you and I went down to see him about the Normal School Grant, and he says that I never told him that we had Accounts of 1868 to pay, on behalf of the Normal and Model Schools and the Depository, which I did. However you can look into the whole matter when you return.

TORONTO, March 15th, 1869.

XXV. DOCTOR RYERSON TO J. GEORGE HODGINS.

J. GEORGE HODGINS.

I think there is a good deal of force in Mr. James Campbell's Text Book Letter, and I endorse it almost entirely but I am afraid we will find great difficulty in attempting to deal with Authorship and Editorship.

I know that this is a favourite idea with Doctor McCaul, and I doubt not he anticipates a large interest in it in the future. However, I am disposed to go in that direction as far as I can.

I see already the object of Wood's Letters about the Accounts and I think your answers are most conclusive and irresistible, and should make him feel very small. The School Meeting here,-at Cornwall,-to-day adopted all the clauses of both Bills.

CORNWALL, March 16th, 1869.

XXVI. J. GEORGE HODGINS TO DOCTOR RYERSON.

EGERTON RYERSON.

I have to-day rented my House, with the view to moving into a less expensive one, for the loss to me of $500 a year Salary as the result of Mr. Blake's action in the Legislature, is too serious a matter to face the future with, on the same scale as before, but dire "necessity knows no law."

Mr. Wood has sent to get "the particulars" of your late travelling expenses. You will please let me have them.

I sent you The Globe of yesterday, with a characteristic attack on you, in regard to the admission of Girls into the Grammar Schools. Your Memorandum in regard to the Conventions was also inserted.

TORONTO, April 2nd, 1869.

J. GEORGE HODGINS.

CHAPTER IX.

REPORT ON INSTITUTIONS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB AND THE BLIND IN EUROPE AND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR ESTABLISHMENT IN THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO, 1868.

BY THE REVEREND DOCTOR RYERSON, CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO. LETTER TO THE PROVINCIAL SECRETARY, FROM THE CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT.

I have the honour to transmit herewith my Report on Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb, and the Blind,-a Report, the materials of which I have collected and prepared, by direction of the Government of the late Province of United Canada, communicated to me October, 1866.

I think it but just to say that I have had no personal experience in giving instruction in, or managing Institutions, of the history, character, and objects, of which I

have treated. I simply state, as briefly as possible, the results of my inquiries and researches respecting them.

While I have drawn the distinctions between the wants and nature of the education of Deaf-mutes and the Blind, and the necessity of separate Institutions for them, I have suggested, at the close of my Report, the method of levying a small special Tax (as before), upon all the property of the Province, to provide a Fund for erecting and supporting these Institutions.

TORONTO, 28th May, 1868.

EGERTON RYERSON.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR-GENERAL STISTED, C.B., LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO.

May it Please Your Excellency,—

In the Letter of the Secretary of the late Province of Canada, dated Ottawa, 19th of October, 1866, which informed me that it was the pleasure of the Governor-Generalin-Council that I should make an Educational Tour in Foreign Countries, the following instructions were given :

I have further to request that you will carry out, as far as practicable, the suggestions contained in the Memorandum, as to collecting information, etcetera, during your Tour, respecting Schools for the Deaf and Dumb, and Blind.

MEMORANDUM OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, ABOVE REFERRED TO:

As it is contemplated to establish Government Schools for the Deaf and Dumb, and also for the Blind, in Upper and Lower Canada, it is respectfully recommended, that, in addition to the general and special educational objects referred to in Doctor Ryerson's Letter, he be requested to visit the best Institutions in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe, for the Education of these two classes; with a view to collecting information as to the best mode of conducting such Institutions and reporting on the subject to the Government on his return.

Doctor Ryerson should also be requested to ascertain on what terms a competent Person should be procured to take charge of an Institution for either, or both, of the classes of Persons already mentioned.

Heads of Report respecting the Deaf and Dumb.

I now proceed to report the result of my inquiries, and to offer some suggestions for the consideration of the Legislature and public, relative to the establishment of Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. In former years, I had visited and learned the peculiarities of several of these Institutions in Germany; during my late Tour, I visited similar Institutions in five of the neighboring States in England and in France, on every occasion receiving the most kind attentions from their Managers; and from public Authorities, to whom I felt it necessary in some instances to apply for information, in regard to the legal provisions for the establishment and support of Institutions for these afflicted classes of our fellow-creatures. I will first treat of Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb; and what I have to report and suggest on this subject will be presented under the following heads:

1. The class of Persons for whom these Educational Institutions are required. 2. The nature and difficulty of their education.

3. A sketch of the origin and progress of Institutions for their education.

4. The principal Institutions in Europe and in the United States for the education of Deaf Mutes, together with their methods of instruction.

5. The public provision made for the establishment and support of such Institutions.

6. Suggestions for their establishment in Ontario.

Although my instructions did not mention the United States, (the omission being, doubtless, accidental), I felt it very important to visit the principal Institutions there, that I might compare them with those in Europe, and judge of their relative adaptation to our purposes in Canada. It will be seen that the most useful part of the infor mation obtained was collected in the United States.

1. Condition and Numbers of the Deaf Mutes.

I am first to note the class of persons for whom these Educational Institutions are required. They are those who are possessed of all the intellectual and moral faculties of man; all human susceptibilities and capabilities of pleasure and pain; all the wants of our race; but are deprived, by hereditary, or personal, disease, or accident, without any fault of their own, of one of the five senses of man, the sense of hearing, -the source of so much pleasure, knowledge and power; and are, consequently, deprived of the use of the organ of speech,-the companion of the sense of hearing,and of all enjoyment and endless advantages arising from spoken languages. They are, therefore called Deaf Mutes, or Deaf and Dumb,-dumb as to articulate language, but not dumb as to any of the intellecual powers, social and moral sensibilities of our nature. They see, but they hear not. They behold the works of God and man, but are without the power of language to learn, or magnify either; they feel all the wants and sorrows of humanity, and are susceptible of its pleasures, but are destitute of speech to express their wants and sorrows, or to receive and impart those pleasures. The silence appeals to the heart of sympathy more powerfully than any words of the Orator.

Many of these children of deafness, and silence are so from birth; others become so by accident, or disease in infancy; others again, after they have heard and learned something of the use of articulate language. But, with the loss of power to distinguish sounds, soon follows the loss of the power to articulate them.

Some are not absolutely deaf, but are capable of perceiving loud noises, such as claps of Thunder, discharge of Fire-arms, sounding of Bells, or even that of sharp Whistling; and being able to learn and articulate certain words, are called semi-mutes.

Of the various causes of deafness, it is not my purpose to speak; but, whatever be the cause, the unfortunate victim is innocent of it; and priceless is the invention, and noble the philanthropy by which this silent, isolated, unfortunate class of human beings "may be educated in mind and heart, so as to sustain intelligent relations with their fellow-men, and by which the deaf hear the Saviour's promises, and the dumb speak, in language mute, but eloquent, their Maker's praise."

The number of this afflicted class is very considerable. In France, there are upwards of 20,000, or one to every 1,800 of the population; in the United States there are about 13,000, or one to every 1,600 of the population. The actual number of Deaf and Dumb Persons in England is not known; but, it is said the proportion is diminishing. In Ontario, there cannot be less than from 750 to 1,000 of this unfortunate class.

