by the Prebendaries, it was not to be expected that the same would be the case elsewhere. The Bishop of the diocese wrote to the Chancellor to inform him of the reports of the strange doings at Gloucester that had reached his ear, and that low obeisances were made towards the altar; assuring him how much the secret Papists would rejoice in the hope that that which they had long looked for was now near at hand. In this letter he also challenged and upbraided the Prebendaries and other preachers in the city, because they did not offer either by word or deed to resist the Dean in these proceedings. This letter was widely circulated. The fire was ready in the city of Gloucester, and this was the torch to light it. But the matter of the letter was libellous, and some of the more prominent circulators of it were punished. And here for the present we take leave of this Church Reformer.

EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB.

Ir is believed that the number of the deaf and dumb in this country is not less than fourteen thousand. The proportion of these who are actually under instruction is considerably less than one-tenth of the whole. Before Institutions for their education were so numerous, or so well known as they are at present, great numbers now living must have grown up without instruction; and, from want of means, and other causes, many are now growing up past the eligible age, who, unless rescued in time, must also remain in the darkness of perpetual ignorance. But besides these, there must be a large proportion of adult persons, who, having been pupils in their youth, have then gone forth to the performance of the duties which devolved upon them in their own sphere and rank of life. Yet, until a century ago, not one of this afflicted class, in any country of the world, had any opportunity of obtaining education. At that time, private enterprise originated a school in Great Britain; personal benevolence set another on foot in France; and a third

grew into existence in Germany. From these beginnings have arisen the various schools, which are now to be found, in so many of the larger cities and towns of Europe and America.

We propose describing, in the present article, a visit recently paid to the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in Liverpool. The pupils there,-sixty in number,-of both sexes,-are between the ages of eight and sixteen years, and are in every stage of advancement-from the earliest quickening of the torpid intelligence by the first inlet of knowledge, up to very creditable degrees of acquirement in the ordinary topics of instruction, and in the knowledge of revealed truth.

It must be obvious that a child who never heard sounds can have no knowledge of words, either spoken or written. He will at once recognise a multitude of common objects, when he sees them represented in a picture, and he may be very familiar with their uses, but he can have no knowledge of their names; for if you tell him, he cannot hear you, and if you show him the written or printed word, he cannot read it. How then would you begin to convey instruction to a mind so entombed-so painfully isolated,-in its utter, helpless ignorance? This question at once suggests the whole difficulty of the work, and reveals the nature of the very curious and interesting process which is being carried on daily in our schools for the Deaf and Dumb.

The first thing to be done is to teach the pupil that written characters have the same signification and value for us, which pictures or imitative gestures have for him; that the word cow, for instance, calls up to our minds the idea of that animal as effectually as a picture would do. You teach him, therefore, that his imitative sign is to be associated with words, as well as with pictures. To his vocabulary of nouns, thus acquired, and constantly increasing, he proceeds to add a knowledge of those words. which describe the qualities of objects; and at first, these too are confined to the representation of what is visible. The "cow" is said to be-a brown cow-a black cow-or a large, a quiet, or a lazy one. From adjectives, he goes on to verbs, and supposing the same noun to be the

nominative, he is taught to say that the "cow" walks, or eats, or sleeps, or drinks. By means of such illustrations, there is established in his mind the difference in these three leading classes of words; he is continually adding to his vocabulary of them and learning at the same time how they are combined with others, the practical use of which is exemplified in a similar manner. In this way, by the gradual leadings of an organised system, with much ingenuity, patient labour, and steady perseverance, the end to be attained is slowly worked up to, so that, at last, the child who knew no language, may be able to convey his thoughts in the tongue of his native country; and he who was ignorant of almost everything which language conveys to us, may have such a general knowledge of ordinary subjects as may qualify him to get his own living, almost, if not quite, as well, as those who possess the precious faculty of hearing. Nor is this all. That knowledge which the most gifted of our race could only sigh for and dream of,—which comes to mankind by Divine revelation alone, must, more than anything else, be beyond the attainment of the deaf. Yet this, too, is placed within their reach. By the education given to them, and by the inferences which are brought to bear upon them during its progress, they are humanised, civilised, christianised. They could be little better than animals otherwise. The moral influence which is exercised in a well-ordered school is, indeed, one of its greatest benefits, and can scarcely be overrated. It is direct and immediate; it is felt at once, and its fruits appear at the very first sight. We, at least, have no hesitation in making this remark, after seeing the reverence of these children at church, and their rapt attention during the devotions in the school-room, all conducted in their own silent language of signs, they themselves repeating the LORD's Prayer, after their instructor, in the same touching manner, and adding their mute "Amen" upon their fingers, after each prayer. These circumstances, together with their order, obedience, and cheerfulness, we take to be ample proofs of the success of the system under which they are trained, and of the happy influences under which they live. With great truth is

it said in the Report of the Institution for the present year:

66

No one can attentively regard the original and inevitable condition of the uneducated Deaf and Dumbor see the point from which they start-the intellect blank and barren, the soul torpid and hopeless-and then observe the point to which, through GOD's blessing, they may be brought by judicious training, without arriving at the conclusion, that there is no work of philanthropy, or of Christian beneficence, more laudable, or more necessary, than that of affording education to this deeply afflicted portion of the community."

We can only add, in conclusion, that the British Institutions-the oldest of which was established only sixty years ago-are now twenty in number; that the opening of new schools, though it has lessened the area of demand upon the old ones, has not diminished their usefulness; the number of pupils in the English schools exhibiting uniformly a gradual increase; that these Institutions are supported exclusively by private liberality; and that, whereas in France and the United States,-where the education of the deaf and dumb is carried on at the public cost, the sum of twenty-four thousand pounds sterling is annually granted in each country for that purpose; in Great Britain the same sum is raised for the same object, from the ever-fluent source of private beneficence alone.

We take these facts from a paper read before the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire within the present year, by Mr. David Buxton, the principal of the Institution at Liverpool, of which we have been speaking.

216

THE PASSAGE OF THE ALSEN FJORD.

CIRCA 850.

I REMEMBER, no long time ago, about the close of a spring evening, that I was walking down the narrow, rocky lane which leads from Flensborg to the little island of Alsen. If you get the map of Denmark, you will see better how the country lies; and you will more easily understand the story I am going to tell you. My road lay sometimes through a narrow gorge in the rock, sometimes crossed the high down, which gave me a view of the blue waters of the Fjord on my right, and of the pretty little Soegard See to my left, sometimes crossed the little valleys on a high causeway, the topmost branches of the beeches waving around me,-sometimes passed the comfortable Schleswig cottage, with its boulder walls and wooden gables, standing back in the rich green field, on which the evening sunshine was quietly sleeping. It was now skirted by the May bushes on either side, and now shaded by the darker green of the fir grove. It was a Saturday evening; and, as I came down to the little Strait of Quartz, which separates the mainland from the island, rest seemed to be written every where.

It was also on a Saturday evening that, about a thousand years ago, two persons were passing along the same road a venerable old man, and a girl of seventeen or eighteen. The same it was, so far as the May, and the furze, and the blue Fjord, and the cowslips, and the song of the cuckoo were concerned; but there were then no quaint little brick churches (they always built them of brick in Denmark,) in the valleys, nor tall wooden belfries, something between a scaffold and a ladder, perched on the heights. That was a land of darkness and of the shadow of death; but he that was then passing along the side of the Fjord, was the Bishop chosen by GOD to disperse that shadow, and to turn that darkness into light. It was S. Anschar, Bishop of Hamburg and Apostle of Denmark. He had been traversing the greater part of that