quires the same amount of time and exertion as it does to pick up a letter. If, however, the compositor can pick up the space attached to the letter, which is to form the final letter of the word that is, if he can pick up a letter and a space by one motion of the hand instead of two, he would save one-fifth of his labour. The diphthongs, double vowels, double consonants, and syllables in general use, are cast in one piece; so are the articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs, such as am, can," "should," so are the prefixes of words, such as "com," "con," "dis;" and the terminations, such as "tion," "ment." We will instance the application of the system by the following sentence :—

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"London is the largest city in the world."

To set up this line in single letters the hand must make forty-five lifts, including the spaces. According to the system we are describing the words would be composed in sixteen lifts, as several of the letters are united :—

Lo-nd-on -is-the -la-r-ge-st -ci-ty -in -the -wo-r-ld. The dashes between the letters show the pieces in which the letters are cast. By this mode it is calculated that there would be a gain of 150 per cent, in labour as compared with the single-letter system. The logographic plan failed, it will be reinembered, owing to the vast size of the cases required to contain the

types. But Major Beniowski's cases are not larger than the ordinary cases. They are not, however, divided into boxes, each containing a particular sort of letter, but consist of a number of columns or shutes, standing nearly upright, side by side. The composing is facilitated by a mechanical contrivance. The letters are placed, each sort in a separate column at the top, and they slide down in single rows, until the bottom letter touches the front of the case; thus, as soon as one piece of type is taken away from the aperture at the bottom, another falls into its place from behind, and is ready to be used in turn. The type is taken out of the aperture with pincers, by which means space is economized. Under the aperture the letter or letters which it contains is marked, and the feet of the type also bear upon them, legibly stamped in black on a white ground, a letter or letters similar to that on the top, which is to be used in printing. An eye-witness states, that he saw a young lady compose several lines of copy, containing 255 letters, including spaces, in three minutes, being at the rate of 4,700 letters an hour, or nearly as many as could be composed in half-a-day in the usual manner. The advantages of this machine, we are told, are, that any person of moderate intelligence may compose types by its aid after a few weeks' practice; that the long training of the compositor may be dispensed with; that women

and children may be substituted for men in printing offices, as the fatigue and unhealthiness of the trade are considerably diminished by the machine; that children who know no more than the alphabet can place or distribute the type in the columns; and that the liability to typographical errors is considerably diminished. Whether the machine will or will not effect this has yet to be proved; but up to the present time we have not heard a single instance in which it has superseded the use of the simpler composing-stick in England. We now resume the thread of our narrative.

A composing-stick generally holds about 10 lines of pica. As soon as the compositor has filled it, he empties the matter into a galley with his fingers, lifting out all the letters in a mass. A galley is a thin piece of board with a ledge on one side and one end of it, not unlike a boy's slate, when two sides of the frame are taken off. In the engraving on p. 130, a galley marked X will be seen lying on the bed of the frame. When enough matter has been composed to make a sheet, the compositor proceeds to impose a form. Imposing is the arrangement of the pages in such a manner that when the sheet of paper on which they are printed is folded, they shall follow and read on in regular order. This is a very clever operation, and it may be useful to describe it at length, especially as persons who are ignorant of the principle of paging, often

cut and fold pamphlets and newspapers the wrong way. In the first place, then, the compositor divides the type set up into pages of the length determined upon, taking care that each page shall have the same number of lines; or, if that cannot be managed, that the pages that fall on the back of each other shall be of precisely the same length. The pages having been tied round with small twine, to prevent the letters from falling, they are placed on the imposing-stone. This is a large table which, for the sake of smoothness and durability, is made of stone or iron. The pages are laid on the stone in different positions, according to the kind of book which they are to form. For instance, a sheet of folio contains four pages, that is, two on each side; the pages would be laid thus: