ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE NEW-YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB, TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, FOR THE YEAR ENDING ON THE 31st DECEMBER, 1827.

The Directors of the New-York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, being required by an Act of the Honourable the Legislature of the State, to make an Annual Report, respectfully submit the following:

THE act passed on the 13th April, 1819, requires the Directors to report "the amount of receipts and expenditures, the number of pupils received and discharged, the state of their improvement, as well moral as intellectual, the number and quality of teachers, and the general state and condition of the said Institution."

The law passed on the 23rd March, 1827, entitled, "An Act to provide for the building an Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in the city of New-York," also contains provisions with which they are required to comply.

This act appropriates $10,000 for building an Asylum, provided the Directors raise an equal amount. With the $20,000, they are authorized to purchase or lease a piece of ground, and thereon to erect an Asylum, first obtaining the sanction of the Superintendent of Common Schools to the purchase of the ground, and the plan of the buildings to be erected. They are also required to account to the Comptroller of the state, for the expenditure of the $20,000. They are, previous to this, likewise required to file their assent to the provisions of the act, under their corporate seal, in the office of the Secretary of State.

Soon after the act of the 23rd March, 1827, was received, it was laid before the Board of Directors, and they ordered their assent to be filed, signed by the President and Secretary of the Institution, and the same was executed and deposited in the office of the Secretary of State, in April, 1827.

In June they were enabled to deposit in the Mechanics' Bank of the city of New-York, $10,000. This amount was set apart for the special object of assisting to build the Asylum, and was deposited in the name of John Slidell, Stephen Allen and Peter Sharpe, a Special Committee for this purpose. During the same month, the Corporation of the city, granted a lease (at a very moderate rent) of four acres of ground, in the neighbourhood of the city, for the purpose of building an Asylum thereon. Plans for the contemplated building having been obtained, they were submitted to the Secretary of State, with the lease from the Corporation, and other documents required before drawing for the state appropriation. The Honourable the Secretary, the Acting Superintendent of Common Schools, having expressed an opinion that it would be improper to expend so large an amount of public money in building upon leased ground, the Directors renewed their application to the Honourable the Corporation of the city, and in July they were pleased to convey in fee, one acre of the four previously leased, to the Directors of this Institution, upon which the Asylum has since been commenced.

The Secretary of State having approved of the plans, and being satisfied with the purchase, and the site of the ground, it was competent for the Directors to draw for the state appropriation, and they accordingly did draw, through their own Treasurer, upon the Comptroller of the State, for ten thousand dollars.

This amount when received, was paid over to the Special Committee, before mentioned, and deposited in the same bank with the other deposit, that the whole might be applied to" the erection of a building or buildings for an Asylum and

workshops for the Deaf and Dumb." In order that the Directors may account to the Comptroller of the State, for the disposition of this money, they have directed the Committee to take duplicate receipts for all their expenditures; one sett of which will in due time be submitted as required.

The plans for the Asylum were not definitively decided upon, until the Institutions at Philadelphia and Hartford were visited by a Committee of the Directors, in the months of June and July; and when the grant of a site for the building was ceded by the Corporation, (for the consideration of one dollar,) the Directors proceeded to make arrangements to build. Contracts were accordingly entered into, and the Asylum was commenced in October. On the 19th of that month, they had the satisfaction of laying the corner-stone of the contemplated building. The Honourable A. C. Flagg, Secretary of State, (who was in this city, on his official visit to the school,) assisted at the ceremony, which was honoured by the presence of the Mayor and Common Council of the city, and a large assemblage of citizens. Since that time, the foundation of the Asylum and the basement story have been completed, the first tier of beams laid, and the whole covered and secured from the weather, for the winter. The work will be resumed in the spring, and the entire building will be finished in November, 1828. It will be three stories above the basement, 110 feet in length, by 60 feet in breadth. The principal school-rooms will be in the centre, and the ends appropriated to the residence of the pupils, and their accommodation out of school. The male and female pupils will be completely separated, by intervening walls and partitions. The workshops will be separate and distinct buildings, at a convenient distance from the Asylum.

In complying with the law requiring them to report the amount of receipts and expenditures, they have hereunto annexed an abstract of the Treasurer's account current, and a statement of the fund set apart for the Asylum, showing a balance in the hands of the Treasurer, of $923.45; and a

balance of the Asylum fund in the hands of the Special Committee, of $14,278.76.

The expenditures of the Institution have exceeded ten thousand dollars during the past year, but one thousand at least may be deducted, as not within the ordinary annual expenses of the Institution. The items of this deduction. are, the expense of clothing for state pupils, which the Directors are not required to furnish; the expense of prosecuting the venders of lottery tickets, and the expense of the delegations to Albany, Philadelphia and Hartford. These being deducted, the annual expenditure will be about $9117, which, divided by 63, the number of pupils at the end of the year, will give $144 as the average expenditure for each.

During the year there have been 14 pupils received and 15 discharged, which with 64, the number at the date of the last report, makes 78, leaving 63, one less than was reported 1st January, 1827.

The moral and intellectual improvement of the pupils has been gratifying and satisfactory. On these points it is expected that the Secretary of State, the Acting Superintendent of Common Schools, who spent several days in examining the pupils, will give a more detailed account.

The teachers are the same as were reported and named the last year. In expectation of continued patronage by the state, and an increase of the pupils, when the Asylum shall be completed, the Directors made inquiries for a teacher at the Royal Institution at Paris. They have ascertained that a competent teacher can be obtained, and a Committee has been authorized to engage one who will be possessed of the latest improvements in the art of instructing Mutes.

The latest work on this subject published in France, has recently been received. It is in two volumes, in the French language, by Mons. Bebian, formerly Censor of the Royal Institution in Paris, and now the principal of a private Institution for Deaf Mutes. The author professes to have made improvements upon his predecessor, the Abbe Sicard. One