and of which the following are correct representations :

A ream of paper consists of twenty quires; viz. eighteen quires of twentyfour unbroken sheets, and two quires of twenty sheets each, defective paper,-one of which is placed at the top, the other at the bottom of the ream, to preserve the inside paper from string marks, and injuries of any other kind. If the two outside quires are replaced by two perfect quires, the ream is stated to be all insides. A printer's ream consists of twenty-one and a half unbroken quires of twentyfour sheets each, and is called a perfect ream.

9

8

10

25

The derivation of these marks, as well as the time at which they were first used, is mere matter of conjecture; but I am inclined to think, that on their first adoption, a closer relation existed between them and the names of the papers distinguished by them than at present. By a knowledge of these marks, the original size of any paper may be at once discovered, however much it may have been cut, or reduced in size. These remarks apply to the luid papers only; in wove papers the watermarks being always omitted. The post papers are seldom retailed in the folio, i. e. the original size, as quoted in the foregoing list, being cut in half, and folded, and ploughed round the edges, forming quarto post, the common letter paper of the shops; this cut and again folded, &c., forms octavo post, or note paper, &c.

Having said thus much of writing paper, I next proceed to the second

division of my subject,—printing papers. At the head of this extensive and highly useful class stand the plate papers. These papers are of the same size, weight, and quality, as the drawing papers already described,-differing from them, however, in being of a particularly soft nature, the process of sizing, which gives the firmness so necessary in papers intended to be written on, being wholly omitted in the manufacture of plate papers. Plate paper is not made smaller than medium, -the size of the plates for a demy book. These papers are, as their name implies, used for copperplate printing; when the plates are to be coloured, drawing paper is used, then technically called hard plate, in contradistinction to the former, or soft plate.

The following is a list of the other papers in this class, the weights and sizes of which vary greatly, according to the choice of the maker :

27

In addition to the above, there are a variety of papers for particular purposes, which do not come under any of the divisions hitherto noticed. I therefore proceed briefly to notice the principal of them, commencing with blotting paper, which is well known to every person. It is made of three different sizes; viz. medium, pott, and foolscap, of various colours, weights, and qualities. Blotting paper, especially the colourless description, is much used in chemical experiments, for the purpose of filtration; there is, however, a distinct kind of paper made for this purpose, and known by the name of filtering paper; it is generally made double crown size, of a thick woolly texture. Tissue paper is also too well known to need description, beyond stating that it is made the size of crown, double and single, and demy. A particular species of tissue paper is manufactured and sold under the

name of copying post; it is wholly destitute of size, and is of a thin absorbent texture; its use is for copying newly written letters. For this purpose it is slightly moistened, and laid on the letter written with copying ink, and is subjected to the action of a press, kept in countinghouses for that purpose; on removing the letter from the machine, an accurate fac-simile is found transferred to the copying paper, which, pasted into a book, answers all the purpose of the more tedious and laborious methods of transcribing hitherto practised. Littress is a kind of smooth cartridge paper, made of two sizes, royal and foolscap, and used wholly for the manufacture of cards. Among the various kinds of paper used by grocers, in addition to many of those already described, there is a thick purple paper, which forms a distinct class, under the title of