has preserved, educated, and sent out in the world, 1400 orphans. Thus was the heart of Mrs Tomlinson moved, by the faithfulness of a widow who rescued her children from a Popish asylum, and preferred extreme poverty with them to having them fed and perverted-and out of this sprung the Half Orphan Asylum, beginning in a cellar, where a matron took charge of four babes. One house after another was found too strait for them, till now they rank amongst the substantial and excellent charities of New York. Thus, too, was Dr Guggenbühl smitten with the idea that there might exist some portion of mind under the deformity and apparent idiocy of the poor cretin. He saw one of these miserable beings kneeling and muttering before an image of the Virgin. Compassion welled up till his heart had no repose-and out of that has sprung the cheerful and prosperous hospital of the Abendberg, which has been parent to another and another in Switzerland; to two schools for those of feeble intellects, in England; and it is expected that more of this humble but useful family of charities are hastening to come forth vigorously in America.

But the examples are numerous, and might occupy a chapter themselves. The only one that I shall name in addition is connected closely with our present subject.

In the city of Hartford it pleased God to afflict a very lovely and intelligent young creature, Alice

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Cogswell, with the loss of hearing. Her father was an eminent physician. His ingenuity and inquiries for the means of instructing his beloved child were unceasing. But we prefer to quote a portion of an oration delivered by Mr Gallaudet to the re-assembled pupils of the asylum, which sprung out of Alice's misfortune, after it has shed its benignant influence on deaf mutes for thirty-five years.

"Some of our number, both teachers and pupils, have gone to the spirit-world. She has gone, the beloved Alice, my earliest pupil, who first drew my attention to the deaf and dumb, and enkindled my sympathy for them. We will ever cherish her memory and that of her father, one of your best and long-tried friends. We will never forget that to them, under the Divine guidance and blessing, we owe the origin of those ample provisions which have been made for your benefit. For God saw fit to visit her at a tender age with your common privation. And on whom else, so intelligent and lovely, could his mysterious yet benign providence have sent this privation, to produce as it did, so deeply and extensively, the interest needed to be felt in her and her fellow-sufferers, in order to lead to prompt and effectual action on their behalf ?" . . . .

"The same providence cast my happy lot in this community, near to this father and daughter, herself a playmate of my younger brothers and sisters, which led to my acquaintance with her, and then to my attempting her instruction. This I did from

time to time, inexperienced indeed, but with no little enthusiasm and zealous perseverance. At length, I had the privilege of being employed to carry into effect the benevolent designs of my fellow-citizens; designs, extending as they have already done, in the establishment of many kindred institutions in various parts of our country. See in these successive links of providence how God works out the chain of his beneficent movements."

When first the name of Gallaudet* reached my ear, he was a pupil under the Abbê Sicard, at Paris, who was then teaching the highest class of deaf mutes in that city. When he returned to his native land, he succeeded in bringing with him Mr Laurent Clerc, another élève of the French Institution, and in a brief space they were both actively engaged in Hartford, where "The American Asylum" sprung up. It is the offspring of Christian benevolence, and from it has sprung an extensive family.

An interesting and striking festival was held on September 26, 1850, in the Hartford Asylum, where it is believed more persons enduring the same sad privation met than were ever before assembled together since the world began.

Mr Brown of New Hampshire, an early and intelligent pupil of the asylum, stated, in his graphic language of signs, that his spirit could find no rest

* M. Gallaudet adds another to the honoured names of those who have been summoned to the undying world since I had the pleasure of intercourse with him.

till he had devised some method of giving expression to his gratitude, which the lapse of years served only to increase. The idea was but suggested when it was seized and made common property. A subscription was raised, for, as he stated, the wish ran "like a prairie fire through the hearts of the whole deaf-mute band," scattered though they were all over the country. The plan was matured in secret, and resulted in presenting to MM. Gallaudet and Clerc two massive silver pitchers, accompanied by salvers, inscribed and beautifully chased with emblems.

On the festive day of presentation, upwards of two hundred deaf mutes not then connected with the asylum, besides the two hundred inmates, were present. Let us who can express our sentiments without impediment at any time, in any society, imagine the happy recognition of old comrades, the strong delight of having their language of signs intelligible to each other, the narrative of their recent history, the love, the gladness, and then we shall perceive that the greetings of that day far surpassed those of any common assemblage of friends. There were orations delivered in the language of signs, which were interpreted in words to the rest of the company. The extent and power of this sign-language is surprising to the uninitiated, as I saw and felt when in the New York Asylum. A teacher told his class my country and other things without writing, and they immediately wrote on

their large slates what they knew of Scotland, or Caledonia," as some of them call it.

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M. Gallaudet left the institution in 1830, to occupy the humane office of chaplain to the insane, but he is justly deemed the father of the "American Asylum," and of all those which have sprung from it. It was a sincere gratification to be introduced to this philanthropist, whom I had known by report, and honoured so long, and to converse with him in the society of my dear friend Mrs Sigourney. It was sweet to me to take shelter in her "dove's nest," and to rest under her fostering wing, renewing our European acquaintance, and gathering, from her stores of benevolence and knowledge, much information, which adds to the interest long felt in herself and her country.

At the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, happening to be in the house at dinner-time, the president, with the polite hospitality which I have found everywhere in the United States, pressed us to join their party in the dining-hall. The professors and matrons, numbering about a dozen, were at a centre table where we were placed; and there it was pleasant to find a son of M. Gallaudet pursuing his father's path of mercy. He told me that his father had written to him of me, and thus a friendly relation was quickly established between us. It was curious to see the keen glances of the 227 mutes who occupied the wing tables, as if they would make double use of one sense, because of the absence