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November the Archbishop Paisios fell ill. Anxieties and discomforts told npon him, he grew worse and lay bed-ridden ; but advised to get a change of air he was carried down half paralysed to Scala, where in the house of a family called Calomora, near the sea, he gave up the ghost on January 1, 1768, and was buried with due honours in the church of S. Lazarus, near the door. He was a man of fine frank presence, dignified, with a full beard, quickwitted, of good intelligence and memory, fond of work, a fair Greek scholar, an excellent penman—his handwriting found many imitators—and expressed himself neatly in the vulgar tongue. He was trained by Philotheos, and left manuscript copies of many books : worldly-wise, inquisitive, in money matters exact almost to miserliness: eloquent, discursive, and of a commanding manner. He had been nearly forty years connected with the see, five years under Silvestros, seventeen as archdeacon and archimandrite under Philotheos, and seven as archbishop. He was persecuted, banished, and restored. He was a native of Koilauion, where the church of the Only-begotten Son was raised at his cost. As his fellow-villager 1 remained with him from the time he became archimandrite to the end of his life. This excellent prelate departed to his Lord in the fifty-fifth year of his age, and by the common voice of the bishops and clergy Chrysanthos, Bishop of Paphos, was promoted to the Archbishopric, which he still adorns. The Pasha and his Caramanians had indeed left the country free from disorder, but it groaned aud grumbled under an insupportable load of debt: its harvest hod been poor, and provisions were scarce. In 1768 followed, as was expected, dearth and distress, especially among the villagers. These were troubles which none could escape, but still the island was perfectly peaceful, and the peasant was cheered by the masterful vigilance oü the government. When the Porte in 1769 declared war against Russia, necessaries for the conduct of a war which touched the very heart of the Empire were demanded from all its subject provinces, and Cyprus too was ordered to contribute some tons of biscuit, ten times as much as it coidd afford. But though the store of grain was scanty, for all ite complaints and entreaties it could obtain no reduction of the appointed qnantity. So stores were chosen, flour prepared, men appointed to knead it, with overseers : so many ways of spending money, and so many excuses for the officers in charge to waste or steal. As soon as the Russian fleet entered the White Sea, great disorders followed in the Morea, ending in the utter ruin of the country aud its inhabitants. It harassed all the islands of the Archipelago, and accomplished that remarkable and unexpected exploit, the burning at diesine on June 24, 1770, the whole Ottoman squadron, spreading terror and confusion up to Constantinople itself. It swept the whole of the Mediterranean Sea, and subjected Cyprus to no less damage than the other islands. The French vessel (Solrrta) which crossed at stated intervals from the port of Kyrenia to the coast of Asia Minor had about 300 parses of imperial treasure on board, it was captured with the coin, by a Russian corsair. Varions merchandise was confiscated because the merchants were the Sultan's subjects. The muhassil and loading men of both races took thought for the future, and in certain events chose the lesser of two evils. When Russian ships moored along their coasts, they treated with them in a wary fashion about provisions ; bought black slaves, male and female, and dealt gently and cautiously with shipwrecked Russian sailors, letting them go free, and trying to elude the conquerors' wrath. The destruction of the Morea and other places conld not fail to teach us to steer a middle course, and to display the leading men of both races as real defenders of their conntry. The Parte however foresaw the necessity of strengthening the island, and in 1772 sent a certain Sadik Mehmed Pasha with 300 men, and α monthly allowance of 1600 piastres. 3Gû EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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