Star.
London, England, 1828-02-29 00:00:00

FRENCH PAPERS.

FILIAL TIC BAILIFFS DI FRANCE, DATED FEB. 27.
The Austrian Observer contains the following at tide
from Constantinople, dated January 25:
" The rigorous measures which have been executed
for this fortnight past against the Armenians in this I
capital have excited great consternation among the
Christians. Though the cause of these proceedings is
not well known, the following facts may throw some
light on the subject :
" The Armenian Christians, who have been sepa•
rated-ever since the sixteenth century, as well horn the
Greek as from the Roman Church, have four Pa-
triarchs ; the first of whom, who also calls himself Ca-
tholicos, resides in the celebrated Convent of Etchtniadv
Eine, some miles from Erivan ; two others in Asia
Minor; and the fourth in the province of Schirwan,
which Persia ceded to Russia in 1813. These Patriarchs
have under them a certain number of Archbishops and
Bishops. The Archbishop, who is at the head of the •
Armenians at Constantinople, has the honorary title of '
Pa riarch.
" lii the emitse of the eighteenth century a great
number of Armenian communities voluntarily rejoined •
the Kentish Church, and recognised the .nptemacy of
the Pope, and the principal dogmas of the Church,
retaining a part of their ritual, without, however,
having ever made any public or collective act of
union. These united Armenians are very numerous
in the Turkish provinces in pasticul,r. Ti.eir prin-
cipal residence in Asia Minor is at Angola. The
Porte has never formally recognised their *eta ions with
Rome; nor has granted them (at least in the Capital)
separate churches; and always considered them a,
being of the same religion as the Armenian Arch-.
bishop or honorary Patriarch, and under his protection.
They have, besides, enjoyed unlimited toleration, which
was never violated except in the years 1781 'and 1819,
when a Patriarch, who was hostile to them, endeavoured
to discredit them with the Government.
44 The province of Erivan having, in the last cam-
paign. fallen into the hands of Russia, and the Patriarch
d'Etchnliadaine become a vassal of that Power, the
Porte received information from the Itontiers of Persia,
of a considerable emigration of Arme...nian Christians,
who bad gone into the Russian territory under the pro.
tcction of their Patriarch. We cannot decide how far this
news was well founded. Nevertheless, in the present
state of uneasiness. suspicion, and irritation, in which the
Porte now is, such a circumstance was sufficient to
make the Sultan angry. The Patriarch was asked how
far he could answer for the fidelity of the flock cern-
twitted to his charge? He answered, that he wou'd
guarantee the fidelity of those of his own communion,
bat not that of the Armenians, who were strangers, and
wholly unknown to him. Upon this the or der issued,
which enjoined all the united Armenians who had come
during a long period of many years from Angora to
Constantinople, to quit that capital in twelve days, and
return to Asia.
This order was executed_ with the greatest rigour.
Nearly at the same time the Armenian Patriarch assem-
bled in the principal church, the principal of the Ar-
menian Catholics established at Constantinople; exhorted
them to abjure their errors, and their strange doctrines,
and acquainted them with the will of the Sultan no longer
to tolerate them as a dissident sect. At the same time
he communicated the order to quit their habitations in
Pere and Galata, in the vicinity of the European Mi-
nisters. and the Foreign Legations, and to settle in the
interior of the city, in the quarters inhabited by the
non-united Armenians."