The impression is taken on soft paper, and is applied to the
surface of the biscuit, and slightly rubbed to make the print adhere:
the biscuit is then soaked in water till the paper may be stripped off,
leaving the print or pattern behind[12]. The ware is then dipped in the
glaze, which is a mixture of flint slip and white lead, and the bibulous
quality of the biscuit causes a sufficient quantity to adhere: the piece
is then dried and again passed into the furnace, which brings out the
colours of the pattern, and at the same time vitrifies the glaze.

[12] This very ingenious method of tranferring printed patterns
to biscuit ware was invented at the Porcelain works at
Worcester.

The finest patterns are applied after the glazing has been completed, by
taking the impressions from the copperplate on a flexible strap covered
with a strong gelatinous mixture of glue and treacle. This strap is then
pressed on the ware, and gives the impression in glue, the colouring
powder is then dusted over it, and a sufficient portion adheres to the
damp parts to give the pattern, after having been again in the furnace.
The more elaborate patterns on earthenware, and all those on porcelain,
are finished by penciling in.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

* * * * *

THE WAVERLEY NOVELS.

_Heroines._

The female characters in the Waverley Novels are touched with much grace
and spirit, though they are not, upon the whole, brought so vividly to
our minds as the men,--probably because they are more ideal. Such they
must necessarily be. The course of woman's existence glides
comparatively unobserved in the under-current of domestic life; and the
records of past days furnish little note of their condition. Few
materials are available from which the historical novelist can deduce an
accurate notion of the relative situation of women in early times. We
know very little either of the general extent of their cultivation and
acquirements, or of the treatment which they received from men. On the
latter point, we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the poetical
effusions of gallantry, and the false varnish of chivalrous devotion. It
is to be feared that the practice of the days of chivalry was much at
variance with its professions; and that women were degraded, as we
always find them wherever civilization has made little progress. It was
by com