The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-06 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT.

HER MAJESTY'S SPEECH.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,
It is with great satisfaction that I have recourse
to your assistance and advice.
I have recently declared my consent to a marriage
between my daughter Princess llelena and Prince
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Sonderbourg-
Augustenburg. I trust this union may be prosper-
ous and happy.
The death of my beloved uncle, the King of the
Belgians, has affected me with profound grief. I
feel great confidence, however, that the wisdom
which he evinced during his reign will animate his
successor, and preserve for Belgium her indepen-
dence and prosperity.
My relations with foreign Powers are friendly and
satisfactory, and I see no cause to fear any disturb-
ance of the general peace.
The meeting of the fleets of France and England
in the ports of the respective countries has tended to
cement the amity of the two nations, and to prove
to the world their friendly concert in the promotion
of peace.

I have observed with satisfaction that the United
States, after terminating successfully the severe
' struggle in which they were so long engaged, are
wisely repairing the ravages of civil war. The
abolition of slavery is an event calling forth the
cordial sympathies and congratulation of this coun-
try, which has always been foremost in showing its
abhorrence of an institution repugnant to every
feeling of justice and humanity.
I have at the same time the satisfaction to inform
you that the exertions and perseverance of my naval
squadron have reduced the Slave Trade on the West
Coast of Africa within very narrow limits.
A. correspondence has taken place between my
Government and that of the United States with
respect to injuries inflicted on American commerce
by cruizers under the Confederate flag. Copies of
this correspondence will be laid before you.
The renewal of diplomatic relations with Brazil
has given me much satisfaction, and I acknowledge
with pleasure that the good offices of my ally the
King of Portugal have contributed essentially to
this happy result.
I have to regret the interruption of peace between
Spain and Chili. The good offices of my Govern-
ment, in conjunction with those of the Emperor of
the French, have been accepted by Spain ; and it is
my earnest hope that the causes of disagreement
may be removed in a manner honourable and satis-
factory tG both countries.
The negotiations which have been long pending
in Japan, and which have been conducted with
great ability by my Minister in that country, in
conjunction with the representatives of my allies in
Japan, have been brought to a conclusion which
merits my entire approbation. The existing treaties
have been ratified by the Mikado ; it has been
stipulated that the tariff shall be revised in a man-
ner favourable to commerce, and that the indem-
nity due under the terms of the Convention of
October, 1864, shall be punctually discharged.
I have concluded a Treaty of Commerce with the
Emperor of Austria, which 1 trust will open to that
Empire the blessings of extended commerce, and be
productive of important benefits to both countries.
The deplorable events which have occurred in the
Island of Jamaica have induced me to provide at
once for an impartial inquiry, and for the due main-
tenance of authority during that inquiry, by appoint-
ing a distinguished military officer as Governor and
Commander of the Forces. I have given him the
assistance of two able and learned Commissioners,
who will aid him in examining into the origin, na-
ture, and circumstances of the recent outbreak, and
the measures adopted in the course of its suppres-
sion. The Legislature of Jamaica has proposed
that the present Political Constitution of the island
should be replaced by a new form of Government.
A bill upon this subject will be submitted to your
consideration.
Papers on these occurrences will be laid before
you.

