visit can be effected in Constantinople under
any circumstances without a written order
from the grand vizir. This order must be
carried by a legal functionary, accompanied,
in the case of a Turk, by the Imam of the
neighbourhood; in the case of a Greek or
Armenian by the superior of his church; and
in that of a Jew by the rabbi; but, whether
in a Mussulman's house or in that of an
infidel, the officers may not enter the women's
apartments until the women have left them.

The penal code, now in force throughout
the Ottoman empire is that promulgated in
the year 1840. It is a great improvement on
the old penal laws, by which the punishment
of death was in the hands of petty provincial
tyrants. The first article of this recent code
declares that the Sultan promises not to inflict
death upon any subject who has not been
tried by competent judges and condemned
according to established law, and threatens
with capital punishment any vizier who shall
henceforth take the life of a subject on his
own responsibility, "even that of a shepherd."
Capital punishment, by this code is inflicted,
for exciting Ottoman subjects to revolt, for
assassination, and for resistance to the police
(when this resistance inflicts a mortal wound)
in the execution of their duty. By this code
robbery is punished by seven years'
imprisonment; various periods of confinement
or banishment are awarded to public officers,
who fail to discharge their functions honestly,
and all subjects of the Sultan are enjoined to
deliver up to justice any delinquent who
may come under their observation. Every
subject of the Sultan is by this law equal
in the eyes of the judge, without regard to
race or religion.

In eighteen hundred and forty-six the
famous talimâti o'moumieh were published.
These decrees regulated the powers of all the
government officers, the administration of the
national treasury, and the organisation of the
police. In eighteen hundred and fifty, the
Turkish government, pursuing its measures
of reform, issued a new commercial code of
laws of three hundred and fifteen articles,
regulating the internal and external trade of
the empire.

But all these decrees put together,
although important, are not likely to effect
that revolution which may be expected from
the great reform made in the educational
machinery of the Ottoman empire. The first
of September, eighteen hundred and forty-
five, when the first stone of a great Turkish
University was laid on the site of the old
janissaries' barracks, is a memorable day in
Ottoman history. Education was taken from
the hands of the Mahommedan priesthood,
and the children of the empire taught the
great truths of the world. Henceforth every
Turk must send his child to school, and the
State charged itself with the instruction.
Thus, at the present time, when the child of
a Turk has reached the age of six years, the
father is compelled to present himself before
the monkhtar or municipal chief of his locality,
and to inscribe the child's name on the
register of the mekteb or primary school,
unless he can satisfactorily prove that he has
the intention and means of giving his progeny
instruction proper to his age at home. To
enforce this law amongst the labouring
population, no employer is allowed to take a boy as
apprentice who is not furnished with a
certificate from his mekteb declaring that he has
gone through the prescribed studies. These
studies consist of reading, writing, and arithmetic,
and the principles of religion and
morals. In eighteen hundred and fifty-one
there were no fewer than three hundred
and ninety-six mektebs in Constantinople
alone, mustering twenty-two thousand seven
hundred scholars. These mektebs are
divided into fourteen groups, with a
committee to each group, charged with the duty
of inspecting each mekteb, and regulating
and recording its progress.

A Turkish child generally passes four or
five years in the mekteb; after which he
goes to the schools known as the mektebi
rudidiè, or schools for youths, if his father
wishes to give him more than an elementary
education. These secondary schools are of
recent creation only; yet in eighteen hundred
and fifty-one the six then established
included eight hundred and seventy scholars.
In these schools the Turkish boy obtains
a liberal education. He is taught the Arab
grammar and syntax, orthography, composition,
sacred history, Ottoman history, universal
history, geography, arithmetic, and the
elements of geometry. Even this instruction
is provided gratuitously by the State. The
learning which flourishes 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 party
to fight and overthrow. The old Mussulman
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 bigotry. To the
schools the government have recently added
separate academies for the study of agriculture
and veterinary science.

In the face of all this energy on the part of
the Ottoman government, the individual
laziness of the people is remarkable. The
industry of Turkey has fallen into absolute
insignificance. At one time Turkish
manufactures fed the great markets of the east,
and found their way to some of the countries
of Europe: now these industries do not suffice
for internal wants. In eighteen hundred and
twelve no fewer than two thousand muslin
looms were at work at Scutari and Turnova;
in eighteen hundred and forty-one hardly
two hundred of them could be counted.
Anatolia, Diarbekir, and Broussa, once so
famous for their exquisite velvets and satins,