand Spectator of the 3rd inst. Letters from Constantinople, via Trieste, dated the 9th November, have come to hand ; they make no mention of news, other than those alleged to have been received of the death of the Sultan by poison. A large army had been marched from Damascus by Emir Pacha, to put down the insurgents of Aleppo. The latter, seized with terror, abandoned the city, and fled to the mountains, where they mustered in the denies to the amount of several thousands. The insurrection of Aleppo was part of a vast conspiracy for the uprising of the whole of Syria, the day fixed for the explosion being the second of the festival of Courban Bairam, the 17th October. Whilst the people of Aleppo were in insurrection, the Arabs and others, in the environs of Balbek, raised the great standard of revolt, their chiefs being the Harbouch family, men of eminence in their tribe. A large force from Damascus succeeded in putting down this Balbek demonstration. The troops arrived before Balbek on the Kith of November, and the insurgents retired to the defiles to the number of 4000 to 5000. The Turkish troops attacked, routed the insurgents, and killed a great number (400) ; besides, they made several prisoners, including the chiefs of the Harbcmch family, who were brought in chains to Damascus, and paraded round the streets. These chiefs were afterwards sent to Constantinople for trial. Zarif Pacha, governor of Aleppo, whose guilty supineness led to the massacre of the inhabitants, has been dismissed, and Meliemet Pacha, late envoy to London, appointed in his stead.