s to meliorate their condition, which resulted in promises
from Turkish officials and the Patriarch of better treatment,
promises that were by no means fulfilled.

Upon learning that the Armenian Protestants had been organized into
a church, he transmitted to Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary,
their declaration of reasons for so doing, and their confession of
faith.

The Hon. H. R. Wellesley, better known as Lord Cowley, on taking,
the place of Sir Stratford during his visit to England, cordially
took up the unfinished work of his predecessor, and urged upon Lord
Palmerston the importance of procuring from the Porte a recognition
of the Protestant Armenians as an independent community. He showed
that, in spite of the liberal assurances extorted from the
Patriarch, they were exposed to daily injury and insult, and would
continue to be so until recognized by the Porte as a distinct
community among its Christian subjects. At the same time, he
forwarded a copy of an able declaration by the American missionaries
of their objects in coming to Turkey, which they had made to the
Porte through Mr. Carr, the American Minister. Lord Cowley was
instructed by Lord Palmerston, "to bring the situation of these
people earnestly under the consideration of the Porte, and urgently
to press the Turkish government to acknowledge them as a separate
religious sect." In December the Porte freed the Protestant
Armenians from the rule of the Armenian Patriarch, so far as
regarded their commercial and temporal affairs, and allowed them to
appoint an agent, who should manage their affairs with the
government; and also to keep separate registers of marriages,
births, and deaths. The Chevalier Bunsen, the well known Prussian
Ambassador in Paris, now entered into the work, and recommended,
that their recognition be as durable and complete as that of the
other Christian nationalities. To this proposal Lord Palmerston
cordially assented; but the Turkish officials were, as usual,
disinclined to go forward.

On the 19th of November, 1847, Lord Cowley had the satisfaction of
announcing, that the Grand Vizier, wishing, as he said, to do
something that he knew would be agreeable to his lordship, before he
should leave the country, had obtained the Sultan's permission to
issue a vizierial letter in his Majesty's name, which would
establish their independence at once.[1]

[1] This letter may be found in _Missionary Herald_ for 1848, p. 98.

At th