2. Nature and difficulty of the Education of Deaf Mutes.

The education of Deaf Mutes presents formidable difficulties, and requires great skill and labour. They are not only to be taught the subjects of ordinary School Education, but the very language in which those subjects are taught; and, in teaching that language, there is no organ of hearing, as an instrument of instruction and knowledge. To the Deaf Mute the world is a world of solitary silence-no harmony of music, no sounds of the elements, no voice of words. He cannot tell his wants and wishes; he has no mother tongue; he has never heard the sound of even the Mother's voice, and is unconscious of his own. He can form no idea of sound, any more than can a blind man of colours. His eye is his only ear, and gesture his only language. But what gestures can express the truths of Science, the doctrines of Revelation, the moral duties and social relations of life? The solution of this problem appears to me one of the most difficult and noblest achievements of human genius and philanthropy. Yet it has been solved; and thousands of this speechless, isolated, unfortunate class,-yet, with unaimed intellects and hearts,-have been restored to society,-have been made useful members of it,-have learned Trades, and acquired the knowledge of ordinary

life; and many of them have made marvellous attainments, not only in the subjects of Common School Education, but in the physical and moral Sciences, in the higher Mathematics, and in Ancient and Modern Languages. Without the instrument, or power of spoken language, they have learned the meaning of its words, its structure, and its use, by writing with a facility, and, in some instances, with an elegance and power truly wonderful. The knowledge acquired by many of them in Natural History, (especially Botany,) the elements of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, Mental, Moral and Political Science, is equal to that of ordinary Students in the higher schools of learning. Thus, the intellectual and moral, as well as physical, world, is opened to the minds of these children of silence, whose only media of communication are the bodily eye and bodily gestures.

In educating a Deaf-mute, the first step is to teach him the language in which he is to learn, a matter of far greater difficulty, in the absence of all vocal sounds, than educating an ordinary Canadian child-through the medium of the Greek language, by first commencing to teach him that language. The Principal of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, remarks:

Some persons do not realize, that, when a Child has been here three, or four, years, he is where an ordinary child is when he begins to go to School; and they expect him to accomplish in the remaining two, or three, years what we allow speaking children, with all their faculties, from eight to ten years to secure. It is fair to suppose that an ordinary hearing child, twelve years of age, learning the Latin, or Greek, Language, has far less difficulty to encounter than the Deaf-mute has in mastering our written language. In Common Schools, the Pupil has the medium of instruction beforehand, and can at once enter on the various branches taught. But, if he be required, in commencing his education, first to learn a foreign language, in which his Text-books were prepared, and of which he has no previous knowledge, it would be an easier task than is assigned to every Pupil in this Institution.

The distinguished Principal of the justly famed New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, states the question of difficulty and labour in the following words of his report for 1862:

The great object of our labours is, of course, to restore our Pupils to the society of their fellow-men, by enabling them to read and write understandingly the language of their Country, and to impart to them the consolations of Religion. Our Pupils come to us, for the most part, entirely destitute of words; and their first lessons in language are necessarily confined to its simplest elements, and to the expression of the most familiar ideas. For the first three, or four, years we use Textbooks specially adapted to the use of the Deaf and Dumb. As the pupil advances, and becomes capable both of grasping more elevated ideas and of using more complex forms of language, we put into his hand simple Text-books of history, of Geography, of Natural History, of Natural Philosophy. It is not to be supposed that he learns nothing of these Sciences during the earlier years of his course; on the contrary, many of the facts, incidents and narrations introduced into his earlier lessons, as illustrations of some word, or some simple law of construction, are foretastes of the Sciences just named. But, after mastering so much of language, as is necessary to read children's Books, and to express his own ideas with tolerable correctness, we insure a greater interest in his lessons, give him fuller means of intellectual enjoyment, and restore him more completely to the intercourse of society, by giving him a complete, though necessarily abridged, course of each of those Sciences that describe the earth, its productions and inhabitants, relate the history of his own and other nations, and elucidate the most important laws of nature, not forgetting to give due prominence of the laws of Morality, the history of the Bible, and the precepts of Religion.

Such then is the difficulty of educating the Deaf and Dumb, and such the design and scope of their education.

