f the Catholicus, the primate of the orthodox Armenian Church, and this
doubtless has its effect in suggesting protection and security. France
also for a longtime past has steadily asserted the right to protect the
Catholic Armenian Church in Persia, and once a year the French Minister
at Tehran, with the Legation secretaries, attends Divine service in the
chapel there in full diplomatic dress and state, to show the fact and
force of the support which the Church enjoys. France similarly takes
Catholic institutions in Turkey under her protection, and appears to be
generally the Catholic champion in the East.

The careful observer in Tehran cannot fail to be struck with the
religious tolerance shown to non-Mohammedan Persian subjects in the
'shadow of the Shah.' Amongst these, other than Christians, may be
mentioned the Guebres (Parsees) and the Jews. Persecuted in the
provinces, they receive liberal treatment in Tehran, and it is to be
hoped that the late Shah's gracious example will in time be followed by
his Majesty's provincial governors.

The Babi sect of Mohammedans, regarded as seceders from Islam, but who
assert their claim to be only the advocates for Mohammedan Church
reform, are at last better understood and more leniently
treated--certainly at Tehran. They have long been persecuted and
punished in the cruellest fashion, even to torture and death, under the
belief that they were a dangerous body which aimed at the subversion of
the State as well as the Church. But better counsels now prevail, to
show that the time has come to cease from persecuting these sectarians,
who, at all events in the present day, show no hostility to the
Government; and the Government has probably discovered the truth of the
Babi saying, that one martyr makes many proselytes.

The Babis aim at attracting to their ranks the intelligent and the
learned, in preference to the ignorant and unlearned; and it is believed
that now sufficient education whereby to read and write is absolutely
necessary for membership. They wish to convince by example, and not by
force, and this accounts for the absence of active resistance to the
persecutions from which they often suffer most grievously. They say that
they desire to return to original Mohammedanism, as it first came from
the Arabian desert, pure and simple, and free from the harsh intolerance
and arrogance which killed the liberal spirit in which it was conceived.
They deplore the evil passions