ride the political whirlwind, and in the diplomatic cabinet, to collect
some advantage from the prejudices or passions of all who approached
him. The caution and cunning of T---- have succeeded, where the sword
and impetuous spirit of Bonaparte would have been unavailing. The
splendour of his apartments, and of many of the personages present,
displayed a very courtlike appearance, and inclined a stranger, like
myself, to think, that nothing of the old government was missing, but
the expatriated family of France.

CHAPTER XIX.

_The College of the Deaf and Dumb.--Abbe
Sicard.--Bagatelle.--Police.--Grand National Library.--Bonaparte's
Review.--Tambour Major of the Consular Regiment.--Restoration of
Artillery Colours._

I had long anticipated the delight which I expected to derive from the
interesting public lecture of the abbe Sicard, and the examination of
his pupils. This amiable and enlightened man presides over an
institution which endears his name to humanity, and confers unfading
honour upon the nation which cherishes it by its protection and
munificence. My reader will immediately conclude that I allude to the
College of the Deaf and Dumb. By the genius and perseverance of the late
abbe Charles Michael de l'Epee, and his present amiable successor, a
race of fellow beings, denied by a privation of hearing, of the powers
of utterance, insulated in the midst of multitudes bearing their own
image, and cut off from the participation, within sight, of all the
endearing intercourses of social life, are restored, as it were, to the
blessings of complete existence. The glorious labours of these
philanthropists, in no very distant ages, would have conferred upon
them, the reputation and honours of beings invested with superhuman
influence. By making those faculties which are bestowed, auxiliary to
those which are denied, the deaf are taught to hear, and the dumb to
speak. A silent representative language, in which the eye officiates
for the ear, and communicates the charms of science, and the delights of
common intercourse to the mind, with the velocity, facility, and
certainty of sound, has been presented to these imperfect children of
nature. The plan of the abbe, I believe, is before the world. It cannot
be expected, in a fugitive sketch like the present, to attempt an
elaborate detail of it. Some little idea of its rudiments may, perhaps,
be imparted, by a plain description of what passed