ent an appreciation of them,
nor be so likely to discover the aids required by the blind.

No one could have worked with more enthusiasm or energy than Levy
himself. He learnt trades and tried experiments with tools, introduced
brush-making, and prepared the way for the great development which he
and Bessie now foresaw. She also was not idle; the possibility of
employing women was always before her, and she made experiments with
regard to occupations that might be suitable for them.

Her private scheme was now about to expand into an Association managed
by a Committee. Before the final step was taken she wished to secure all
the objects for which she had hitherto laboured, and to prepare for the
changes which were imminent. She endeavoured to obtain friends and
allies, and the success which attended her efforts was no doubt in part
owing to the fact that she was the daughter of a bishop and was herself
blind. She was spared the long and weary search for patrons and support
to which many are condemned. Her name, her position, her privation,
secured immediate attention from those who were able to give both money
and influence. So great was her success, that in the winter of 1855 she
decided, all the necessary preliminaries having been arranged, to appeal
to the Queen.

In January 1856 she sent to the Queen an autograph letter, written on
her Foucault frame, and with the consent of Her Majesty the
correspondence is now reproduced:

MADAM--The loving care ever shown by your Majesty for the welfare
of your subjects, together with the benevolent interest which your
Majesty and your Royal Consort are so well known to take in works
of mercy, have emboldened me most humbly to pray for the gracious
condescension of your Majesty and your Royal Consort towards an
undertaking for employing the blind which has been carried on
during the past year and a half, on so limited a scale that but
very few have derived benefit from it. Being myself blind, I have
been led to take a deep interest in the blind, of whom there are
stated to be twenty-seven thousand in Great Britain and Ireland,
out of which number but a small proportion can be received into the
existing institutions, on leaving which many even of this number
are reduced to beggary from the difficulty they find in obtaining
employment. Could the endeavour to remedy this evil become truly
national, the