The college became a reality and the scheme of education conceived by Dr. Hamlin and carried out in Robert College represented, within forty years of the time of his resignation from the Board, the fundamental policy of all the higher educational work in the empire carried on in both missionary and independent institutions. For nearly a generation, however, in mission schools little was done in European languages, and most of the education given was imparted through the spoken language of the people. As early as 1836, four years before the seminary at Bebek was begun, a high school was opened in Beirut in which both Arabic and English were taught. This school was apparently a great success, but four years later the pupils, because of their practical knowledge of English, became so useful to the English officers, then quartered in Beirut on account of political troubles, that the school was broken up. No doubt this unfortunate experience had much influence in leading the Board to endeavor to exclude English from mission schools. In 1848, a seminary upon the purely vernacular basis was opened in Beirut with a view to training its students for useful service among their own people. This school was continued until the change in policy by the Board and the mission, when the English language again took its place in the curriculum. [Illustration: ROBERT COLLEGE, CONSTANTINOPLE] [Illustration: SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE, BEIRUT, SYRIA] Whatever differences of opinion existed as to the place of English in the educational system of Turkey, there was practical unanimity in the belief that reform in the empire demanded the creation and maintenance of a system of schools which should include all grades, beginning with the primary. It was necessary to begin with the most rudimentary teaching before higher institutions could be sustained. The seminaries already referred to were not by any means colleges. They taught many studies of the lowest grades. As most of the pupils were mature in years, they made speedy progress and often astonished their teachers by their rapid advancement and clear grasp of abstruse subjects.