Page:Armenia, Travels and Studies, Vol. 2.djvu/576

448 VIII. And, inasmuch as the Imperial Government considers the Patriarch as the natural medium of the execution of the orders given by it to the nation, and at the same time considers him as the head of the National Administration, and it is to him that it addresses its question, if the Government should command the Patriarch to give his opinion on the question asked, the Patriarch should act according to the decision of the Assemblies under his presidency; but, if he be ordered to communicate to the Government the opinion of the nation, then he should convoke the General Assembly and communicate to the Government the final decision of that Assembly,

IX. The National Administration has three kinds of obligations. First towards the Imperial Government, that is to preserve the nation in perfectly loyal subjection and to secure to the nation in general and to individuals in particular the preservation of their rights and privileges on the part of the Government. The second obligation is to the nation, to treat it in true compassion and in a paternal way. The third is to the see of Edgmiatsin, to act in accordance with the religious regulations and laws of the Armenian Church.

These are the features in the Constitution which the Mixed Committee considers desirable. These features are approved by the other Committee which was organised according to the orders of your Excellency, in order to present to the Sublime Porte on behalf of the nation their observations on the Constitution.

, 1862.

Signatures of the members of the Committee of the Sublime Porte—Stephanos, Archbishop of Nicomedia, Representative of the Patriarch Elect of Constantinople, three Armenian ecclesiastics, and eight notables.

Signatures of the members of the National Committee, seven notables.

To the Prudent Representative of the

Patriarch Elect of Constantinople.

The Constitution drawn up by the Committee formed at the Sublime Porte for the reforms of the condition and administration of the Armenian Patriarchate, after having undergone certain modifications concerning secular affairs only, was presented to His Imperial Majesty, and, having been approved by His Imperial Majesty, the Imperial Decree, making a law of the features contained in it, was issued to be handed to your Beatitude.

In enclosing to you the above-mentioned Constitution, we commission you to superintend the perfect execution of those features according to the high will of the August Emperor.

1863, March 17.

The privileges granted by the Ottoman Empire to its non-Mohammedan subjects are in their principles equal for all, but the mode of their execution