LON 
his (kill.—However, this want of ornament may have 
arifen from the low (late of the fociety’s funds; for it ap¬ 
pears, from their Addrefs to the Public in 1814, that they 
■were very unwilling to incur the expenfe of a new build¬ 
ing: “When the School was originally eftablifhed, in the 
year 1800, upon the premifes which it fit'll occupied, (the 
fite of the Dog and Duck,) and which were held of the 
city of London, it was hoped that the truftees of the cha¬ 
rity would be able to obtain from the city a renewal of 
the exilting leale, which had then about ten years to run. 
In this cafe, Inch additions might have been made to the 
buildings already on the ground, at a very moderate ex¬ 
penfe, as would have been fufficient for the accommoda¬ 
tion of a larger number of pupils. This expectation, 
however, was difappointed, ow ing to the transfer of Beth¬ 
lehem Hofpital to St. George’s Fields, which wholly pre¬ 
cluded the continuance of the fchool on that fite. It hav¬ 
ing alfo been found impoflible to procure any houfe, or 
exilting building, capable of accommodating fo large an 
eltablilhmenr, the committee were reluctantly obliged (at 
the expiration of their leafe in 1810) to erect new build¬ 
ings for their reception, upon the prefent ground near 
the Obelifk, which the corporation of the city of London 
very liberally granted on moderate terms. Thefe are 
merely plain and commodious, and have be:n executed 
at the lead podible expenfe, confident with the object of 
providing fuitable accommodation for an inereafed num¬ 
ber of pupils.” State of the Building Fund, 1814. 
The objeCt of the School for the Indigent Blind is, to 
inflruCt perfons of that defeription in a trade, by which 
they may be able to provide, either wholly or in part, for 
their own fubfidence; an ufeful ait of charity, were no 
other good"to refult from their labour than the relief af¬ 
forded by it to their poor friends or relations, on whom 
the ccft of maintaining them is frequently a heavy charge; 
but of which the benefits will appear far more important, 
when confidered with reference to the comfort of the blind 
themfelves, and to the efFeit which habits of indultry mud 
neceflarily produce on their feelings and general charailer. 
-—It is perhaps difficult to conceive any two fituations in 
the infinite varieties of civilized life, more different from 
each other, in refpeCt to liappinefs, than the condition of 
£ blind perfon, with his faculties benumbed by doth, and 
his fpirits deprefled by the confcioufnefs of being a bur¬ 
then to thofe about him, and that of the fame individual 
engaged in condant employment, and feeling that he con¬ 
tributes, by his daily occupation, to the comforts of the 
family of which he forms a part.—Subfcriptions were firlt 
folicited for the inditution in the month of December, 
1799 ; but fo much time was unavoidably fpent in pro¬ 
curing a proper place for the fchool, in providing accom¬ 
modations for the reception of the pupils, and in other 
neceflary arrangements, that very few admifiions could 
take place till towards the end of the following year, viz. 
1800. Its effects, fince that time, on the clafs of perfons 
for whofe benefit it was eltabliflied, and the encourage¬ 
ment which it has received from the public, have been 
fuch as to anfwer the molt fanguin.e expectations of its 
friends. It has, during a period of little more than thir¬ 
teen years, returned fifty perfons to their families, able 
to earn, according to their feveral abilities, from 3s. to il. 
5s. per week. It has been able to increafe the number 
of its pupils from fifteen males, with which it commenced 
in 1800, to upwards of forty males, and twenty females; 
and it has eftabiilhed a manufactory, where articles made lad 
year, by the hands of blind perfons, fold for 1300I. 7s. id. 
The benefits of this inditution are extended to the blind 
of both fexes, who, when admitted, are boarded, lodged, 
and indruCted. All objeCts under twelve years of age are 
now deemed abfolutely inadmiflible; but no age above 
that is confidered as a difqualification, while the drength 
remains unimpaired, and the fingers are flexible. It is 
proper alfo to obferve here, that cafes of extreme indigence 
are not thofe, in which admiflion into this fchool is likely 
‘ Vol. XIII. No. 924. 
