TURKEY. 



685 



The number of public free schools in opera- 

 tion in 1879 was 5,804 in 145 counties; and 

 for 1880, 111 counties, heard from up to March 

 1st, had 4,648 schools in operation, estimating 

 their total number in the State at 6,500. The 

 average school-term for each year has been 

 four months. The children of school age in 

 the State numbered about 230,000. 



In the Sam Houston Normal School, at Hunts- 

 ville, the number of students in attendance 

 in April, 1880, was 109 ; thirty among whom 

 graduated in June, to be employed as teachers 

 in the public free schools, having received a 

 thorough training for that purpose within their 

 own State. The principal of this school esti- 

 mates that the number of its students hereafter 

 will be double what it has been. 



The Prairie View Normal School, established 

 in Waller County for colored students, and first 

 opened on October 6, 1879, with twelve State 

 and four local students, has grown up so rap- 

 idly within a few months that on March 1, 

 1880, the number of students attending it was 

 forty-nine. 



The condition of public instruction in Harris 

 County, and probably in the other districts of 

 Texas, during the four years last past, has stead- 

 ily gained in the lengthened time of tuition and 

 in the lessened cost of maintaining the schools, 

 especially with regard to the compensation paid 

 to teachers. 



As a public endowment and permanent fund 

 for educational and charitable purposes, the 

 subjoined quantities of State lands were for 

 sale in Texas at the close of the year 1880, the 

 proceeds to be funded and the income applied 

 exclusively to the advancement of the above- 

 named objects : 



School lands (acres) 

 University lands 

 Asylum lands 



30,000.000 

 219,906 

 407,615 



The condition of the State Penitentiary in 

 Texas, as officially represented, is improved in 

 many respects, and generally better than it had 

 been for a number of years. The number and 

 employment of the State prisoners have been 

 as follows : "In February, 1881, the total num- 

 ber of convicts, including 31 United States con- 

 victs, was 1,982, an increase of 242 since the 

 last report, in November, 1878. The increase 

 has been gradual. The total number of par- 

 dons delivered during that period was 84. ... 

 During the same period there were 522 dis- 

 charged, 174 deaths, and 244 escapes. ... As 

 to the employment of the convicts, there were 

 333 of them at regular prison work in Hunts- 

 ville ; 233 building the new brick penitentiary ; 

 127 at the iron-foundry in Marion County; 

 146 on the Texas Pacific and International and 

 Great Northern Railways; 174 cutting wood 

 on the line of the first-named road; 933 at 

 work on plantations in Brazos River Valley ; 

 15 at saw-mills ; and 21 hired out as servants 

 in Huntsville." 



TURKEY, .an empire in Eastern Europe, 

 Western Asia, and Northern Africa. The 



reigning sovereign is Sultan Abdul-IIamid II, 

 born September 22, 1842. He succeeded his 

 older brother, Sultan Murad V, August 31, 

 1876. The heir-presumptive to the throne is 

 his brother, Mehemet Reshad Eft'endi, born 

 November 3, 1844. The total area of Turkey, 

 inclusive of all dependencies, was estimated in 

 1880 at 2,119,800 square miles, with a popula- 

 tion of 45,578,000. (For other statistics, see 

 'Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1879.) 



The British ambassador at Constantinople 

 had suspended official relations with the Porte 

 two days before the new year began, although 

 a kind of semi-official intercourse was still 

 maintained, because a demand which he had 

 made for the release of a Turkish priest who 

 had been condemned to death for translating 

 parts of the Bible into the Turkish language 

 had not been complied with. The case arose 

 out of the arrest of a German missionary 

 named Koller, an agent of an English mission- 

 ary society, for distributing Christian tracts 

 among Mussulman subjects. A Turkish uleina, 

 Ahmed Tevfik, had taken part in the preparation 

 of the tracts, and was condemned as a Moham- 

 medan who had published matter contrary to 

 the faith. Sir Henry Layard had sent a com- 

 munication to the Government, demanding the 

 restitution of Mr. Roller's papers, the release 

 of Ahmed Tevfik, and the dismissal from their 

 posts of the chief of police, Hafiz Pasha, who 

 was said to have ordered Ahmed Tevfik's ar- 

 rest, and of the military commandant of Van, 

 who had used insulting language toward Eng- 

 land and the British consular agents in Tur- 

 key. The Porte replied that Mr. Koller was a 

 German subject, and denied that Ahmed Tev- 

 fik had been sentenced to death. The German 

 Government interested itself in the matter, out 

 of regard to the nationality of Mr. Koller ; and 

 at length the Sultan, with his own hands, de- 

 livered to the British ambassador the papers 

 of the missionary, which had been confiscated. 

 An assurance was given that Ahmed Tevfik 

 should be released and treated well. The dis- 

 missal of Hafiz Pasha was waived, upon his 

 statement that he was ignorant of the arrest 

 till it had taken place; and he was shortly 

 afterward invested with the grand cordon of 

 the order of the Medjidie. 



Sir Henry Layard resumed official relations 

 with the Porte on the 2d of January. The 

 Sultan promised to assist the family of Ahmed 

 Tevfik; but, in reply to a demand that the 

 sentence passed upon him should be annulled, 

 the Turkish Government pointed out that the 

 religious Fetna condemning the mollah did not 

 constitute a judgment, and that, therefore, 

 there was no necessity for canceling it. A 

 few days later, a note, addressed by the Porte 

 to Sir Henry Layard, reviewing and replying 

 to the three points of the demand which he 

 had made concerning this affair, was published. 

 It argued that the proceedings of Mr. Koller 

 justified the seizure of his papers, which were 

 only returned to him out of regard for Eng- 



