der proper management;
and to elucidate the subject, he introduced a girl, about eight years
of age, who, labouring under those defects, he and his friend Mr.
A. Blair, had been very attentive to,--she, being in other respects
endowed with an excellent capacity, paid great attention to what was
going forward, and with promptness executed, or rather anticipated,
the wishes of her instructors, which proved a very animating and
affecting spectacle. This circumstance gave rise to _A General
Institution for the Instruction of Deaf and_ _Dumb Children._

A few days after this girl had been brought forward, a private meeting
took place, when it was determined to establish an institution, under
the above title.

On the 4th of December, 1812, a general meeting was held, and a
committee appointed, who, after making numerous enquiries to find a
person properly qualified to superintend the concern, did at length
fix upon Mr. Thomas Braidwood, who at that time conducted a private
school of the same description, at Hackney; he being initiated in the
mystery by his father and grandfather.

When the plan of this institution was made known to the grand jury at
the summer assizes for the county of Warwick, in the year 1813, it was
universally patronized by them; and when the magistrates, and other
leading characters in the county of Stafford, were apprised of it,
they, with the greatest liberality, gave it their support, as did
the Earl of Plymouth, and other persons of high consideration in the
counties of Worcester, Salop, and Derby.

On the 11th of January, 1814, the school was opened, with a few
children, as day scholars, and a short time after, the number was
increased to fifteen; three of whom came from a distance, and were
provided for, free of any expense to the institution, which was
at that time held in the town. Lord Calthorpe having erected some
building at Edgbaston, in a delightful situation, on an eminence,
that commands a view of Birmingham and the adjacent country for some
distance, he, at the suggestion of Dr. Edward Johnstone, granted an
advantageous lease of it, together with some surrounding land, for the
use of this institution.

At the anniversary which took place on the 29th August, 1814, his
Grace the Duke of Devonshire, as president of this institution,
attended in person, when the committee announced, that every annual
subscriber of one guinea, and every donor of ten pounds are entitled
by lot to nominat