Mr. Bryce sent to the Times of Monday very interesting
extracts from a letter written to him by the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, who has just resigned his office, on the ground that he cannot get the least attention paid to his representations concerning the state of Armenia, or any redress for the wrongs of his fellow-countrymen. Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin, concerning the reforms in Armenia, has remained, says the Armenian Patriarch, a dead letter. Anarchy exists in Armenia just as it did before the peace was made, and the Armenians are cruelly oppressed by the Turkish officials and the Mahommedan population. The Turkish Government treats the Armenians as rebels, only because they complain of the in- crease of taxes, which they are unable to pay, and of the cruel exactions of the Turkish tax-gatherers. But neither the Porte, nor the representatives of the Foreign Powers, pay the least re- gard to the Armenian Patriarch's representations. Of course- not. As Safvet Pasha confessed to Sir A. H. Layard, there is no supply of good Turkish officials. Bad Turkish officials can only be overruled by force. The Porte has not got this force, and does not wish to get it. England may possibly.have it, but cannot afford to use it, and pay the enormous price essential for the use of it. And no other Power is 'inclined to interfere with England in the matter. And so the fire declines to burn the stick, the stick does not beat the dog, and the rat, of coarse, continues his depredations on the malt in the house which Jack did not exactly build, but which he has most unfortunately undertaken to set in order, without counting the cost a the process.
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