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),
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.
Constantinople, 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.