of the Turkish government: and this was, of course, not to be permitted. The Russian Legation consequently took an overwhelming and most generous interest in all the details of the establishment; laughed to scorn the necessity of European science and European assistance, where native talent was so rife—employed her creatures in writing complimentary and fulsome panegyrics on the Institution, which were lithographed at the school, and translated for the Sultan; and, in short, administered such copious draughts of flattery to all connected with the establishment, that their soporific effects are painfully apparent in the quiet, self-gratulatory, smiling satisfaction of those, who, while they believe that they are nursing the new-born Institution into vigour, are actually closing their encircling arms so tightly about its throat that they are strangling it in its first weakness.
The School has but one hope—and that is unhappily faint and afar off. There are now between thirty and forty promising young men studying in Europe, who may perchance one day be enabled to effect its resuscitation. But years must elapse ere the most gifted pupils are eligible to become preceptors: and before those years are past, what may be the fate of Turkey? England must resolve the question.
At present it is certain that the Military College is indirectly under Russian control and patronage; all the professors having been selected openly or covertly by themselves. And thus, one individual, for the limited remuneration of about £200 a year, not having the fear of ridicule before his eyes, gravely undertakes to impart to his pupils the knowledge of some half dozen sciences, among which geography and astronomy are far from being the most profound or conspicuous.
Saduk Agha, of whom I have already spoken, is a man of distinguished abilities, who, had he been suffered to do so, might have materially assisted the studies of the pupils; but this point would have been too mighty for Russian policy to concede; and, as it was not judged prudent to exclude him altogether, and thus draw down remarks which might have proved inconvenient, his services were secured at a salary of £150 a year, to teach the Prussian game entitled Le Jeu de Guerre, which is a species of dissected military map, put together precisely like the puzzles used by children in England.
Achmet Pasha, (to whom, as I have already remarked, the superintendence of the Institution has been immediately confided), however much he may desire its prosperity, has scarcely time, talent, or opportunity, (as I think it will be conceded when I have enumerated his multitudinous avocations) to give to it the care and attention which it requires from its Principal; or to bestow upon it that watchful surveillance so necessary to the prosperity of an Establishment for youth. He is Grand Chamberlain—Generalissimo of the Imperial Guard—Governor of the Military College—Director of the Roads—Grand Master of the Artillery—Head of the Police—Inspector of Naval Architecture—pro tempore Lord of the Admiralty, and Governor of Natolia—in short, he either is, or requires to be, an universal genius.
Azmi Bey, the Military Commandant, with a zeal which retains him a willing prisoner almost constantly within the walls of the college, and an enthusiasm that neither difficulties nor disappointments have yet quenched, is, nevertheless, too young and too inexperienced to be equal to meet efficiently the weighty responsibility that has been thrust upon him; and for which he is indebted to a quickness of observation, an ardent desire of improvement, and a facility of imitation, called forth and developed by his brief residence in Europe. All that he was competent to effect, he has already accomplished; for he has reduced to order the chaos of conflicting prejudices and associations, and habits, which met him, Hydra-headed, on the very threshold of his task. From his limited experience of European feelings and manners, he has also profited sufficiently to enable him to adopt much that was worthy of imitation; while, on the other hand, he has judiciously rejected much of which the utility and desirableness were at best problematical. The easy, I may almost say, affectionate manner of all around him convince you at once that he is gentle in his rule; while the earnestness with which he interests himself in the most minute details connected with the Establishment is an equal proof of his unfeigned desire for its success. But the brevity of his European sojourn, and the confusion of ideas, and hurry of mind, consequent on a residence in London during the height of the season—the rapidity with which he was whirled from military and naval colleges to railroads and manufactories, from museums and libraries to public gardens and theatres—could scarcely, even with the most ceaseless efforts on his own part, have afforded opportunities for study, or time for reflection and research, calculated to render him the efficient mainspring of so complicated and delicate a piece of machinery as a great National Academy.
I fear that I have been prolix on the subject of this interesting Establishment, which might have become a moral sceptre in the hand of a future Sultan, and which is now “a vain shadow” and “a white-washed sepulchre;” but it is impossible not to feel deeply the cruel wrong committed by the false sophisms of a smiling enemy, towards a confiding and unsuspicious people; yet was my sympathy unmingled with surprise. Did not Russia refuse to allow the Porte to ratify the engagements entered into by Reschid Bey with the European officers whom he had selected for the service of the Sultan? And was it probable that she would permit a nearer and a more certain danger without an effort to annihilate it?
One more question, and I have done. Will the traveller in Turkey, fifty years hence, have any thing to tell of the Military College of Constantinople? Alas! I doubt it.
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