AHMED VEFYK PASHA. 



ALABAMA. 



11 



AHMED VEFYK PASHA, President of 

 the Turkish Chamber of Deputies, is one of 

 the most cultivated men in Turkey, and has 

 a considerable literary reputation. He was 

 trained in the Translation Bureau of the office 

 of Foreign Affairs, where especial opportunities 

 are afforded to young Turks to make themselves 

 acquainted with western languages and litera- 

 ture, and early attracted the attention of his su- 

 periors by his general intelligence and versatili- 

 ty. In 1848, he served on a commission to set- 

 tle some questions which had arisen with Russia 

 with reference to the affairs of the Principali- 

 ties of Moldavia andWallachia, and showed him- 

 self quite a match for the craftiness of Russian 

 diplomacy. In 1860, as embassador to Paris, 

 he had to deal with the situation which was 

 caused by the permission which the great 



gowers gave to France to station troops in 

 yria, for the purpose of preserving order, after 

 the antichristian outbreaks at Damascus. He 

 assumed an attitude which compelled the al- 

 most immediate withdrawal of the French 

 troops, much to the disappointment of Napo- 

 leon III., who demanded and obtained his 

 recall. When Sultan Abdul-Aziz, upon his 

 accession to the throne, dispatched commis- 

 sioners to all parts of the empire, to examine 

 the administration and condition of the several 

 provinces, Ahmed Vefyk was sent to Western 

 Asia Minor, and returned with a full report 

 of the abuses which he had found. The report 

 had no practical result in effecting reforms; 

 for those of the Turkish Government are sel- 

 dom thorough, but Ahmed Vefyk is thank- 

 fully remembered in the provinces which he 

 tried to serve. As Minister of Worship, he 

 tried to reform the abuses which prevailed in 

 that department of the Government. He was 

 baffled by the powerful parties who were in- 

 terested in the perpetuation of the abuses, and 

 who had influence enough with the Prime Min- 

 ister, AH Pasha, to compel his resignation. He 

 retired to private life, determined to hold no 

 public office while Ali Pasha was Prime Min- 

 ister, and busied himself in literary work. He 

 published the works of several Turkish authors, 

 mostly historical, translated one of Moliere's 

 plays, and published some lithographic maps 

 with a Turkish text for the use of the schools. 

 After the death of Ali Pasha, he was appointed 

 by the new Grand Vizier, Mahmoud Nedim 

 Pasha, director of the customs, and soon after- 

 ward his musteshar (private secretary), a posi- 

 tion in which he performed the functions of a 

 Minister of the Interior. Toward the end of 

 1872, he was appointed Minister of Instruction. 

 His brusque manner made him unpopular, and 

 he soon retired to private life. He attended the 

 Congress of Orientalists, which was held at St. 

 Petersburg in 1876, and presided over the Tur- 

 co-Tartaric section of that body. He was 

 chosen President of the Chamber of Deputies 

 at the opening of the Turkish Parliament on 

 the 18th of March, 1877, and was shortly after- 

 ward raised to the rank of a vizier, with the 



title of pasha. When he was congratulated by 

 the deputies on his elevation, he replied that 

 he had been offered the title of pasha five times, 

 but had always heretofore declined it ; this 

 time he would accept it, because he regarded 

 the bestowal of it as a sign of the high esteem 

 which his majesty, the Sultan, entertained for 

 constitutional principles. In August, 1877, 

 he was appointed Governor of the Adrianople 

 district. Ahmed Vefyk Pasha is not a pure 

 Turk, but has both Semitic and Greek blood 

 in his veins, and features of a striking Semitic 

 type. Notwithstanding his high culture, he 

 has an aversion to Europeans and European 

 innovations, and is warmly attached to the past 

 traditions of the Ottoman race. 



ALABAMA. The first biennial session of 

 the Legislature of Alabama under the revised 

 constitution began in November, 1876, and 

 ended on the 9th of February following. One 

 of the most important acts provided for the 

 organization and regulation of a public-school 

 system. The school-revenues are to consist 

 of annual interest at 6 per cent, on all sums 

 received from sales of land granted by the Uni- 

 ted States for school-purposes; annual interest 

 at 4 per cent, on the surplus revenue of the 

 United States, deposited with the State under 

 the act of Congress of June 23, 1836 ; annual 

 rents, incomes, profits, or proceeds of sales of 

 all lands hereafter given for the support of 

 public schools ; all sums accruing to the State 

 as escheats ; $130,000 from any money in the 

 State Treasury not otherwise appropriated ; 

 and the proceeds of the poll-tax of $1.50 on 

 each male inhabitant between the ages of 21 

 and 45, to be retained and distributed in each 

 county. A superintendent of education is to 

 be elected by the people every two years, be- 

 ginning with the general election of August, 

 1878, to be commissioned by the Governor, 

 and to receive a salary of $2,250 a year from 

 the educational fund. He is authorized to 

 have a clerk, at a salary of $1,400. His duties 

 are fully defined, and he is required to make 

 an annual report to the Governor as soon as 

 practicable after the close of the school-year 

 in September. A county superintendent is to 

 be appointed in each county by the State Su- 

 perintendent, to have charge of school-moneys, 

 and administer locally the affairs of the edu- 

 cational system. County superintendents are 

 allowed a salary of $75, and 1 per cent, on 

 the money disbursed by them. Three school 

 trustees are to be elected every four years in 

 each township, to have immediate supervision 

 of the schools in their several townships. Trus- 

 tees are required to "contract with teachers, 

 when they are satisfied of their competency 

 and good moral character, to teach in any of 

 the public schools of their township, to pay 

 them a pro-rata share of the school-fund ap- 

 portioned to the township, according to the 

 number of days reported in said teachers' an- 

 nual report of the actual attendance of each 

 pupil at the expiration of the scholastic year." 



