and then another sheet of paper, and so on, till they have made a pile of forty or fifty. They are then pressed with a large screw-press, moved by a long lever, which forcibly squeezes the water out of them, and gives them immediate consistence. There is still, however, a great deal to be done. The felts are taken off, and thrown on one side, and the paper on the other, whence it is dexterously taken up with an instrument in the form of a T, three sheets at a time, and hung on lines to dry. There it hangs for a week or ten days, which likewise further whitens it; and any knots and roughnesses it may have, are picked off carefully by the women. It is then sized. Size is a sort of glue; and without this preparation, the paper would not bear ink; it would run and blot, as you see it does on grey paper. The sheets are just dipped into the size and taken out again. The exact degree of sizing is a matter of nicety, which can only be known by experience. They are then hung up again to dry, and, when dry, taken to the finishing-room, where they are examined anew, pressed in the dry-presses, which gives them their last gloss and smoothness; counted up into quires, made up into reams, and sent to the stationer's, from whom we have it, after he has folded it again and cut the edges; some, too, he makes to shine like satin, by glossing it with hot plates. The whole process of paper-making takes about three weeks.

H. It is a very curious process, indeed. I shall almost scruple for the future to blacken a sheet of paper with a careless scrawl, now I know how much pains it costs to make it so white and beautiful.

F. It is true, that there is hardly anything we use with so much waste and profusion as this manufacture; we should think ourselves confined in the use of it, if we might not tear, disperse, and destroy it in a thousand ways; so that it is really astonishing whence linen enough can be procured to answer so vast a demand. As to the coarse brown papers, of which an immense quantity is used by every shopkeeper in packages, &c., 15*

M 2

ropes.

these are made chiefly of oakum, that is, old hempen A fine paper is made in China of silk. H. I have heard of woven paper; pray what is that? they cannot weave paper, surely!

F. Your question is very natural. In order to answer it, I must desire you to take a sheet of common paper, and hold it up against the light. Do not you see marks in it ?

H. I see a great many white lines running along lengthways, like ribs, and smaller, that cross them. Ĭ see, too, letters, and the figure of a crown.

F. These are all the marks of the wires; the thickness of the wire prevents so much of the pulp lying upon the sheet in those places, consequently, wherever the wires are, the paper is thinner, and you see the light through more readily, which gives that appearance of white lines. The letters, too, are worked in the wire, and are the maker's name. Now to prevent these lines, which take off from the beauty of the paper, particularly of drawing-paper, there are now used moulds of brass wire, exceedingly fine, of equal thickness, and woven or latticed one within another; the marks, therefore, of these are easily pressed out, so as to be hardly visible; if you look at this sheet you will see it is quite smooth.

H. It is so.

F. I should mention to you, that a discovery was made some time since, by which they can make paper equal to any in whiteness of the coarsest brown rags, and even of dyed cottons, which formerly they were obliged to throw by for inferior purposes. This is by means of manganese, a sort of metal, or rather a metallic oxide, and oil of vitriol; a mixture of which they just pass through the pulp, while it is in water, for otherwise it would burn it, and in an instant it discharges the colours of the dyed cloths, and bleaches the brown to a beautiful whiteness.

H. That is like what you told me before, of bleaching cloth in a few hours.

F. It is, indeed, founded upon the same discovery.

The paper made of these brown rags is, also, more valuable, from being very tough and strong, almost like parchment.

H. But is not paper sometimes made from other substances besides those which you have named?

F. Yes; paper has been made from straw, the nettle, hops, moss, reeds, couch-grass, even wood shavings, and from a variety of other substances.

H. And have there not been many improvements in the manufacture of paper effected of late years, by means of machinery?

F. Yes; but it would be somewhat difficult to make you comprehend them without the aid of drawings, or of actual inspection. The processes which I have been describing, relate chiefly to what is termed handmade paper, and which has been, to a great extent, superseded by the employment of complicated and costly machinery. The largest sheet of hand-made paper known to have been manufactured, was four feet seven inches in length, by two feet seven inches and a half in width; but, by machinery, paper may be made five feet in width, and of an unlimited length, like cloth. Some of the machines are equal to the production of twenty-five superficial feet of paper in a minute. Other machinery is employed for cutting the paper into sheets of different required sizes. Another improvement, of incalculable value, consists in the addition of drying-rollers. These, as I find mentioned in BRANDE'S Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art," are three cylinders of polished metal, which effect in a few moments the perfect drying of the paper: while yet moist, it passes over the first moderately warm; again over the second, of larger diameter, of greater warmth; and again over the third with an augmented heat. The paper is now perfectly dry, and any casual inequalities are removed from its surface. The final action of the machine is to wind the paper round a last roller or reel, which, when full, is exchanged for another; and so on successively."

H. Then, I suppose, with all these surprising im

provements, the progress of the manufacture is much more expeditious than it was formerly?

F. Yes; according to the old method, three months were occupied from the time of receiving the rags into the mill until the completion of the paper; now, the rags may be received one day, and the paper manufactured from them be delivered on the day following.

H. When was the making of paper found out?

F. It is a disputed point; but probably in the fourteenth century. The invention has been of almost equal consequence to literature, with that of printing itself; and shows how the arts and sciences, like children of the same family, mutually assist and bring forward

each other.

THE TWO ROBBERS.

Scene.-Alexander the Great in his tent. Guards. A Man with a fierce countenance, chained and fettered, brought before him. Alex. WHAT, art thou the Thracian Robber, of whose exploits I have heard so much?

Rob. I am a Thracian and a soldier.

A. A soldier!—a thief, a plunderer, an assassin ! the pest of the country! I could honour thy courage, but I must detest and punish thy crimes.

R. What have I done of which you can complain? A. Hast thou not set at defiance my authority? violated the public peace, and passed thy life in injuring the persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects?

R. Alexander! I am your captive-I must hear what you please to say, and endure what you please to inflict. But my soul is unconquered; and if I reply at all to your reproaches, I will reply like a free

man.

A. Speak freely. Far be it from me to take the advantage of my power to silence those with whom I deign to converse!

R. I must then answer your question by another: How have you passed your life?

you.

A. Like a hero. Ask Fame, and she will tell Among the brave, I have been the bravest: among sovereigns, the noblest among conquerors, the mightiest.

R. And does not Fame speak of me too? Was there ever a bolder captain of a more valiant band? Was there ever-but I scorn to boast. You yourself know that I have not been easily subdued.

A. Still, what are you but a robber—a base, dishonest robber?

R. And what is a conqueror? Have not you, too, gone about the earth, like an evil genius, blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry;-plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice, merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? All that I have done to a single district with a hundred followers, you have done to whole nations with a hundred thousand. If I have stripped individuals, you have ruined kings and princes. If I have burned a few hamlets, you have desolated the most flourishing kingdoms and cities of the earth. What is, then, the difference, but that, as you were born a king, and I a private man, you have been able to become a mightier robber than I?

A. But, if I have taken like a king, I have given like a king. If I have subverted empires, I have founded greater. I have cherished arts, commerce, and philosophy.

R. I, too, have freely given to the poor, what I took from the rich. I have established order and discipline among the most ferocious of mankind; and have stretched out my protecting arm over the oppressed. I know, indeed, little of the philosophy you talk of; but I believe neither you nor I shall ever repay to the world the mischiefs we have done it.

A. Leave me take off his chains, and use him well. (Exit robber.)—Are we, then, so much alike ?— Alexander, too, a robber ?-Let me reflect.