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In April 1815, were taken the first steps toward the erection of an institution for the deaf and dumb in America. A feeble beginning, in the establishment of a small private school, had been previously made in Virginia. But of this nothing was known, at least no account was taken in Hartford. An interesting girl, the daughter of a highly-respected physician in that city, had lost her hearing at the age of two years. The Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, having become interested in her case, visited Paris, for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the system, employed in the Royal Institution. Returning, he brought with him M. Laurent Clerc, whose name has been already mentioned, and with whose assistance he laid the foundation of the Connecticut Asylum. This Institution, which, having since experienced the fostering care of the Federal Government, has assumed the more exclusive epithet American, has always maintained a very high reputation. It has produced, at least while under the direction of Mr. Gallaudet, pupils remarkably distinguished for their attainments. Of these, George H. Loring of Boston, who was retained for some years as an assistant instructer, after the completion of his education, acquired so great a facility in the use of the French language, as to astonish native Frenchmen with whom he conversed. Articulation never formed a part of Mr. Gallaudet's system. He employed methodical signs, to a great extent, in his practice, but not without a careful previous determination of their corresponding ideas. He made it an important part of his plan, to lead his pupils to the formation of habits of reflection upon the operations of their own minds; believing, very justly, that intellectual expansion will be more rapid, as the power of discrimination, between ideas having no palpable representatives, is increased. Mr. W. C. Woodbridge, editor of the American Annals of Education, was an early associate of Mr. Gallaudet. From this school, also, proceeded Mr. Feet, principal of the institution in the city of New York.

The American Asylum likewise lent its aid to the establishment of the Pennsylvania Institution upon a secure basis. This school, first a private seminary commenced by David G. Seixas, was erected into a public institution, by an act of the State Legislature, passed in February, 1821. Soon after, Mr. Seixas having been removed, Mr. Clerc spent some time at Philadelphia, and was succeeded, on his return to Hartford, by Mr. Lewis Weld, an instructer of the same school. Mr. Weld was, in 1830, recalled to Hartford, to supply the place of Mr. Gallaudet; who, to the deep regret of every friend to the deaf and dumb, ceased, in the autumn of that year, to direct the American Asylum, and retired from the employment. The Pennsylvania Institution, under the direction of Mr. Abraham B. Hutton, has from that time continued to proceed with distinguished success.

The first movements made toward the establishment of an institution in the city of New York, originated in 1816; 'in consequence,' as we are informed by Dr. Akerly, its first director, 'of a letter written by a dumb person in Bordeaux, offering to come to this country to establish a school.' In the beginning of 1817, a public meeting was held on the subject, at which many gentlemen, believing that two institutions were unnecessary, and could not be sustained, opposed the project. A better acquaintance with the statistics of our population soon rendered the necessity of another establishment self-evident. More than sixty deaf and dumb persons were ascertained to exist in the city of New York alone, and the returns were still incomplete. An act of incorporation was obtained in April 1817. Under this act, a school was opened in the spring of 1818. which, struggling against many difficulties, principally self-created, it is true, continued for years to languish on, but seemed to hold its existence by a very uncertain tenure. It was the early error of this institution, to employ men entirely inadequate to the task they had undertaken. Its results were consequently so unsatisfactory as to shake the confidence of its friends, and ultimately even of the Legislature, on which it was dependent, in the capacity of its conductors. They afforded also ample ground for the strictures which occasionally appeared, aimed directly or indirectly at the institution, and which were believed at New York to originate in a spirit of hostility to its interests. It was further believed, upon no reasonable ground whatever, that this spirit was cherished in the American Asylum and industriously propagated by its friends. The utmost forbearance was certainly exhibited by that institution, under imputations the most uncharitable, and most directly suited to excite indignant feeling; and any one who knows Mr. Gallaudet, knows also that he is incapable of being influenced, even for a moment, by any unworthy motive. Something like a controversy seemed, notwithstanding, to spring up between the schools of New York and Hartford. We remark with some surprise, that this controversy embraces very little that is essential, in the art of instruction. It seems to relate entirely to the language of action; and not even here to involve the question commonly agitated on this topic, viz. how far this language should be employed in practice; but only to concern the visible form of the signs used in the two institutions.