DON. 517 
to be of mod ufe; for, when the pupil is difinifled, the 
value of the inltruCtion he has received mult entirely de¬ 
pend upon the means he may poflelsof putting in practice 
the art in which he has been indruCted; and, unit-is liis 
friends (hall be'in a condition to furnidi him with a con¬ 
dant fupply of materials for the regular exeicife of the 
(kill he mav have acquired, the foci ty will have t night, 
and he will have learned, to very little purpofe. The ar¬ 
ticles at prefent manufactured in the fchool, are, (hoe- 
makers’ thread, fine and coarfe thread, window falli line, 
and clothes-line (of a peculiar conftniCfion, and made on 
a machine adopted to the ufe of blind perfons), by the 
females; and window and fafli-line, clothes line, hampers, 
and Wicker-bafkets, rough and white rope-mars, and fine 
mats for hearths and carriages, by the males. A large 
quantity of the fine thread has been woven, by order of the 
committee, into cloth of good quality, fpecimens of which 
may be feen at the fchool, and the coarfe is worked up 
into clothes line and window falli line. In the manufac¬ 
ture of thefe different kinds of line, a very material im¬ 
provement has taken place fince it was commenced; and 
fpecimens of thofe articles have been approved of by ar¬ 
tificers of the firfi eminence in their proleflion. The f ile 
of bafkets, rope-mats, and white and coloured fine-mats, 
at the fchool, has alio very much increased ; and orders are 
conltantly executed by the pupils to a great extent. A 
large alfortment of balkets ol different forts and lizes, and 
of rough and white, and coloured, rope-mats, is always 
kept at the fchool for fale, fo well made, that perfons 
inclined to patronize the charity will experience no in¬ 
convenience by taking from it fitch articles as may be 
wanted for the ufe of their families. The pupils are only 
kept in the fchool till they have attained a lufficient I n >w- 
ledge of their trade; which, in general, where there is no 
want of diligence or capacity, will be in about three or 
four years; they are then difeharged, to make room for 
others, with a portion of their earnings by way of encou¬ 
ragement, and a fet of tools; and many have already been 
returned to their friends, grateful for the inltruCtion they 
have received in religion and morality during their con¬ 
tinuance in the fchool, and qualified, by the (kill they have 
acquired there, to contribute, in a great degree, towards 
their maintenance. A few of thofe inftruCtcd in the 
fchool, have, however, been kept upon a permanent elta- 
blilhment, on a fuppoiition that their earnings have been 
found fufficient to maintain them, and their (kill being 
alio neceflary to enable the inflitution to keep up the cre¬ 
dit of its manufacture with its cuftomers; with this view, 
two males and three females, who would otherwife have 
been fome time fince difiniffed as having received fufficient 
inltruCtion, have been allowed to remain at the fchool. 
Such are the nature and prefent itate of the School for 
the Indigent Blind; a charity which, it may be hoped, 
will prove, in no flight degree, the means of bettering the 
condition and increaling the comforts of a portion ot the 
community whofe claims to compaffion and alfittance 
cannot be difputed. Thofe who may bedefirous of feeing 
to what extent the fituation and faculties of the blind are 
capable of improvement, may ealily fatisfy themfelves 
on that head by vifiting the fchool, which will be readily 
fliown to them. They need not be apprehenfive of meet¬ 
ing with anything which can ihock their feelings, or give 
rile to melancholy reflections; they will not find the pu¬ 
pils fitting (as is commonly the cafe with the blind) in 
liltlefs indolence, or brooding in filence over their own de¬ 
fects, and their inferiority to the re It of mankind; but 
they will behold a number of individuals, ofa clafs hitherto 
confidered as doomed to a life of forrow- and difeontent, 
not lefs animated in their amufements during the hours of 
recreation, and far more cheerfully attentive to their work 
in thofe of employment, than perfons polfefled of fight. 
Any perfon (whether a fubferiber or not), defirous of 
applying for the admiflion of an objeCl, may have a printed 
paper of queitions at the fchool, to wliicli anfwers in writ- 
6 Q ing 
