he proposes to officiate, or of holding any ecclesiastical preferment in England or Ireland, or of acting as curate therein, without the consent and appro bation of the archbishop of the pre vince, and the bishop of the diocese.

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGA

TION OF THE GOSPEL. The amount of the collections and contributions, received in consequence of the King's Letter, was, on the 4th of November, 41,7221. 15s. 6d. A benefaction of 5001. has been since received from the University of Oxford. No returns had theu been received from the diocese of St. David's. It is supposed that there are many parishes in the other dioceses, which have not yet made their collections. The sums already received from the dioceses of England and Wales, are as follows:

Litchfield and Coventry, 23191.; Norwich, 28901.; Exeter, 12201.; London, 6673 1.; Lincoln, 3940 1.; Bristol, 1305 l.; Winchester, 24661.; St. Asaph, 3361.; Worcester, 10381; Chichester, 7781.; Ely, 5601.; Rochester, 9741; Bath and Wells, 10831; Salisbury, 16471; Oxford (including 500 1. from the University), 11001; Hereford, 4921.; York 34711.; Gloucester, 1280 l.;

Canter

bury, 17961; Carlisle, 277 1.; Peterborough, 15871.; Bangor, 245 1.; Chester, 24151.; Durham, 8191.; Llandaff, 1881. To which may be added, annual subscriptions, 3171.; donations, 9921.

CONNECTICUT ASYLUM FOR

THE DEAF AND DUMB". Within two weeks after the opening of this Asylum, about two years since, the number of its pupils amounted to twelve. During the last year it has increased to fifty, from eleven different States in the Union.-"This affords," observe the Directors, "incontestable evidence, (especially when it is considered that it has been impossible to furnish any pupils with charitable aid, excepting a few, for whose support the Legislature of Connecticut had made provision); how highly their friends

The name stands thus in the last Report, but has been recently changed by the General Assembly of Connectient, to that of "The American Asylum at Hartford, for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb."

appreciate the advantages afforded to them by instruction, how great sacrifices they are willing to make to obtain this object, and how strong is the obligation upon all who feel interested in promot ing the salvation of their fellow-men, to unfold to the astonished view of the poor deaf and dumb, a knowledge of the wonderful way of salvation through Jesus Christ."

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During the past year the pupils have been distributed into five classes, under their respective teachers. The instructors, by a constant familiar inter- *** course with them, and, still more, by means of the daily lectures on the lan guage of signs, which have been given by their ingenious and experienced associate, Mr. Clerc, have made such attainments in the acquisition of the principles of this science, that they hope very soon to become masters of their profession, and thus to secure its advantages, beyond the danger of loss.

Their efforts have still been, and will continue to be, directed to the improve ment of the pupils in written language. Four different modes of communication are employed in conducting the business of instruction. The first, on which all the rest are founded, and without which every attempt to teach the deaf and dumb would be utterly vain and fruitless, is the natural language of sigus, originally employed by the deaf and dumb, in all their interconrse with their friends and each other, singularly adapted to their necessities, and so significant and copious in its various expressions, that it furnishes them with a medium of conversation on all common topics the very moment that they meet, although, before entire strangers to each other; and it is even used by themselves, in a vast variety of instances, to denote the invisible operations of their minds, and emotions of their hearts.

The second mode of communication, is the same natural language of signs, divested of certain peculiarities of dialect, which have grown out of the various circumstances of life under which different individuals have been placed, reduced to one general standard, and methodized and enlarged by the admirable genins of the Abbé de l'Epée and the still more ingenious improvements of his venerable successor, the Abbe Sicard, so as to accommodate it to the structure and idioms of written language, and thus to render it in it

self a perspicuous, complete, and copions medium of thought, bearing a close affinity to the Chinese language of hieroglyphical symbols. It differs from the Chinese language, only, or principally, in this respect, that the latter forms its symbols with the pencil, while the other pourtrays them by gesture, the attitudes of the body, and the variations of the countenance.

The third mode of communication, is by means of the manual alphabet, by which the different letters of the English language are distinctly formed by one hand. This enables the deaf and dumb, after they have been taught the meaning and use of words, to converse with their friends, with all the precision and accuracy of written language, and with four times the rapidity with which ideas can be expressed by writing. A person of common understanding can very soon learn this alphabet; and it affords to all who will bestow the trifing pains which are necessary to acquire it, a ready, easy, sure, and expeditious mode of conversing on all subjects with the deaf and dumb.

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The fourth mode of communication, is by means of writing. This is habit ually employed in the school-rooms; and by it the pupils are taught the correct orthography of our language, to correspond by letters with their friends, and to derive from books the vast treasures of knowledge which they contain. Articulation is not taught. "It would require," observe the Directors, time than the present occasion furnishes, to state the reasons which have induced the Principal of the Asylum, and his associates, not to waste their labour and that of their pupils upon this comparatively useless branch of the education of the deaf and dumb. In no case is it the source of any original knowledge to the mind of the pupil. In few cases does it succeed so as to answer any valuable end. But its real value may well be estimated from the opinions of one of the most distinguished philosophers of the age, who, for many years, resided in Edinburgh, where Mr. Braidwood, perhaps the most accomplished teacher of articulation to the deaf and dumb which the world ever saw, lived and kept his school, mere mention of the name of Dugald Stewart, is sufficient to give force to any sentiments which so profound an observer of the human mind may have expressed on this interesting subject. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 117.

