attend the meeting to which you
refer, on the 11th May, I cheerfully engage to do so, subject only
to the contingency of any call upon me elsewhere, such as I may be
unable to decline.--I have the honour to be, madam, your very
faithful servant,
W. E. GLADSTONE.

Miss Gilbert.

Mr. Gladstone attended the meeting and advocated the claims of the
Association, not, as he said, from motives of philanthropy but as a
political economist, and because it was founded on sound principles. He
said:

"While this Association aims to promote the general welfare of the
blind, it aims at promoting that welfare in a very specific manner and
by well-determined means. It is not founded on the idea that the blind,
because they have suffered a great and heavy visitation, are therefore
to be the mere passive recipients of that which the liberality of their
fellow-creatures may bestow. It does not proceed on the idea that
because the blind are so, they have therefore ceased to partake in other
respects in that mysterious nature of which we are all partakers, with
its immense capabilities and powers, with its high hopes and great
dangers. For in all other respects the blind continue to be sharers in
every thing pertaining to us as men; and if I rightly apprehend the idea
of this Institution, it is this, that while we minister to the wants of
the blind in a specific manner, yet we still consider them as rational
beings, as members of society, as capable of various purposes, as not
intended to be sent into a corner, or to be excommunicated from us; but
as intended to bear their part as citizens, as enlightened and civilised
creatures, and as Christians. Employment given to the blind is a great
source of happiness. The sentence which was termed the primeval curse,
if on one side it presented the aspect of a curse, also presented on the
other the aspect of a blessing,--the necessity, the condition of true
happiness. Employment is a blessing for us all, but it is much more to
the blind. Employment to the blind is the condition of mental serenity,
of comfort and resignation. Employment to the blind is also the
condition of subsistence,--that is, of honourable and independent
subsistence. It is a great thing for an institution when we are enabled
to say that its rules and practice are in harmony with political
economy, for political economy is founded on truth. I believe that the
rules of the Assoc