THEOSOPHISTS. 



TURKEY. 



635 



paid artisan class. The independence of these old 

 societies was assured, and to secure their support 

 the bill was loaded with complicated restrictions 

 and exceptions. Their members were indifferent, 

 the rural population disliked the law, and the in- 

 dustrial workers did not care for it, saying that 



it insured only those \vhu \\cio not in need of in- 

 surance. The question was taken up again in the 

 Chambers, and an attempt wu.-; m;ulo to frame 

 a bill of briefer text, more clear and logical, and 

 better calculated to satisfy the working classes 

 generally. 



T 



TENNESSEE. (See under UNITED STATES.) 

 TEXAS. (See under UNITED STATES.) 

 THEOSOPHISTS. The Theosophical Society, 

 the American section of which was founded in 

 New York city in 1875, lays special stress upon 

 the study of the knowledge acquired by the sages 

 of the past, and especially by those of the East, 

 and upon the culture of man's spiritual nature 

 to the end of attaining a clear insight into the 

 immaterial, spiritual world, in the course of 

 which, it is believed, men may acquire perception 

 of and control over various forces in Nature un- 

 known to others. Parallel with these aims is a 

 system of doctrines regarding nature, mind, re- 

 ligion, the destiny of the soul, occult science, and 

 social laws. The society comprises 8 national sec- 

 tions, with general headquarters at Adyar, India, 

 viz., the Indian, American, European, French, 

 Scandinavian, Australasian, New Zealand, and 

 Netherlands sections, to which it is expected an 

 Italian section will soon be added. More than 

 20,000 members have joined the society and 600 

 charters have been issued to branch societies 

 since its foundation. A return made to the an- 

 nual convention in May, 1901, gave the number 

 of branch societies in the American section as 

 74, and of members as 1,455. 



The fifteenth annual convention of the Amer- 

 ican section met in Chicago, 111., May 26. Col. 

 Henry S. Olcott, president-founder and president 

 of the entire society for life, presided. Greetings 

 were received from the New Zealand and Euro- 

 pean sections, and an accredited representative of 

 the European section addressed the convention, 

 speaking of great activity prevailing in the cen- 

 ters in France, Holland, and Italy, and the possi- 

 bility of forming a strong center in Switzerland. 

 Eight new branches had been chartered, and as 

 many had dissolved or had their charters can- 

 celed during the year. An increase of 169 mem- 

 bers was shown. The receipts of the Propaganda 

 fund for sustaining traveling lecturers and teach- 

 ers had been $910, and a surplus remained on its 

 account of $104. A discretionary fund of $500 

 had also been at the disposal of the general coun- 

 cil, and was to be continued by the donor for 

 another year. The treasury surplus was $496, 

 against $798 in the previous year. During ten 

 months $487 had been received and forwarded for 

 the Indian Famine fund. A rule had been adopted 

 by the General Council and promulgated as law 

 defining the relation to the Theosophical Society 

 of similar societies outside of it, and prescribing 

 the method by which persons who had seceded 

 from the society might be readmitted to member- 

 ship. The National Committee reported concern- 

 ing the use of lending libraries, the circulation of 

 lectures, correspondence work, reference work in 

 connection with Mrs. Besant's book The Ancient 

 Wisdom, and newspaper work. 



TURKEY, an empire in eastern Europe and 

 western Asia. The reigning Sultan is Abdul Ha- 

 mid II, the thirty-fourth in line from Othman, 

 the founder of the dynasty and the twenty-eighth 

 since the capture of Constantinople in 1453. The 

 throne descends to the senior prince born in the 



harem. The laws of the empire are founded on 

 the Koran. The Sultan possesses supreme civil 

 and religious authority which he exercises in civil 

 affairs through the Grand Vizier and in religious 

 affairs through the Sheik-ul-Islam, whose ap- 

 pointment is made with the concurrence of the 

 Ulema, a body composed of the highest acknowl- 

 edged exponents of Mohammedan doctrines and 

 laws, summoned by the muftis, who are the ex- 

 pounders of the Koran. The Privy Council, corre- 

 sponding to the Cabinet in constitutional coun- 

 tries, was composed in the beginning of 1901 as 

 follows: Grand Vizier, Halil Rifat; Sheik-ul-Is- 

 lam, Jemaleddin Effendi ; Minister of the Interior, 

 Memduh Pasha; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tev- 

 fik Pasha ; Minister of War, Riza Pasha ; Minister 

 of Marine, Hassan Pasha; Minister of Finance, 

 Reshad Pasha; Minister of Justice, Abdurrah- 

 man Pasha; Minister of Public Works and Com- 

 merce, Zihni Pasha; Minister of Education, 

 Zuhni Pasha; Minister of Religious Endowments, 

 Galib Pasha; President of the Council, Said 

 Pasha. In accordance with the capitulations for- 

 eigners live in Turkey under their own laws, and 

 cases between them are tried in consular courts. 



Area and Population. The Ottoman Empire 

 in Europe in the sixteenth century was nearly 

 four times its present size, extending into Hun- 

 gary and Russia. All of northern Africa was 

 once Turkish also, as well as Greece and the 

 islands of the Mediterranean. The territories now 

 subject to the immediate rule of the Sublime 

 Porte having an extent of 65,752 square miles in 

 Europe, with 6,086,300 inhabitants; 398,900 

 square miles in Africa, with 1,300,000 inhabit- 

 ants; and 650,394 square miles in Asia, with 17,- 

 545,300 inhabitants; total area, 1J115,046 square 

 miles, with 24,931,600 inhabitants. The tributary 

 states of Bulgaria and Egypt, the provinces of 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina occupied by Austria, and 

 the autonomous principalities of Samos and Crete 

 have a combined area of 464,936 square miles and 

 14,969,313 inhabitants, making the total area of 

 the Turkish Empire 1,579,982 square miles and 

 the total population 39,900,913. The population 

 of European Turkey is composed of Turks, Slavs, 

 Greeks, and Albanians in nearly equal propor- 

 tions, with a sprinkling of Roumanians, Magyars, 

 gipsies, Circassians, and Jews. In the Asiatic 

 dominions the Turkish element is the most nu- 

 merous, but two-thirds of the population is com- 

 posed of other races, chief among them the Arabs, 

 Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Syrians, Circassians, 

 and Jews. In Asia Mohammedans constitute the 

 bulk of the population, but in European Turkey 

 half the people are Christians of the Greek Ortho- 

 dox faith, and in Asia there are the Greek, the 

 Armenian, the Latin, the Maronite, the Syrian, 

 and the Protestant bodies, all of which, as well 

 as the Jews, are recognized by the Porte and 

 privileged to rule themselves in religious and so- 

 cial matters according to their own creed and 

 customs. 



Finances. The average revenue for the three 

 years ending with 1895 was T. 18,927,745, and 

 the average expenditure was T. 19,796,182. 



