ORIENTAL SEMINARIES. The name ap plied to certain European institutions established for the purpose of training young men for dip lomatic and mercantile positions in Oriental countries. In these schools instruction is given, partly by European scholars of acknowledged eminence and partly by native teachers, in the principal languages of Asia, Malaysia, and Africa, and in the geography. history, civil and religious institutions of these countries. Prac tical instruction in modern European language-3 is also given. and lectures on law are usually added. With few exceptions they are under di rect governmental control. The oldest institu tion of this sort is the Kaiserliehe-konial ;elle I onsular-Akademie of Vienna, founded by the Austrian Government in IT54 for the education of promising candidates for the diplomatic ser vice. It is tinder the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and embraces both an oriental and a Western section. In addition to the regu lar courses of instruction. the students, whose number is limited to twenty-five. are trained in gymnastics. swimming, horsemanship, fencing, and other accomplishments. The Kaiserliche kiinigliche Lehranstalt fur isehe s~prnchens established at Vienna in 1551. has a much wider scope and is open to all students looking forward to a career in the East, whether in a public or private capacity. Of sim ilar character is the Ecole des lanynes on es rirantes of Paris, founded in 1795, and now under the direction of the Ministry of Ed ucation. In this school special attention is paid to the languages spoken in the French co lonial possessions in Africa and in the East. In Ilussia. an Oriental department has, since 1554, been attached to the University of saint Peters burg. and course s are offered in the principal
languages of Asia, including those of China, Korea, and Japan. The great extension, since 1870, of Germany's commercial interest. in the East and the development of her colonial policy led to the establishment, in I SST, of the ,Senn (nor fii, oriental isehe Sprachen attached to the Uni versity of Berlin. Here the languages of Eastern Africa are taught in addition to those of Western Asia and the far East. In England instruction in modern oriental languages has long been given at the University of Cambridge. and in London the School of Modern oriental Languages. now incorporated with the University of London, has been in successful operation for smile years. Special attention is paid to the languages spoken in the Indian Empire. The School of Tropical Medicine. founded through the interest of the Dom .Toseph Chamberlain, and the Oriental Fac ulty of the College of the Propaganda it Rome (see MissioNs, CIIRIsTIAN) may also he men tioned in this connection. Several of these in stitutions issue publications of much value. The Government of the United States has, as yet, taken no steps toward the establishment of a school for ()Mental studies, hut instruction in modern Oriental languages is given in some of the leading universities. At the Johns Hopkins UniVersity, Baltimore, courses in modern Arabic, Persian. and Turkish have been offered since 1S9I. and in the languages of the Philippine Is lands since 1900. At Colombia University, New York, a chair of Chinese has recently been founded.