The presentation of this report was almost immediately followed by two new Imperial ordinances, one which converted the labours of the commission into a law of the State; the other instituting the permanent Council of public instruction, which was intrusted with their application. This council, placed beneath the supreme direction of the President of the Council of State, and of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was composed almost entirely of members employed in the commission, to whom was joined the chief physician of the Empire, and director of the school of Galata Serai.

A third ordinance decreed the erection of a building intended to be the seat of the new university, and the laying of the first stone took place with great pomp at Djeb Khanè, near St Sophia, at the same spot where the Janissary barracks formerly stood, as if to be a further proof, by the choice of the situation, of the intention of entirely banishing the old Mussulman spirit.

The council speedily divided into several committees, which separately undertook the organisation of the various departments of instruction. The results of their labours may be best explained by adhering to the original division.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THE condition of the elementary schools and the ameliorations they were susceptible of receiving first claimed the attention of the Council. Here, as we have already mentioned, the reforms were simple. The Mektebs had been carrying on their duties there for many years with a certain degree of regularity. All that was necessary appeared to be to give them a common and uniform organisation: to introduce some modifications in the matter and manner of the instruction; and finally, to apply the principle of State intervention in its fullest extent.

For this purpose the Council commenced by declaring instruction gratuitous and obligatory. The sum of two piastres per month, formerly paid to the master, was altered to a fixed salary, drawn from the revenues of the Mektèb. Indeed, the majority of the Mektèbs having been instituted many years back, by means of donations and private legacies, they possessed their proper revenue, distinct from that of the

mosque, from which a sum could be without difficulty drawn, to provide for the repairs and the maintenance of the school, and guarantee the salary of the instructor. In cases where this revenue is found to be insufficient, the Government makes up the supply. At the same time the law obliges all the fathers of Mussulman families, as soon as their children of either sex have attained the age of six years, to present themselves before the Mukhtar or Chief of the municipality of the district, to have them inscribed on the registers of the Mekteb, unless they prove their intention to give them a suitable education at home. Among the measures adopted to insure the execution of this measure, we may mention the law which forbids any master to take any boy as apprentice, who is not provided with a school certificate from the Mekteb.

As to the method of instruction, it remains almost what it was, and is confined to reading, the elements of writing and arithmetic, and, more especially, a knowledge of the first principles of religion and morality. The sole important innovation has been the introduction of a new system, and the adoption of little elementary treatises in common Turkish, written expressly for children, and which the Council ordered to be used in the schools.

Constantinople possessed two years ago 396 of these elementary schools, attended by 22,700 scholars of both sexes. These schools have been divided into

fourteen sections, corresponding with the fourteen principal quarters of the capital. In each section a central committee inspects the schools, receives monthly an exact and regular account of the number and progress of the pupils, controls the conduct and capability of the instructors, proposes any necessary improvements-in short, has the duty of watching that the idea of the government is fully and entirely carried out.

The transformation of the Mektèbs into primary schools has been carried into effect nearly through the whole extent of the empire. It would be difficult to determine exactly the total number of the latter; but it is very considerable: and as there is not a single village in Turkey, however small it is, which does not possess its mosque, so we may also say that there is not one without a school, more or less tolerably organized.

After four years, or five at the most, passed in the Mekteb, the boy who wishes to extend his studies by following the course of public instruction enters the secondary schools, where he passes another period of four years.

These schools, called Mektebi ruchdiè or adolescent schools, and which have only been in existence a very few years, amounted in 1851 to six, frequented by 870 pupils, a considerable result for such a short

space of time. At a later period, this number

is intended to be raised to fourteen. The course of instruction is, grammar and Arabic syntax, orthography, composition and style, sacred history, Ottoman history, universal history, geography, arithmetic, the elements of geometry. The instruction is entirely gratuitous. The maintenance of the schools, the salary of the professors, the books and instruments of the pupils, are provided at the expense of the State.

The higher course of education specially attracted the attention of the council. This was, in fact, the scene of contest with the Ulema, and the headquarters of reform. The Government, which undertook to overthrow the monopoly held for so many years by a privileged body, required to collect all its strength, in order to struggle with advantage against the Medresses. Fortunately, as the secondary schools were only recently established, and the students would have to remain there several years before being fitted for the higher course of university study, the council had some time before it. It profited by it to surround itself with all the lights which could assist its progress, and sent one of its members, Kemal Effendi, Inspector-General of Schools, to study the organization of the universities in Germany, France, and England. Kemal Effendi passed several months in Paris, where the Government placed at his disposal all that might facilitate the success of his mission.