Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1854-05-12

the laboring population, no employer
is allowed to take a boy as appren-
tice who is not furnished with a GER
tificate from his mekteb declaring
that he has gone through the pre-
scribed studies. These studies con-
sst Of reading, writing, and arlth-
meiic, and the principles Of religion
and morals. In 1851 there were no
fewer than 800 mektebs in Consian-
iinople alone, mastering 22,700
scholars. These mekiebs are diyid-
ed into fourteen groups, with COM
mitiee to each group, charged with
the duty of inspecting each mekteb,
and regulating and recording its pro-
gress.
a Turkish child generally passes
four or five years in the mekteb; af-
ter which he goes to the school S
known as the mektebi rudidie, or
schools for youth, if his father wish
es to give him more than elementary
education. These secondary schools
are of recent creation only; yet in
1851 the six then established includ
ed $50 scholars. In these schools
the Turkish boy obtains liberal ed
ucalion. He is taught the Arab
grammar and syniax, orthography,
composition, sacred history, Ottoman
history, universal history, geography,
arithmetic, and the elements of ge-
ometry. Even this instruction is
provided gratuitously by the State.
The learning which flourishcs in the
Turkish university of course includes
all those studies in vogue throughout
the universities of Europe. But in
this part of the government reform,
the Sultan finds he has a strong par
ty TO fight and overthrow. The old
Musselman spirit, the stronghold Of
which is in the hands Of the ulemas,
has to be rooted out, and this is To
be done only by separating learning,
in Turkey as elsewhere, from bigolry.
To the schools the government have
recently added separate academies
for the study of agriculture and vet
Urinary science.
In the face of all this energy on
the part ofthe Ottoman government,
the individual lazincss of the people
is remarkable. The industry of Tur
key has fallen into insigni6cance. At
one time Turkish manufactures fed
The great markets of the east and
found their way to some Of the coun-
tries of Europe: now these Indus
tucs do not suffice for internal wants
In 1912 no fewer than 1000 muslin
looms were at work at Scutari and
Turnov9; in lS4l hardly 300 OF
them could be counted Ana,olia,
Dlarbeklr, and Broussn, once so ia
nous for their exquisite velveis and
sailns, now produce about one-tenth
of the manufactures they gave forth
thirty or forty years ago In Europ-
can Turkey there are about three i'm.
porlant manufacturing establish
menls the FORCES Of Semagor and
Fognizl in Bulgaria and Bosnia re-
speciively, and the manufactures oi
arms at Mostar and Traonlk. The
stories of the commercial coma oil
Bagdad and Aleppo are equally stri-
king; yet this general decay is east
ly accounted Tor, in the logged de-
termination of the Turkish manu-
facturers TO cling to old and dear
processes, and thus they have
found themselves ousled from thei,
old markets by the competition from
the manufacturers of Western Eu-
rope. To escape these terrible re-
suits there was yet one resource loi
Turkey Her inexhaustible wealth
of soil pointed her out as great ag-
rlcullural country that might make
her perhaps the most important gra-
nary IN tho world. This resource
has only lately occupied the atlen-
ton of the government the estab-
llshment Of an agricultural academy
being the first hopeful result.
Thus in estimating the Turk IS an
individual, and Turkey as nation
we are led To curious contradictions
The old school Turk is still the de.
sout believer in the prophet, the
slave owner, the man who denies &c
woman all the great blessings of her
social life. In all these points he i:
a barbarian yet trace his youth, fol
low him through his course of stud
les al the mekieb, and in the higher
schools, with every Office in the State
fairly open to him; with rich coun-
Try, and markets eager for anything
he may choose to produce, and you
see that he has the opportunities foI
energy and greatness. He is lore
over immense tracts Of the richest
land, that would yield him golden
harvests in return for the lightest la.
Dor, yet he allows them to grow rank
with weeds he has the germs o.
splendid manufactures, that develo-
ped on The systems of Western Eu-
rope, would yield him enormous rev
enues ; yet they are dying out he
has institutions of a liberal kind, d
wide system Of gratuitous education
and humane laws yet he cannot be
measured for intelligence or persever-
ance with the poorest continental
peasant. Daily his government en-
deavors TO rouse him from his lelhar-
gy; but the Sultan is a second Hok-
man, and is only tying his political
medicines on a dead, or at best, a
half-anlma,ed body. He cannot take
| the ambpr rnontb MANA Of hty tch,