3. Origin and progress of Institutions for the Education of Deaf Mutes.

I will now give a brief sketch of the origin and progress of Institutions for the education of the Deaf and Dumb.

For many ages the condition of this class of human beings seems to have been considered hopeless, at least so far as their instruction is concerned. In the Gospel narrative no intimation is given of any attempt ever having been made to instruct the Deaf and Dumb; and it is mentioned as a thing unknown since the world was made, and as entirely miraculous that the Dumb should speak. The earliest mention in history of efforts to teach the Deaf and Dumb is made by the Venerable Bede, (in his Ecclesiastical History of England), who states that John of Beverly, Archbishop of York, endeavored about 650, to teach a poor Deaf Mute, whom he had received, to use articulate language. Notwithstanding the legendary character of a part of the narrative, it appears that this charitable Prelate employed some of the very means of instruction which are now used in Schools for the Deaf and Dumb. After the lapse of nearly a thousand years, mention is made of Pierre de Poince, of Spain, a Benedictine Monk, who died in 1854, having attempted to teach a Deaf Mute to write and speak; and Paul Bonnet, Secretary of the Constable of Castile, in a Volume, dated 1620, explains the method which he had pursued in teaching the Constable's Brother, a Deaf Mute, to write and speak. In 1669, the Parliament of Toulouse made valid the written will of a born Deaf Mute, who had learned, (how or by the instruction of what Master is unknown,) to express himself by writing. Jacob Rodigue Pereira, -a Jew, and Grandfather of two distinguished French Financiers, still living,-came from his native Country of Estremadura in 1734, and established himself at Bordeaux as Teacher of the Deaf and Dumb, combining the employment of mimic Signs, manual Alphabet, and Speech in his instructions. In 1746, the Royal Academy of Caen requested him to give an account of his methods of instruction, and honoured him with the expression of its approbation; in 1747, the Journal des Savants published an account of the teachings of Pereira; and, in 1749, the Academy of Sciences at Paris added the expression of its high approval of Pereir's method and labours.

The Abbe de l'Epee, Braidwood, Watson, and Gallaudet.

But the recognized Father and Founder of Deaf Mute instruction in France, and of the Paris Institution, is the Venerable Abbe de l'Epee, who seems to have had his attention directed to the subject, and his feelings enlisted in it, in 1760, by meeting with two Deaf Mute Sisters, who had been deprived of Religious instruction by the death of a Priest of the Christian doctrine, Father Vauin, who had undertaken to initiate them into the dogmas of Christianity by the aid of Engravings. The first public exhibition of his Pupils was made by Abbe de l'Epee in 1771. The Institution founded at Paris by the Abbe de l'Epee was erected into a National Establishment in 1791. M. Vaisse, the present Director of the Establishment, remarks that:

It is only in this Century, and even in late years, that the subject has obtained all the interests which it wants. The affecting fact which statistics have revealed, of the existance of more than 20.000 of our fellow citizens affected by deafness, finds, at this day, its consolation in the foundation, more or less recent, of nearly 50 Institutions consecrated, in France, to the intellectual restoration of those innocent victims of this natural defect.

After Paris, Bordeaux and Chambery, which possess Establishments, established directly by the State, we see Nancy, Lyons, Toulouse, Poictiers, Cean, Rouen, and forty other Towns of our Departments, which can, very justly, rank their Schools of Deafmutes among the most important of their Establishments of public utility*.

In other Countries on the Continent of Europe there have long been Schools for the Deaf and Dumb,-in some instances for more than a Century. There are three in Holland, twenty-five in Prussia, ten in Austria, ten in Bavaria, one, or more, in each of the minor States of Germany, and twelve in Switzerland, all more, or less, supported by the State.

In Great Britain, the first formal attempt to instruct the Deaf and Dumb seems to have been made by Mr. Thomas Braidwood, Senior, who, in 1760, established a "Historique et Principes de l'Art D'Instruire Les Sourds-Muets (1865)."