The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-06-08 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

' PORTIXOOTIIIs iVXR O.
Arrived the Godasid, Haab, from Cork; add fames
fliblrald. Forbes, fro. Mei/awes for Bombay.

DUAL, JOUR I.
Arrived and sailed sailed for the River the Princess Char.
lout, Blyth, frees Ceylon; Rosela, De Bale, front Hon.
dues.; and Dryad, Fell, horn Tobago.
Came doom fro. the River and sailed, the VtlilBllll.lllll,
Leah, fur Qaelsee; Ansi, Ferguson, for Rio Janeiro; and
Opals, Callooey, for the Dediterraertan.
Passed at the baek of the Goodwin lends the North Ame-
rica, Isaacs, fro. Batavia le Antwerp.

Letters received frees Liverpool yesterday state
the Cotton market exceeding!). heavy.

E 2• -A 41

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AMERICA* EItHOGRAPAr.

(sr. t►e New Yeti Coisseereiel .94seretteer, of May 14.3

We have now before us a Grammar of Bdt soy,
jest published, in which the systems ofJussieu and
Linnaeus are explained, and to which the reduction
of all The genera in MoMerobert's Coratogre of
North At Plants, to their proper places in
Jussseu's arrangement, has been added. This Work
is highly spoken of, as exhibiting the most recent
improvements and discoveries that hove taken pl..ce
in this department of natural knowledge. But *hat
engages our attention the most is the beautiful speci-
mens of Lithography by which it is edthellished,
and which were executed at the Lithographic Press
of Barnet mud Doolittle of this city, from the pencil
of Mr. Stst►sbury. As this important ■nd elegant
art is little known in this country, we believe the
following particulars of its discovery and progress
and the principles on which it is founded, will be
acceptable to our readers :
"Lithography is the art of taking impressions from
drawings or writings made on stone. It was disco-
vered at Munich, in 1800, by a singer in the Thea-
tre there, who ems accustomed to engrave music on
slabs of slate, to save the expense of metal. He
chanced to drop soap on one part of the slab, and
found that in that part the ink adhered to the slate,
end in printing gave an impression, as well as if the
figure had been engraved. He immediately con-
ceived the idea of only working the surface with a
soapy substance. instead of engraving into the slate.
He succeeded in printing from this; and afterwards
substituting a light.culoured compact limestone
(which abounds near Munich) for the slate. he laid
the foundation for all that has since been done in
this new and elegant branch of the fine arts. He
was patronised by the Elector of Bavaria, and sub.
sequently by the Emperor, both of whom granted
him exclusive privileges in the use of his discovery.
From Germany the art was introduced by stealth
into France. The Count Lasteyrie for this purpose
assumed a disguise, obtained admission to one at
the establishments at Munich, where he laboured N
an assistant for eight months, and then returned to
Paris, where he taught his own servants, and thus
set up a lithographic establishes/out of his own. The
art was adapted to the habits of the French, and
aside very rapid progress : it was applied to the
first departments of engraving, and was found foe
some of them, especially for representations its am.
tural history, to be superior to any other methods
There a►e sow no less than sixteen establishments of
this kind in Paris : those of Count Lasteyrie and
Mr. Engelmsnn especially. are of great extent and
value. In England, Lithography was first intro.
duced by a Mr. D'Offeobach, in 1801. who went
from Munich to London for that purpose. It met
at first, with rather a cool reception, so much so, that
D'Offeetbsch's successor returned to Germany im
disgust. But it continued to be used by Govern.
meat for the multiplication of military plans sad
maps to be sent to the army (for which parpaarobad
for dispatches of all kinds it was also used by Som.
parte), until by degrees the art become more known
and estimated ; and it is at present in use to a con.
siderable extent, both in the mercantile community
fur the copying of letters, invoices, &c. and among the
lovers of beautiful art for drawings of every descrip-
tion; the celebrated Mr. Ackerman° has brought it
by his patronage to a high degree of improveneeto.
Last year two gentlemen from Paris came to this
city with a lithographic press and a quantity of the
Munich atone ; but being strangers to our country
and its habits, they did not adopt the proper mode
of nuking themselves and their intentions known,
and hence have remained in comparative obscurity.
Several specimens, however, of landscape figures
and flowers, were executed here du►ing the winter,
by Mr. Stansbury, Mr. Milbert, and some others;
and one or two of the plates in Silliatan's Journal
were also printed at the same establishment. But
the present is the firsginstance of an extensive work,
in which the plates are exclusively from stone.
" The art rest upon the three following prinei•
pies:—hat, The facility with which water is im-
bibed by calcareous stones; 2d, The strong ad.
ahesion which exists between resinous or oily sub.
tances and calcareous atones; 3d, The affinity
which resinous or oily substances have fur each other,
and the quality which they possesaof repelling water,
or any body moistened with water. From throe
principles the following results may be deduced :-
Ist, That the tracings made upon the polished sur-
face of a calcareous atone, with any resinous or oily
substance, adhere so closely to it that they cannot
be removed without employing mechanical means
for their separation ; 2d, That while the other parts
of the stone receive and imbibe the wster which is
poured upon it. the water is repelled by the resi-
nous or oily parts ; 3d, That when any coloured
substance of any oily or resinous nature
.is passed
over the stone thus prepared, the colour will adhere
to the resinous tracings, while it will be resisted by
the watered parts of the stone. The process, in
short, depends entirely upon the water, d ports of
the stone refusiag the oily colouring matte►. and the
resinous tracings repelling the water : mu that when
a sheet of paper is applied to the stone duly pre.••
pared, the oily tracings, which alone are coloured,
give the impressions.

"Cheapness and dispatch distinguish this art. A
page of music written upon stone, in an hour, has
yielded seventy thousand impressions. But this is
not its only advantage; the admirable truth and
precision with which it renders every erigiusillouch
of the drawing, give it a decided superiority to every
other branch of the art of engraving. Whatever ease
or softness exists in the drawing, exists in the seine
perfection in the impressions thus taken from it ;
whereas, the first etchings or engravings are, at best,
but translations from one language intoanother, and
can never give the spirit of the original ; but in li-
thography all the prints are multiplied originals.
What a rich inheritance might have descended to
us, if the old masons had possessed this art !
How many rapid effu►ions of the imagination, how
rimy glowing conceptions and brilliant first-
thoughts would they have thrown upon the stone,
and thus made eternal what they threw upon scraps
of paper soon lost, or, at best, confined to a single
hand, and which they oftener threw to the wind,
and wasted in, irrecoverable oblivion !"

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From the heat of the weather this week, several
horses diewing stage-coaches and other couveyances
have died on the roads to the ueighlesarboad of
Stamford.

1-....11k_ •

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