Notes and Observations on the Ionian Islands and Malta (Volume 2); With Some Remarks on Constantinople and Turkey and on the System of Quarantine. Wit (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVI. NOTICE OF SOME OF THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN CONSTANTINOPLE, IN CONNEXION-WITH THE PRESENT STATE OF TURKEY. Opposite Hypotheses respecting the Present Condition of the Turkish Empire. Opinion of their Futility. Military Hospitals in Constantinople and its Neighbourhood, Described. Naval Academy. Military College. Medical School. How defective. Notice of the great Barracks belonging to the Capital. Of the Quarantine Establishment. Of some of the Government Manufactories. Contrast between them and the Native Work-Shops--between the New and the Old Schools--as demonstrative of different Periods. Prospect of Improvement, founded on the Capacity of the Turkish Youth. Observations on the Vices of the Government, connected with the Training of Official Men. Conjectures respecting Reform, and Revival of Power, on the Supposition that the People are little changed, and that existing Abuses may be Swept away by a Master-mind. Farther Conjectures on the same Subject. Remarks on the Rayah-Christian Population. Two hypotheses are at present entertained relative to the existing condition of Turkey. According to one, the Turkish people are in their infant state, full of life and susceptibility, but uninformed, uneducated, weak; and, if their existence as a nation be precarious, it is so in consequence of infirmities analogous to those of infancy. According to the other hypothesis, the empire is in its old age, worn out, exhausted, tottering, unajble to stand unaided, from sheer and unreclaimable debility. Neither of these hypotheses I apprehend to be just, because both are founded on analogies, which, however specious, are not applicable, with any strictness, to races of men or empires, --the rise, decline, and fall of which seem to depend on a complication ..