a wilderness at best, but too often covered with brambles. An ordinary child three or four years old has a large stock of ideas compared with those of a deaf and dumb child who has gone through even half of the period usually allotted to instruction. It would be desirable to prolong this term by one year, if it could be done consistently with the claims of other objects of the charity. A sixth year would be more valuable in strengthening and confirming good habits, and preparing the pupils for the world, than any two preceding years of their course. A considerable number of those who gain admission to deaf and dumb institutions do not continue the whole time allowed. Out of thirtytwo who were admitted into the Yorkshire Institution during the first two years, only eight are entering into the fifth year of their course, and six into the fourth; the remainder having been withdrawn for reasons stated in a former part of this article. The evils resulting from such withdrawals not only affect the objects so deprived of education, but will be visible in the revival of that ancient prejudice which represented the deaf and dumb as little better than demi-automatons.

The examinations of the pupils are particularly entitled to our notice. Besides the annual public examinations at Doncaster, and occasional examinations at other populous towns in Yorkskshire, there is at least one yearly examination at the school before the committee of the institution. No prepared questions are asked by the examiner. Those who are present are solicited to take a part in the examination, and frequently do so. Errors are occasionally made, but are

often corrected when the pupil is made to comprehend the question proposed. They are more frequently er, rors in language than errors of ignorance.

An abstract of the rules of the Yorkshire Institution which apply to the children, may perhaps not improperly be introduced here:

It is designed to be a school of Industry, as well as of religious and general education.

No child can be admitted before eight, nor after fourteen years of age.

None can remain after the age of sixteen, nor con. tinue more than five years from the date of admission. Two shillings and sixpence is the weekly payment required towards the maintenance of each child.

Children are elected by subscribers, a rule which has never yet been called into operation, as all qualified candidates have been received.

Children not requiring the aid of charity are ceived on payment of a sum fixed by the committee.

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At the last annual meeting it was agreed that children should be admitted from any part of the kingdom on terms to be fixed by the committee,reserving ample accommodation for Yorkshire appli

cants.

The design originally contemplated of making the institution a place of manual labour in the sense generally understood, has not been acted upon. Nor can it be practicable for the children to be taught even the domestic trades, without an extension of the term allotted for their education. So far as the spirit of the regulation goes, it has been adopted to a great extent. The children are trained to habits of constant industry and activity, and are total strangers to listlessness and

its evils. Moreover, the employments to which they are subjected have the happiest effects on their general conduct, and certainly promote cheerfulness of demeanour. Some institutions for the deaf and dumb are strongly opposed to the union of labour and learning. Locke's wise remark has received of late years full and repeated testimony to its truth. Certainly the experience of all who have observed the effect of this union will attest that Exercises in the body and the mind may be made the recreation one to another." Why not, then, turn those hours to account which would otherwise remain unemployed, or worse than unemployed? The boys in the Yorkshire Institution are engaged in various occupations suited to their age and their capabilities. It is a part of their daily business to grind a certain portion of wheat for the consumption of the house. For this purpose the whole number of boys is divided into three classes, each class working every third day: thus the labour is equalized. The mill used for this purpose is a steel mill with two handles; two of the taller boys take hold of the handles, to which ropes are attached and pulled by four or six smaller boys. The operation is very simple, and the task, though it bears no such odious name, is often accomplished in an hour and a half. It is constantly remarked by those who are observant of their conduct, that the class whose turn it may be to work at the mill are very anxious to get through their lessons in school; and on the contrary, that when they have any additional employment, as copying lessons, to be done out of school hours, their work at the mill is gone through more rapidly. This is one proof of the beneficial tendency of such a change of employments. When the mill

was adopted, the boys were told that the supply of flour for the house would depend upon their labour, and it has always been supplied without a murmur, though the consumption is about six bushels per week. This mill, with its dressing machine, was not procured as a source of profit to the institution, but chiefly that the boys might have a certain portion of strong exercise at regular intervals. The saving in consequence of this labour cannot amount to less than 101. annually.

The other emyloyments for the boys are gardening, shoe and knife-cleaning, and a variety of occasional labour, such as is necessarily connected with a large establishment. A tailor and a shoemaker attend the institution for about one week in every month, and the boys designed for those trades attend each of them in the intervals of school business to receive instruction. With greater funds than the institution at present commands, workshops might be erected, and two men pursuing the above trades might be resident on the premises at a trifling additional expense, by which arrangement many of the pupils, if retained a sixth year, might be sent into the world well qualified to obtain a livelihood.

The employments of the girls are rather more laborious than those of the boys. Eighteen or twenty constantly-occupied rooms have to be swept or scoured daily, as well as all the passages and staircases in different parts of the house. The bed-linen and tablelinen washing is performed by them, and the ironing and mangling of the other articles. These and other occasional labours occupy most of their spare time; the afternoon of the day is generally spent in mending for themselves and the house, or in making various

articles of wearing apparel for the poor, which are sold with very little profit to friends and casual visiters to the institution. The active employments detailed above have the best effect on the health of the children. The institution has been nearly free from illness from the period of its establishment. The scrofulous affections so common among the deaf have very seldom assumed any unpleasant appearance, nor have they produced any bad effects on their general health.

In the domestic arrangements of the establishment it is worthy of remark that only two house-servants are kept, a cook and a housemaid; the latter to superintend the household work, or to do it, if by her negligence it is left undone by the girls. The moral deportment of the girls, their needlework, and the direction of the domestic part of the institution, are confined to the matron. The two assistant teachers are the only other subordinate officers in the establishment, and their duties are separate and distinct. Besides assisting in the school, the senior assistant watches over the moral and orderly demeanor of the boys when not in school; the junior superintends the performance of the manual labours out of school, preserves the general order of the lessons and apparatus of the school-room, the workshops, and other offices, in which duties he is assisted by the boys; even the least child in the establishment has some work to perform tending to habituate him to order and carefulness.

By means of the manual operations described, the children acquire fixed habits of industry during their continuance in the institution, which habits will generally take any direction their guardians may afterwards prescribe. The boys from agricultural districts will,