ity in this respect
before any other in the world.

[Illustration: NEW-YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.]

The Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb was
incorporated in 1817, the first pupils were received in the following
year, and in 1827 the foundation was laid for the edifice now occupied
by the institution in Fiftieth street, near Fourth Avenue. Since 1831,
the President, Harvey P. Peet, LL.D. has had the chief direction of its
affairs, and its income, the number of its inmates, and its good
reputation, have rapidly increased.

The New-York Hospital in Broadway, the Bloomingdale Asylum for the
Insane, the Marine Hospital, the Seamen's Retreat, the Sailors' Snug
Harbor, and the numerous establishments (several of which have large and
splendid edifices) under the control of the municipal authorities, we
may describe at length hereafter. The illustrations of this article
evince the liberal style as well as the extent of the institutions which
the position of New-York has rendered it necessary for her citizens to
establish and support.

[Illustration: LUNATIC ASYLUM, BLACKWELL'S ISLAND.]

ADVENTURES AND OBSERVATIONS IN NICARAGUA.

We have already announced in these pages that Mr. SQUIER, who was lately
representative of the United States in Nicaragua, had in preparation for
the press an account of his residence in that interesting country, and
expressed an opinion that his work would surpass in interest and value
the entire library of English and French publications on the subject. An
examination of some of the sheets justifies our expectations; Mr. Squier
must hereafter be ranked among the most successful travel-writers as
well as antiquaries of the time; he knows what to observe and how to
observe, and his relations with the Nicaraguans were such that no
traveller had ever better opportunities for the acquisition of facts or
the formation of judgments. His work will soon be published in a
profusely illustrated octavo by Mr. Putnam. A pleasant specimen of the
author's style is afforded by the following sketch of an evening ride on
the banks of the lake of Granada, and of the signoras of that
metropolis.

"After a pleasant interview of half an hour we bade Don Jose "_buena
tarde_," and galloped down to the shores of the lake, just as the sun
was setting, throwing the whole beach in the shade, while the fairy
"Corales" were swimming in the evening light. The shore was ten-fold
more