Universal nervousness is reported from Constantinople, the people flying and
shutting their shops at the sound of a gun-shot, of glass breaking, or of hurrying feet. The deportations of Armenians continue, it being considered more convenient to read them " lessons " in the provinces, and the provincial troops have been exhorted, whenever resisted or threatened, to use their rifles. The Porte meanwhile issues official documents asserting that all disturbances are due to Anarchist Armenians, and the Courts acquit gendarmes held by Ambassadors to be clearly guilty of murder. The defence is absurd, most of the victims being both innocent and cowardly, but it is tree that some Armenians have been made desperate by their despair of protection, and that threats of blowing-up have been addressed even to the Embassies, which are still protected by sailors. The Europeans in the capital live in a constant state of alarm ; they are afraid to keep Armenian servants or clerks, and they blame the Powers for not sending cruisers to the Bosphorus. The Powers apparently are afraid to do anything to restore their subjects' confidence lest they should excite the Mussul- mans, and the Sultan, with ten thousand picked troops encamped in his park, is completely master of all around
him. A whisper from him would cause a massacre of all Christians. It is said that plots for a Palace revolution are being formed, and that a mutiny has occurred among the Guards, but there is as yet no sign of a movement, which to succeed must include at least part of the army.