Papers on the present state of New Zealand will
be laid before you.
I have given directions for the return to this
country of the greater portion of my regular forces
employed in that colony.
I watch with interest the proceedings which are
still in progress in British North America with a
view to a closer union among athe provinces, and I
continue to attach greater importance to that object.
I have observed with great concern the extensive
prevalence, during the last few months, of a virulent
distemper among cattle in Great Britain, and it is
with deep regret, and with sincere sympathy for the
sufferers, that I have learnt the severe losses which
it has caused in many counties and districts. It is
satisfactory to know that Ireland and a consider-
able part of Scotland are as yet free from this cala-
mity, and I trust that by the precautions suggested
by experience, and by the Divine blessing on the
means which are now being employed, its further
extension may be arrested.
The orders which have been made by the Lords
of ray Privy Council by virtue of the powers vested
in them by law, with a view to prevent the spread-
ing of this disease, will be laid before you, and your
attention will be called to the expediency of an
amendment of the law relating to a subject so deeply
affecting the interests of my people.
GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
I have directed that the estimates of the en-
suing year shall be laid before you. They have
been prepared with a due regard to economy, and
are at the same time consistent with the mainten-
ance of efficiency in the public service.
The condition of trade is satisfactory.
MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,
A conspiracy, adverse alike to authority, pro-
perty, and religion, and disapproved and con-
demned alike by all who are interested in their
maintenance, without distinction of creed or class,
has unhappily appeared in Ireland. The consti-
tutional power of the ordinary tribunals has been
exerted for its repression, and the authority of the
law has been firmly and impartially vindicated.
A. bill will be submitted to you founded on the
report of the Rcyal Commission, on the subject of
capital punishment, which I have directed to be laid
before you.
Bills will be laid before you for amending and
consolidating the laws relating to bankruptcy, and
for other improvements in the law.
Measures will also be submitted to you for ex-
tending the system of public audit to branches of
receipt and expenditure, which it has not hitherto
reached, and for amending the provisions of the
law with respect to certain classes of legal pensions.
Your attention will be called to the subject of the
paths taken by members of Parliament, with a view
to avoid unnecessary declarations, and to remove
invidious distinctions between members of different
religious communities in matters of legislation.
I have directed that information should be pro-
cured in reference to the rights of voting in the
election of members to serve in Parliament for
counties, cities, and boroughs.
When that information is complete, the attention
of Parliament will be called to the result thus ob-
tained, with a view to such improvements in the
laws which regulate the rights of voting in the elec-
tion of members of the House of Commons as may
tend to strengthen our free institutions, and con-
duce to the public welfare.
In those and in all other deliberations, I fervently
pray that the blessing of Almighty God may guide
your counsels to the promotion of the happiness of
my people.

WHO' WHO FOR 1866.-18th Annual Edition.
Price 2s. 6d., by' post 2s Bd. At the Railway Stalls, and
by all Booksellers. London, A. H. Baily and Co., Corn-
.

With the opening of Parliament appears "Debrett's
Illustrated Peerage, Baronetage, Knightago, and House of
Commons," price 15s. half-bound, gilt, gilt-edges, compri-
sing over 1,600 Coats of Arms, Heraldically Emblazoned,
the Biographies of Peers, Baronets, Knights, M.P.'s, per-
sons holding Courtesy Titles, all dignitaries, &c.—in fact,
all information to make it the complete vade-mecum of the
titled classes, and deserve the favour with which it was re
garded 100 years ago. In two vols. the " Peerage," and
the " Baronetage," &c., cloth, 7s. each. DEAN and SON, 65,
Ludgate-hill, LC., and all Bookolloro.

