, and are of great value in
giving us pictorial representations of the great events and scenes as they
pass, with portraits of men who have become suddenly famous by some
special act or appointment. Their value cannot be too highly appreciated;
they supply to the mind, through the eye, what the best descriptions in
letter-press could not give; and in them satire uses comic elements with
wonderful effect. Among the illustrated weeklies, the _Illustrated London
News_ has long held a high place; and within a short period _The Graphic_
has exhibited splendid pictures of men and things of timely interest. Nor
must we forget to mention _Punch_, which has been the grand jester of the
realm since its origin. The best humorous and witty talent of England has
found a vent in its pages, and sometimes its pathos has been productive of
reform. Thackeray, Cuthbert Bede, Mark Lemon, Hood, have amused us in its
pages, and the clever pencil of Leech has made a series of etching which
will never grow tiresome. To it Thackeray contributed his _Snob Papers_,
and Hood _The Song of the Shirt_.

THE DAILIES.--But the great characteristic of the age is the daily
newspaper, so common a blessing that we cease to marvel at it, and yet
marvellous as it is common. It is the product of quick intelligence, of
great energy, of concurrent and systematized labor, and, in order to
fulfil its mission, it seems to subsidize all arts and invade all
subjects--steam, mechanics, photography, phonography, and electricity. The
news which it prints and scatters comes to it on the telegraph; long
orations are phonographically reported; the very latest mechanical skill
is used in its printing; and the world is laid at our feet as we sit at
the breakfast-table and read its columns.

I shall not go back to the origin of printing, to show the great progress
that has been made in the art from that time to the present; nor shall I
attempt to explain the present process, which one visit to a press-room
would do far better than any description; but I simply refer to the fact
that fifty years ago newspapers were still printed with the hand-press,
giving 250 impressions per hour--no cylinder, no flying Hoe, (that was
patented only in 1847.) Now, the ten-cylinder Hoe, steam driven, works off
20,000 sheets in an hour, and more, as the stereotyper may multiply the
forms. What an emblem of art-progress is this! Fifty years ago
mail-coaches carried them away. Now, steamers and