The

In his account of James Mitchell, a boy born blind and deaf, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Part First of Vol. VII. page 39, he says, But Sicard's aim was of a different, and of a higher nature; not to astonish the vulgar by the sudden conversion of a dumb child into a speaking automaton; but by affording scope to those means which Nature herself has provided for the gradual evolution of our intellectual powers, to convert his pupil into a rational and moral being.'—And again, page 46. 'I have been led to insist, at some length, on the philosophical merits of Sicard's plan of instruction for the dumb, not only because his fundamental principles admit of an obvious application (mutatis mutandis) to the case of Mitchell; but because his book does not seem to have attracted so much notice in this country as might have been expected, among those who have devoted themselves to the same profession. Of this no stronger proof can be produced, than the stress which has been laid, by most of our teachers, on the power of articulation, which can rarely, if ever, repay, to a person born deaf, the time and pains necessary for the acquisition. This error was, no doubt, owing, in the first instance, to a very natural, though very gross mistake, which confounds the gift of speech with the gift of reason; but I believe it has been prolonged and confirmed in England, not a little, by the common union of this branch of trade with the more lucrative one, of professing to cure organical impediments. To teach the dumb to speak, besides, (although, in fact, entitled to rank only a little higher than the art of training starlings and parrots), will always appear to the multitude a far more wonderful feat of ingenuity, than to unfold silently the latent capacities of the understanding; an effect which is not, like the other, palpable to sense, and of which but a few are able either to ascertain the existence, or to appreciate the value. It is not surprising, therefore, that even those teachers who are perfectly aware of the truth of what I have now stated, should persevere in the difficult, but comparatively useless attempt, of imparting to their pupils that species of accomplishment which is to furnish the only scale upon which the success of their labours is ever likely to be measured by the public.

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Abandoning, then, the comparatively useless attempt to teach their pupils articulation, the instructors in the Asylum have laboured, and with great success, to convey important intellectual and religious knowledge to their minds by means of the four modes of communication which have been already mentioned. Interesting, however, as are these particulars, they would not have intitled the present article to a place under the head of Religious Intelligence: But, observe the Directors, "The original design of this institution is to make it the 'the gate to heaven' for those poor lambs of the flock who have hitherto been wandering in the paths of ignorance, like sheep without a shepherd." Accordingly, as fast as their opening understandings have been capable of receiving the simple doctrines of the Gospel, they have been unfolded to their view. Most of the important facts recorded in the Sacred Oracles have been communicated to them, and the interesting truths of Revelation addressed to their consciences and urged upon their acceptance. During the past year, both in the school and in the family, those who have had the care of their government and instruction, have witnessed occasional seasons of seriousness among them. "What shall I do to be saved?" is a question which, it is stated, has, in hundreds of instances, been proposed by many of them in their own expressive language, with a look of entreaty more earnest than words could describe. "And it is a fact," contiuues the Report," which should be very encouraging to all the friends of evangelical truth, that the humbling doctrines of salvation alone through the blood of Jesus Christ, and of sanctification alone through the influences of that Spirit which He died to purchase, have been the very doctrines which have afforded these children of misfortune consolation, encouragement, and support. The phraseology of their divinity continually alludes to Jesus Christ. He seems to be the palpable object of faith upon which their minds most easily fasten." Under the direction of the heads of the family, they attend to morning and evening devotion. Their supplications to their Father who is in heaven are expressed by their teachers in their own native language of signs. "No one," it is added, "who witnesses the almost breathless attention with which they encircle the organ of their com

munication to Heaven, and the intenseness with which they observe the petitions which he offers up, can doubt for a moment, that all of them think the duty in which they are engaged a very serious one, that most of them understand its true import, and that many of them actually worship the Father of their spirits in spirit and in truth."

A large proportion of the whole number of pupils, not excepting the very youngest, have been observed, secretly offering up by signs and gestures, their broken and imperfect, though sincere, requests to their Father who is in hea"Does God understand signs?" is a question which they have more than once put to their guardians; and an answer in the affirmative has brightened their faces with the liveliest expressions of gratitude and hope and joy.

ven.

One of their number, after a year of patient waiting and deliberation, during which she often solicited the privilege of complying with the injunction of her Saviour, to commemorate his sacrifice and death, has publicly professed herself to be his disciple, and, in the estimation of her Christian acquaintance, has continued to walk worthy of so high a privilege.

It is the earnest prayer of the Directors and all engaged in the government and instruction of the pupils, that the Asylum, while it is made the instrument of rendering the objects of its care more happy and useful in this life, may also subserve the still more noble and exalted purpose, of disclosing to their minds the simple and affecting truths of the Gospel, the humbling doctrine that we are all ruined and lost by sin, and the consoling one, that both to ourselves and to these children of suffering, there is a way opened, through the sacrifice of our great High Priest, ample as the merits of his death, and sure as the pledge of his promises, to that brighter world, where there is an eternal deliverance from sorrow andsuffering and sin.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

The last Report takes a summary view of the progress of the British system of education throughout the world.

In France, the great work still proceeds with undiminished rapidity and success; and all the reports received from that country agree in the assurance, that its salutary effects are, in many places, already evinced.

The