qently, at great inconvenience, we are obliged to crowd the pupils into one of the school rooms, eighteen feet square, for morning and evening worship, and for Sabbath exercises. The sleeping apartments are far too full for the comfort and health of the occupants. In the dining room every foot of space is occupied. All the rooms used for cooking, washing, ironing, &c., are so crowded as exceedingly to embarrass domestic operations. In one room, about twenty feet square and eight high is performed all the baking and ironing for 101 persons; and the same room is used for a wash-room. In this crowded condition with our present number, what are we to do with the additional numbers who will apply for admission at the commencement of the next term in October, 1858, and in the succeeding October, 1859? The main building, which has been in process of construction the past season, cannot, with the greatest possible despatch, be completed before October, 1859. It is exceedingly desirable that some part of it at least should be ready to be occupied at that time, and that no possible failure should prevent. The parents of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind had their expectations highly raised, and their hearts filled with joy and gratitude, by the noble and liberal appropriation of the last Legislature; but they will be sadly disappointed, and so will every other humane and benevolent citizen, if by any contingency the sum appropriated should not be made available so as to provide accommodations for these children of misfortune at the earliest period practicable.

There are other weighty reasons why there should be no delay in the construction of the main edifice. We have not at present, and cannot have till we occupy the new building, any accommodations for teaching trades to our boys by which they will be able to procure a livelihood after they have left the Asylum. This is all important, both to the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. It is an essential part of their edu cation and adopted, as such, in all similar institutions in other States. Much the larger proportion of our pupils are from families in moderate circumstances pecuniarily, and will be dependent on themselves for support after they have finished their course of instruction at the Asylum. If they do not acquire some trade or handicraft here, they will not, as a general thing, ever acquire them at all; and consequently, their maintenance will continue to be, in some form, a burden to the State. We have felt, ever since the opening of the Institution,

and still keenly feel the want of shops for teaching the Deaf and Dumb shoemaking, cabinet-making, tailoring, &c., and for teaching the Blind to manufacture brushes, brooms, baskets, &c. It is proposed to use the basement rooms of the present building for this purpose just as soon as we can get possession of the main edifice. Unless progress on the building, which is necessarily suspended during the winter, is resumed early in the Spring, and your original design of erecting the remaining portion of the walls and putting on the roof before another winter, shall be accomplished, the walls already laid-nearly one-half the whole height-will suffer, from the storms and frosts of two winters, great deterioration. It is an essential matter of economy, therefore, in order to protect what has been already done, that the remaining portion be constructed during the next season. But I doubt not that you, gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, are well aware of the necessity of carrying forward the work, which has been so auspiciously begun and successfully prosecuted thus far, to as speedy a termination as possible.

. Respectfully submitted.

FLINT, December 22, 1857.

B. M. FAY.

SCHEDULE B.

FLINT, January 1, 1858.

To the Board of Trustees of the Michigan Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and the Blind:

The undersigned having been appointed "Acting Commissioner," would respectfully report: That upon commencing the erection of the main building for said Asylum, it was deemed advisable to visit the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, which had been recently finished, upon a plan similar to the one upon which ours was to be erected.

Upon visiting said Institution, it was found that a basement was finished under the whole building, which was so used and occupied as to render it an indispensable part of the building; as without it there would be no place for bath rooms, washing rooms, ironing and drying rooms, store rooms, &c.; and that for many other purposes, room could

be procured in that way at much less expense than in any other way.

It was therefore decided so to change the original plan, as to put a basement under the whole building.

It was also found to be necessary to increase the thickness of that portion of the outside walls, in which were to be constructed heating and ventillating flues.

These changes in the original plan, although increasing the expense nearly three thousand dollars, were deemed entirely indispensable in order to have the building, when completed, answer fully the purpose for which it was intended.

Excavations were commenced as early as practicable in the spring, and the work pushed forward with all possible dispatch, although much delayed by the very unfavorable weather of a large portion of the sea

son, until the walls are all carried to a level with the second story floor, and all the joists put in for the basement, first and second stories, and the window and outside door frames for the basement and first story.

The walls have been carried to an average hight of twenty-eight feet above the foundations, and are as well covered and secured for the winter as it is possible for them to be without a roof, and all the work has been carried fully to the point anticipated in the commencement, although the latter portion of it has been done at great inconvenience to, and personal sacrifice by the "Acting Commissioner" and some of the contractors and laborers, for want of funds, as may readily be seen by reference to the statement of receipts and expenditures hereto annexed, and marked "Schedule A."

All of which is respectfully submitted.

J. B. WALKER,

Acting Commissioner.