carried unanimously, that the meeting be
adjourned to the compound, or garden at the
back. Under the pleasant shade of a tope
of beautiful palms, we sat and partook of the
remains of the feast. The relations, once
more restored to good-humour, amused
themselves in their own fashion; preparing for
the dancing, and festivity, and illuminations,
that were to take place in the evening. Our
own little party sat there until some time after
sunset, and when we had seen the great
cocoanut-shells, with their flaring wicks, lighted
up, and the tomtoms begin to assemble, we
deemed it prudent to retire and seek a wholesome
meal amongst our friends.

THE QUEEN'S HEAD.

It is not of the "Queen's Head," under
whose sign accommodation for man and horse
is conspicuously vaunted: it is not of that very
red portrait of a lady, in a sky-blue pelisse,
edged with spotted putty, whose pink brow
is wedged into an ochre crown, whose fleshy
arm is indented with a prodigious sceptre,
and whose whole figure is gibbeted in most
English thoroughfares, that we now intend
to speak; but it is of the blushing Queen's
head, whose gem-like prettiness, compact
shape, beauty of linear execution, and
truthfulness of likeness, are displayed upon nearly
three hundred millions of the paper missives
which fly about this country every year,
amongst every rank and grade of the Royal
Original's subjects.

This miniature Queen's head—which Mr.
Rowland Hill's penny postage has called into
existence—is the product of the system
introduced into this country by Mr. Jacob Perkins.
It is to the means by which the prodigious
numbers of these pretty little miniatures are
produced by his successors, Messrs. Perkins,
Bacon, and Petch, of Fleet Street, London,
that we are now desirous of drawing attention.

Some years ago, Mr. Perkins sought and
gained great, and by no means bubble,
reputation at the (steam) cannon's mouth.
As an inventor, he has indeed played in his
time many parts; his latest invention being
a process for baking bread by steam; and, in
a more wholesome manner than the old
plan. Mr. Perkins's special profession was
that of an intaglio engraver. He was a
native of Massachusetts, in America, and
devoted, from his youth, a great deal of attention
to the subject of engraving on steel. As
a proof of his success in his own country, we
may mention that the state of Massachusetts
passed a law compelling all banks to use the
peculiar form of bank-note which he had
invented for the prevention of forgery. In
1819, acting on the advice of our minister,
Sir Charles Bagot, he determined on
removing to this country, to get the bank-note
engraving to do for that great fountain of
notes, the Bank of England. He came, bringing
with him four discoveries, the four elements
of the work of his art. These were:

First. A mastery in hardening and softening
steel; which enabled him,

Secondly. To engrave on steel.

Thirdly. A process for transferring figures
from steel to steel, and thus multiplying
the number of plates to be printed from.

Fourthly. A new and elaborate style of
ornamentation, by means of geometrical
lathe-work.

The last of these inventions is that which
produces the network-looking ground on
which Her Majesty's image lies in the postage
stamp, and was the invention of a Mr. Spencer.
It is the same, in its first principle, as that
with which the backs of watches are "engine-
turned," by the agency of that description of
lathe called a "Rose Engine." Mr. Perkins
merely elaborated the machine, and applied it
to engraving for printing from.

When the inventor reached England, he
failed in convincing the Directors of the Bank
of England of the efficacy of his plans for
preventing forgery; and, taking the advice
of Sir Joseph Banks, set up in business on
his own account. The firm of "Perkins,
Fairman, and Heath," accordingly commenced
as bank-note engravers; and, as the phrase
goes, "threw themselves on the country."
They got the printing to do for various banks
—the Provincial Bank of Ireland, the Bank
of Manchester, and the Scotch banks. Everybody
knows the dark and complicated look
which a provincial bank-note has, compared
with the Bank of England notes. That is
the result of the Perkins designs, which are
chiefly executed by machine engraving.

In making the postage label, the hardening
and softening process comes first into play.
The "might of fire" is employed. A flat
steel die—softened by having been put into a
box surrounded with articles that have, when
heated, a strong attraction for carbon, and
which thus draw the carbon out of it—was
the first requisite. On it, thus prepared, the
square of fine net-work from which the profile
is relieved, was engraved by the aid of the
improved Rose engine. A portion was then
scraped out in the rude shape of a head;
and over this, Mr. Heath executed his exquisite
vignette. The die once more went to
the furnace; and being surrounded, this time,
with articles having no affinity to carbon, was
hardened again,—harder than it had originally
been. This became the matrix: the mother
of that prodigious family of Queen's heads—
amounting to two billions during the last
dozen years—which have passed through the
post-offices of the United Kingdom. This
steel die is almost imperishable, and its powers
of reproduction upon the plates from which
the adhesive labels are actually printed, is all
but inexhaustible. As every subsequent
impression is primarily derived from this one
original, not merely uniformity is produced,