hough it is yet in a very imperfect state. In the
middle of the last century a body of Armenian monks formed a society for
promoting the educational interests of their countrymen. These pious and
benevolent men dwell alone on the little island of San Lazzaro, and
publish works on literature, science, and religion, which are
distributed among the Turkish Armenians.

Printing presses have lately been set up in the large cities, and books
are rapidly multiplying. In Constantinople several newspapers are
printed in French, Turkish, and Arabic; they are read in every coffee
house and barber shop, the common lounging places of the Ottoman, where
he smokes his pipe and discusses politics. Their columns are chiefly
devoted to the discussion of state affairs, and notices of public
functionaries. The sultan is the virtual editor, and consequently the
papers are popular, as containing opinions on state policy _ex
cathedra_. These presses were established with the reluctant sanction of
the ulemas, and the vigorous opposition of the scribes, an influential
body, protesting against the introduction of machinery, which was to
supersede the use of their fingers.

The council of public instruction at Constantinople has established a
medical and polytechnic school; in both, French, English, and German
teachers are employed. To the medical college is attached a botanical
garden and a natural history museum. The medical library consists
chiefly of French works. The implements used to experiment in the
physical sciences were made at Paris, London, and Vienna, and are of the
most approved kind. The number of students in attendance, on an average,
is seven hundred, comprising Turks, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, all of
whom not only pay no tuition, but receive pecuniary assistance from the
government. As science cannot well be taught in Turkish, French is the
language of the school.

It should be borne in mind that Turkey, in her reform movement,
commenced this century, four hundred years behind Europe. When we
consider this, her advance in educational reformation appears in a
better light. The present law makes it a penal offence in a Turkish
parent not to send his children to school.

The universities, as well as the mosques and hospitals, are under the
control of the ulemas, who have always been a privileged and a
sanctioned order, and by their sanctity and great wealth are rendered
the most formidable body in the empire. Selim and his