6 DECEMBER 1879, Page 2

Nothing advances at Constantinople except the Floating Debt. The Sultan

did not, after all, sign Baker Pasha's appointment, and that officer has gone to Aleppo as a sort of Reporter-General, to whom the Sultan may attend, if he pleases. His Majesty probably will not please, as he has to find great-coats for his guards, who say sentry-duty is impos- sible without them ; to find troops for Mukhtar Pasha, whom the Albanians threaten because he has to hand over territory to Montenegro ; and to settle the Greek question, which will shortly become more pressing than ever. The Greeks do not declare war, but they have, according to the Tignee, forwarded a serious hint through the King of Denmark to the European Powers that if they do not obtain their provinces quickly, their Danish King shall go. As the consequent election to the throne. would reopen the whole Eastern Question, the Sultan may be ordered, from Berlin and London, to accede to the Greek demands, under penalty of being left to face the coming explosion by himself. With all these things on his hands,. the Sultan will doubtless be ready to let the still more disagree- able subject of reforms alone.