NEWS OF THE WEEK.
NO certain news about Armenia has arrived from Con- stantinople this week. The Sultan still hesitates, doubting whether the Powers are in earnest; but he has, it is said, made an ingenious and ingenuous suggestion. He is willing that the control of the officers selected to carry out reforms should be intrusted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Ambassadors have access to him, can ask him questions, and can make remonstrances with, it is implied, a certain effect. That is really clever, but the objection is unanswerable. The Foreign Minister is not bound to tell the truth to the Ambassadors or to submit to their re- presentations. They are assailing the Foreign Minister now with remonstrances and proposals about Armenia, and they obtain no redress for their clients, nor promise of any. They would have no power to give orders, or to dismiss the guilty, and would constantly have to choose between accepting smooth assurances and sending for their fleets. No plan, in fact, will work except the one which the Sultan will only sanction under compulsion,—namely, Euro- pean control. The Fleet, we fear, will have to sail at last.
