schools.

_3d._ That about half the sightless population live in rural
districts.

The address ends here abruptly. Probably the writer's strength was
exhausted with the effort to think and to dictate.

During 1882, 1883, 1884 Bessie carried on at long intervals a
correspondence with Mr. Wood, Superintendent of the School for the
Blind, Sheffield. She learns that his pupils are taught to read embossed
type on Braille's system, which her own experience had shown to be
unsuited to those who have hard manual labour to perform. In every
letter she requests information on this point: "Can the workpeople still
read Braille's type?" she asks. The opening up of fresh trades, the
establishment of workshops for the benefit of those who leave the
school, are questions which she suggests for the serious consideration
of the Sheffield Committee, and she asks Mr. Wood for information, at
any time he can send it, as to work in any way connected with the blind.

About this time Bessie heard that John Bright had spoken at the Normal
College, Norwood, and appealed to him on behalf of Berners Street. He
replied:

132 PICCADILLY, _26th July 1883._

DEAR MADAM--I thank you for your letter and for the volume you have
sent me. My engagements are so many and so constantly pressing that
I cannot hope to do much for the cause you have at heart. I hope,
however, the cause is making progress, and it is not unlikely that
some general inquiry into the condition of the blind will be made
before long, and that good may come from it. My presence and
speech at Norwood were accidental. I must leave more practical work
to others.--I am, very truly yours,
JOHN BRIGHT.

Miss Gilbert, 5 Stanhope Place, Hyde Park, W.

The volume sent was most probably Levy's _Blindness and the Blind_.

During 1883 Bessie received frequent letters from the Chairman of her
Committee, Sir E. Sotheby, and the Hon. Secretary, Captain Hume Nicholl.
They referred to her the different appeals from blind men, women, and
boys which reached them; these she carefully investigated and reported
upon. During her illness, as throughout her whole life, the utmost help
and best advice she could give were always at the disposal of the blind.
Farrow, who had worked twenty-eight years at the Institution, loses no
opportunity of sending her cheerin