PKEFACE. 



who, since a late unadvised outbreak of charity for the 

 destitute, or haply of that fatherly Sropyr) before 

 which equity and justice are of course but as cobwebs, 

 stand in more peril than heretofore. 



I should mention that the Vignettes on the Title 

 Pages are novelties, being the first successful specimen 

 of what may be called POLYCHROMATIC PRINTING, or 

 printing in "many colours" from wooded blocks. By 

 this method every shade of colour, every breadth of 

 tint, every delicacy of hatching, and every degree of 

 evanescence in the outline, can be obtained, and fifty 

 thousand fac 'similes of a painting may be produced 

 with perfect uniformity and at a moderate expense. 

 The advantages to books, of which a large number is to 

 be sold, will be very great, not only as removing the 

 cost of tinting by hand, which is the same for the last 

 thousand as the first ; but by making the copies more 

 alike and more durable, and rising more above the 

 reach of the ignoble pecus of imitators. In these 

 Yignettes, Mr. Baxter had no coloured copy but the 

 birds, which are from nature. I made him work from 

 mere scratches in outline, in order to test his metal ; 

 and I feel confident that the public will agree with me 

 in thinking it sterling. In carrying this very beautiful 

 branch of the typographic art successfully into effect, 

 Baxter has, I believe, completed what was the last pro- 

 ject of the great Bewick, but which that truly original 

 and admirable genius did not live to accomplish. 



It now remains only to notice the synoptic list which 

 is prefixed to the first volume, and serves as an index to 

 both. The indications there given are only approxima- 

 tions ; but they are more numerous and varied than 

 those given in any similar enumeration. 



