Page:Armenia, Travels and Studies, Vol. 2.djvu/575

 Now that Mixed Committee considers it proper according to the outline of the Constitution presented for confirmation to the Sublime Porte,

I. That the office of the Patriarch as the medium between the nation and the Sublime Porte should remain as it was in the old system,

II. That the organisation of the General Assembly should be reformed. The national delegates, instead of being elected by the Esnafs (Artisans)—since the condition of the Esnafs is no longer what it used to be—should be elected by the Committees of churches, that is, by different quarters, in a way that perhaps will be more regular and lawful than the one adopted by the Greeks.

And as Armenians living in the interior of the country rightly complain that they are altogether deprived of participation in the deliberations and decisions of the Patriarchate, a number of the delegates should be elected by the provinces to be added to the number of the delegates of the quarters or sections of Constantinople. The ecclesiastical members, twenty of them, should be elected by the clergy in Constantinople, so that the total number of the members of the General Assembly be 140; their term of office should last ten years, and once in every two years the tenth part should be changed, and new elections take place.

The General Assembly should nominate both the Patriarch and the members of the two Assemblies working under his presidency and should have the supervision of their acts,

III. The administration of religious affairs should belong to the Religious Assembly, the administration of Political affairs to the Political Assembly, and that of mixed affairs to the Mixed Assembly, which shall consist of the other two Assemblies together,

IV. The Religious and Political Assemblies should manage through the Sectional and other Councils all national affairs of the church communities (that is to say, the people of different sections or quarters) under their jurisdiction, and the affairs of the churches, schools, hospitals, monasteries, and other similar national institutions,

V. The centre of the administration should be the National Patriarchate. The Patriarch, as the Official Head of the Patriarchate, should preside both over the General Assembly and over the two National Assemblies, and he should under the inspection of the General Assembly manage all the affairs concerning the nation directly or indirectly,

VI. The administration of provincial communities should be connected with the Central Administration. The Metropolitans should preside over local assemblies which should be organised in the same way as those in Constantinople, and they should be the managers of those local assemblies,

VII. The Provincial Assemblies should be responsible to the Central Administration. Each one of the Councils of this Central Administration should be responsible to the Assembly to which it belongs. The National Assemblies should be responsible to the General Assemblies, the Patriarch responsible on the one hand to the Imperial Government and on the other to the nation (through the General Assembly),