6 NOVEMBER 1897, Page 12

Letters from Armenia. By J. R. Harris and Helen B.

Harris. (J. Nisbet and Co.)—Very interesting are the accounts of the great Armenian civilisation and of some of the cities, notably Edessa, visited by Mr. and Mrs. Harris. A horrible story of cruelty and blood-lust runs through all the letters, which are most moderate in tone. The facts, except, of course, where they are too dreadful to be printed, are simply noted and no attempt made to expand them. The writers of the letters say that the actual horrors could not be exaggerated,—the very order of the massacres, the arrangements made beforehand (carts requisitioned, tee.), only serve to intensify one's ideas of the thoroughness of the Oriental's manner of suppressing undesirable subjects. It is all typically Asiatic. Of course, the tide will turn some day, and a sea of blood will swamp the Empire of the Osmanlis. To the Turk this would be infinitely more to be desired than reform, which it is absurd to think of.