and for the new machinery that would be
required, and soon becoming convinced that
he could effect what was required, he signed a
contract. Different pieces of workmanship
have been shipped off, from time to time, as
they were completed; and some of the most
artistical of them are now in course of finishing.
They undoubtedly involve much more
extensive results in future. But to render
this clearly intelligible, it is requisite to offer
a preliminary word of explanation.

The credit of the original invention of
papier mâché is given by the English to the
manufacturers of France; and strangely
enough—indeed, it is the only instance I
ever heard of such a thing between the rival
manufacturers of any two nations—the French
most courteously insist upon giving it to the
English. Leaving this excess of politeness
to settle the question of priority, I shall
simply say that the French and the
Germans made use of it as early as 1740 in the
manufacture of snuff-boxes, and subsequently
of trays, and similar articles, and that it
gradually rose in importance with the French
and Austrian artisans towards the close of the
eighteenth century; but that its new,
improved, and enlarged application are entirely
of recent date, and that in excellence of
workmanship, with regard to numerous
ornaments and articles of domestic utility, and
more especially of architectural decoration,
England has surpassed all other nations.

But three or four species of manufacture,
each very different from the other, are often
confounded and called by the common term
of papier mâché. The first of these is simply
the old method of pasting one sheet of paper
over another, thus forming a millboard of
various degrees of thickness, to be used in the
manufacture of trays, tea-boards, work-boxes,
cabinets, &c., as described in a previous article
on the Birmingham " Hot-houses". The next
more particularly belongs to the French, and
is termed carton pierre. But though called
"carton," there is in truth very little paper in
the composition. It is a mixture of whitening,
or slacked lime, pulped rags, and paper, glue
or paste, whey of milk, and (they say) white
of eggs, though this latter must surely have
been too expensive to have formed any
considerable portion of the ingredients. This
mixture is also assisted by bits of wire in
figures, or pieces of string, and fine cord, in
order to make the parts adhere, where limbs
of figures, or the fine parts of foliage, are
likely to be broken off, an event that very
easily happens. The carton pierre is, in truth,
only an improvement, though a very great
one, on the old class of stucco and putty
ornaments. A third species of manufacture is
the regular papier mâché, with its numerous
applications. This is made by collecting a
mass of refuse paper, fine and coarse, cut in
strips, boiled, strained, beaten in a mortar,
and worked in a sort of mill with some light
glue or other adhesive liquid, until it becomes
a thick paste, and is then ready to be pressed
into such moulds as are prepared for it. The
latest of these inventions is the one patented
some years since by Mr. Charles Bielefeld,
which differs materially from all the rest. It
is called by the generic name of papier mâché
by way, I suppose, of defining the class to
which it belongs; yet it is not, in fact, made
with paper at all, but simply with the
materials from which paper is made; thus
ingeniously avoiding one unnecessary step in
the process, as well as the unnecessary duty
on paper,—and accomplishing a great saving
in time and expense.

Paper is usually made of rags, and the
thought suddenly occurred to Mr. Bielefeld
to commence his manufacture exactly in the
same way, but, stopping short of paper, to
convert the rag-pulp at once into the papier-mâché
composition. This device, amusingly
simple; and, like many of the most ingenious
discoveries, an obvious thing after the
discovery has been made, constitutes his especial
patent, and has enabled him to execute many
great works and contracts not otherwise
practicable in the same time. The Pantheon,
in Oxford Street, the British Museum, the
mansion of the late Sir Robert Peel, the
Ambassador's palace at Constantinople, with
many other edifices of the same class, have
been decorated by his manufactures. This
affair of the Pasha's New Boat, is, however, a
different business, and has called into play a
new, and, as I think, an important invention.

I see before me a large slab, some seven
feet square, apparently of highly-polished
marble, and of about an inch and a half in
thickness. It is strong and massive in
substance, as it is elegant and delicate in texture.
It is about as heavy as the same slab or tablet
would be in oak, or mahogany. It is waterproof;
it is sound-proof—nothing could be
heard through it any more than through a
brick-wall; it will not crack in any heat of
climate, nor warp, nor " give " in any way; it
can be cut, filed, sawed, planed, turned by a
lathe, nailed and screwed; it is a
non-conductor of heat and of cold—and it is made of
the pulp of old rags. Slabs of this material,
in an early stage of the process, were what I
at first mistook for sheets and table-cloths,
some three hundred pieces of which were
lying upon the meadow near the mill, as
previously described. These slabs are to form
the entire fittings of the interior of the Pasha's
steam yacht—bulk-heads, partitions, staircases,
panels, lockers, and ceilings.

The paintings and other ornaments lavished
upon these slabs are of the highest order of
decorative art. Some of them have a soft,
cream-coloured, or ivory ground, for the
designs, but the majority are of a delicate
light-green. The surfaces are, in many cases
divided into oval, round, or oblong panels, on
which are painted, in very superior style,
numerous bits of Oriental scenery, by way
of forming an appropriate back-ground to