MARK AND CO.'s. TYPEFOUNDRY,

EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

As Described by enry Mayhew.
In the Eighth Part of the very curious and
valuable publication entitled, " The Shops and
Companies of London and the Trades and Manu-
tures of Great Britain," a periodical edited by the
ingenious author of "London Labour and the Lon-
don Poor," there appears a description of the Type-
foundry of the Messrs. Marr and Co., of Edinburgh
and London, so remarkable of its kind, as
affording the reader a vivid idea of the mysteries
of a truly wonderful craft, that we cannot but direct
attention to it thus pointedly—speaking of it, as it
deserves to be spoken of, as a really masterly epi-
tome of the history of the whole rise, development,
and progress of the marvellous art of the typo-
grapher. It elaborately traces step by step the ad-
vancement of that great art from its first rude
beginnings up to its earlier approaches to
something like perfection as an art, re-
lating its advancement towards that rapidly
approached goal of perfection, through the in-
genuity of John Gutenberg, the practical skill
of John Faust, and the consummate taste of Peter
Schafer, to whom tho world is indebted for the ori-
ginal conception and first execution of type-casting.
It particularises, incident by incident, the rise and
development of the Printer's Art, telling us how
it was in August 1457 that there was printed the
famous Psalter--only some half-dozen copies of
which are now known to be in existence—a work
the capital letters of which were printed in
black and red and blue, the whole being upon
vellum. It goes on to relate how it was but
a little more than two years afterwards, namely, in
October, 1459, that there was produced the Durandi
Rationale Divinorum Officiorum—and in 1465 that
first tribute of the now art to polite literature, the
Cicero de Officiis, in which occurred the first Greek
type employed by the printer. It recalls to mind
the fact that quartos and folios were the earliest
sizes in vogue : in these the Gothic Letter being
mainly employed—the old Gothic Letter being
afterwards changed into semi-Gothic in 1465 in the
Subiaco Lactantius. After which it is intimated
that the Roman type was in 1470 brought to per-
fection at Mainz by Nicholas Jenson—that the first
specimens of Greek types worthy of the name were
employed in 1471 by Schweynheyna and Pannartz—
that it was at the commencement of the sixteenth
century that the Italic character was invented and
introduced by Aldus Manutius, the Venetian—
and that it was in 1482 at Milan that Soncino
first executed printing in the Hebrew character.
Punctuation, we learn next, has been a compara-
tively recent contrivance—Aldus hitting first upon
the semicolon ;—the full stop . however, having the
order of precedence as the earliest point invented
—the colon : having been introduced somewhere
about the year 1485—the comma , first appearing
as long afterwards as 1521—while only as recently
as 1587 are the first indications of the note of inter-
rogation ? of the asterisk * or of the brackets [],
the last invented of all the stops being (appropri-
ately, as a climax) the note of admiration ! Besides
these there are numerous other signs or marks
either of reference or of punctuation, such as the
hyphen - —the parenthesis ()—the dagger t—the
double dagger —the section § the parallel II
—the paragraph ¶—the pound mark £—the dollar
mark s—the etcetera, &c., or ampisand &—the
pound weight mark lb—the index Qr—the per
r —the to ©. Then as to the salient varieties of
type, we learn all about the Gothic, about the
Roman, about the italic, about the condensed or
elongated variety of black letter, about the Elzevir,
about the Baskerville, about the Old English, about
the Egyptian, about the Sans-serif, about the Doric,
the lonic, the Antique, and the Clarendon. We
have specimens next of those variations of the Italic
characters, known as the Script, as the Rondes, and
the Running Hand. Among other more curious
examples of typography, again, are the Rustic as
contrasted with the Nonpareil Skeleton, or again
as the Antique when compared with the Ancient-faced.
As an illustration of the veritable italic type of the
last century we have the mention of James Maly
and Company's Type Foundry, established in 1742,
the ancient numerals, I, 2,3, 4,5, 6,7, 8,9, o,
being placed in juxtaposition with the modern nume-
orals 1,2, 3,4, 5,6, 7,8, 9, 0. Finally—skipping
the Pica and Primer of various sizes—we have, as
if in typographical illustration of what can—
That air and harmony of grace express,
Small by degrees and beautifully less
a descending scale of those more customary book
types—the bourgeois, the brevier, the minion, the
nonpareil, the ruby, the pearl, and the diamond. AS
explanatory of the source of their nomenclature the

--------- - following particulars will be found interesting :
The origin of the names of the different sizes of types is
somewhat curious. Originally there wore but seven such
sizes; the first was called Prima (whence the name Primer,
but now this sort of type is termed " two-line English ") ;
the second Secunda (now our Double-Pica and the Great-
Paragon of the French printers; the third Tertia (which is
at present our Great-Primer and the French Great-Roman;
then there was the Middle • size (still called in Germany
lfitt/e—but that is now our " English," and the French St.
Augustin type) ; after which came the three sizes of letters
on the opposite side of the scale—Pica, Long-Primer, and
Brevier. In Germany the names Secunda, Tertia, and Mittel
are still retained. Pica in France and Germany is called
the "Cicero" type,because the Epistles of that writer were ori-
ginally printed in such a letter. Pica, with us, was so styled
from its having been the type in which the Ordinal, or Ser-
vice Book of the Roman Catholic Church, was originally set•
This Ordinal was called the "Pica," or familiarly the "Pie."
Steevens tells us " the pie was a table or rule in the old
Romish observance, showing, in a technical way, how to
find out the service to be read upon each day." Bourgeois
was so styled on account of its having been introduced into
this country from France, where it was originally dedicated
to the citizen printers of that capital. Brevier, on the other
hand, obtained its name from its having been first used for
printing the Breviary, or Roman Catholic Church-book.
Minion, also, is of French origin, and was so .termed owing
to this letter having rapidly become a special favourite on
its appearance in that country—where it is designated
to this day "la mignione" (the darling). Nonpareil is
French likewise—this title having been given on account
of its extreme smallness in proportion to the largo size of
the letters formerly in use ; so that, being without equal in
this respect, it came to be thus denominated. Pearl, on
the contrary, is purely English (the French, however,
have the same size at present, and call it "la Parisienne"),
and was introduced after the success of the nonpareil
letters ; founders having been thereupon induced to

