4. ITS INFLUENCE.

Such in outline are the principal features of the Walter printing machine. Its invention and perfection marks a distinct period in the history of the newspaper press, no one can doubt. The power that it has put into the hands of the penny newspapers is enormous. Without the stereotyping mode of multiplying printing-plates, and without the perfecting Walter machine-or some modification thereof-cheap newspapers would have had probably a considerable difficulty in the future in maintaining their position, for all kinds of manual skill and labour tend to grow dearer and dearer. But the Walter Press distinctly plays into their hands, and no better illustration could be given, perhaps, of what it enables a penny paper to do in the face of increased cost in all directions than that furnished by the Scotsman-most enterprising of provincial papers. That Penny Daily was the first paper outside the Times office printed on a perfecting Walter Press, and it was not long in showing what the increased facility given by the new machine would enable it to do through the larger available funds that it put in the proprietors' hands, and through the enormously increased speed at which it allowed the paper to be printed. It will be news to many of my readers, I doubt not, but in Scotland it is a familiar enough story now, that the Scotsman runs two trains of its own in the early morning, one to Glasgow and the other to Perth, for the purpose, in the one instance, of publishing

in Glasgow at the same time as the Glasgow papers themselves, and in the other of having the papers forwarded to Dundee and the North by the first morning train from Perth, so that people may get them on their breakfast-tables at the same time as the local sheets. That is pretty well for a penny paper, and apart from the enterprise and "pluck," which in any case characterizes the management of the Scotsman, it is the result of being able to print the paper on the Walter Press, and of the saving in expense and time which that Press effects.

A. J. WILSON. (Macmillan's Magazine.)

ITS HISTORY AND CHARMS.

TIME was, when clothing sumptuous or for use,
Save their own painted skins, our sires had none.
As yet black breeches were not; satin smooth,
Or velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile :
The hardy chief upon the rugged rock,
Washed by the sea, or on the gravelly bank

Thrown up by wintry torrents roaring loud,
Fearless of wrong, reposed his weary strength.
Those barbarous ages past, succeeded next
The birthday of Invention; weak at first,
Dull in design, and clumsy to perform.
Joint-stools were then created; on three legs
Upborne they stood-three legs upholding firm
A massy slab, in fashion square or round.
On such a STOOL immortal Alfred sat,
And swayed the sceptre of his infant realms:
And such in ancient halls and mansions drear
May still be seen; but perforated sore,
And drilled in holes, the solid oak is found,
By worms voracious eating through and through.
At length a generation more refined

Improved the simple plan; made three legs four,
Gave them a twisted form vermicular,

And o'er the seat, with plenteous wadding stuffed,
Induced a splendid cover, green and blue,
Yellow and red, of tapestry richly wrought
And woven close, or needlework sublime.
There might ye see the peony spread wide,
The full-blown rose, the shepherd and his lass,
Lapdog and lambkin with black staring eyes,
And parrots with twin cherries in their beak.
Now came the cane from India, smooth and bright
With Nature's varnish; severed into stripes
That interlaced each other, these supplied
Of texture firm a lattice work, that braced
The new machine, and it became a CHAIR.

But restless was the chair; the back erect
Distressed the weary loins, that felt no ease:
The slippery seat betrayed the sliding part
That pressed it, and the feet hung dangling down,
Anxious in vain to find the distant floor.

These for the rich; the rest, whom Fate had placed
In modest mediocrity, content

With base materials, sat on well-tanned hides,
Obdurate and unyielding, glassy smooth,
With here and there a tuft of crimson yarn,

Or scarlet crewel, in the cushion fixed,

If cushion might be called, what harder seemed
Than the firm oak of which the frame was formed.
No want of timber then was felt or feared
In Albion's happy isle. The lumber stood
Ponderous and fixed by its own massive weight.
But elbows still were wanting; these, some say,
An alderman of Cripplegate contrived;
And some ascribe the invention to a priest,
Burly and big, and studious of his ease.
But, rude at first, and not with easy slope,
Receding wide, they pressed against the ribs,
And bruised the side; and, elevated high,
Taught the raised shoulders to invade the ears.
Long time elapsed or e'er our rugged sires
Complained, though incommodiously pent in,
And ill at ease behind. The ladies first

'Gan murmur, as became the softer sex.

Ingenious Fancy, never better pleased

Than when employed to accommodate the fair,

Heard the sweet moan with pity, and devised
The soft SETTEE; one elbow at each end,
And in the midst an elbow it received,
United yet divided, twain at once.

So sat two kings of Brentford on one throne;
And so two citizens, who take the air,

Close packed, and smiling, in a chaise and one.
But relaxation of the languid frame,

By soft recumbency of outstretched limbs,
Was bliss reserved for happier days;-so slow
The growth of what is excellent; so hard
To attain perfection in this nether world.
Thus first Necessity invented Stools,
Convenience next suggested Elbow Chairs,
And Luxury the accomplished SOFA last.

The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, Whom snoring she disturbs. As sweetly he, Who quits the coach-box at the midnight hour, To sleep within the carriage more secure, His legs depending at the open door. Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk, The tedious rector drawling o'er his head; And sweet the clerk below. But neither sleep Of lazy nurse who snores the sick man dead, Nor his who quits the box at midnight hour To slumber in the carriage more secure, Nor sleep enjoyed by curate in his desk, Nor yet the dozings of the clerk, are sweet, Compared with the repose the Sofa yields.

COWPER.