attempt cutting another letter on a smaller body ; and, as
this was a greater advance to perfection, it came ultimately
to be spoken of as the pearl of all type—even as Paragon
obtained its name from being considered to be the perfect
pattern of a letter, when it first came out. Diamond ac-
quired its title in the same manner--the name being signi-
ficant of the extraordinary neatness and consequent value
of the character, in which type-founding is said to have
reached the " summit of minute perfection."
Full particulars are then given as to the mysteries
of a FOUNT—meaning thereby, a given weight, say
800 lbs. of type of the same body and face, includ-
ing all the letters, stops, figures, fractions, points,
signs, references, rules, spaces, or quadrats—the
number of letters apportioned to each lower case in
a fount, say of pica, of 800 lbs. weight, being in the
following relative proportions :

19,200 o and m (each) 4,800 800
13,600 f 4,000 ... ff 640
o, n, and I (oath) 12,800 ... w and y (each) 2,720 ... 320
_ _

12,400... b 2,560 ... ffi 240
10,220 1,920 ea 160
9,920 k 1,280 ... oa 90
7,040 q 800
6,400 ... j and x (each) 640
5,450... z and & (oach) 320

Total 168,450
The upper case being the capitals, the lower case
the small letters ; quadrats, leads, brass-rules, and
so forth being the materials employed in what is
technically called the justification of the lines; para-
graphs, pages, or columns of type set up by the
skilled hands of the compositor.

The Caledonian Mercury states that Miss Long-
worth will give a reading in the Music Hall, Edinburgh, on
the evening of the 16th. "Mrs. Yelverton, we have reason
to know," says our contemporary, "has contemplated for
a length of time this method of advancing her pecuniary
interests; and we are disposed to believe she will make an
appearance in her readings which will prove that she has
not overrated her power to please.
A fire completely destroyed one of the cotton
mills belonging to Messrs. Ogden at Dukinfield on Satur-
day morning. The fire broke out as the workpeople were
about going to work, but notwithstanding the assist-
ance immediately rendered, nothing of the mill could be
moved,

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE•

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

PRUSSIA.
BERLIN, FEB. 6.

The .2Veue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, of to-day,
publishes an article to show that Austria favours
the democratic agitation in Holstein in the interest
of the Duke of Augustenburg, and against that of
Prussia. The writer expresses a hope that Prussia
will not allow the Austrian alliance or a revolu-
tionary movement to endanger her well-acquired
rights.

SPAIN.
MADRID, FEB. 6.

•
The Minister of Finance has presented to the
Congress a bill, assigning to the Bank of Deposits
110,000,000 reals of the proceeds. of the sale of the
public domains.

A meeting of Senators has been held at the house
of Senor Salamanca, at which a memorial was
drawn up on the different questions ?Electing the
public credit of Spain.

THE CAPE MAILS.
FALMOUTH, FEB• 6.

The Diamond Company's steamship Kaffraria,
from Table Bay on January 2d, with 17 passengers
and the mails, arrived here this morning.

THE CALCUTTA AND CHINA MAILS.
The Golconda, with the above mails, reached
Suez on the 31st January, at 9 p.m.

FRANCE.
BOURSE, Feb. s.—Three o'clock—The market has
closed on the following quotations:-
4i per Cents 9B 55
Do. end month —
3 per Cents. 6B 65
Do. end month 6B 7711,
Credit Mobilier -
Do. end month
Bank Shares 3725
Credit Foncier 1315
Italian Loan 6l 80
Do. end month 6l 90
RAIL

Roman
Ottoman Fives _ .
Mexican Loan 46 25
Do. Bonds 305 ---
Russian ____ --
Austrian
Spanish Threes -
Home Debt
Deferred -

Orleans
Northern
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern
Western
Eastern
Sardinian ,
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona
Roman