ON THE PAPER MANUFACTURE. 15 



necessities of the low-priced newspapers, but possessing neither the sub- 

 stance, finish, or durability of a really good article. 



Belgium and Prussia are the two countries from which the bulk of 

 recent imports have come, and the sorts have been mainly low printings, 

 and worse than low browns and other wrapping descriptions. Of the 

 latter we bave seen such samples as were simply a disgrace to any 

 maker, utterly unfit for use in any trade with which we are acquainted. 

 What, either in the heavens above or the earth beneath could have pro- 

 duced such stuff, with the exception of the chopped straw with which the 

 surface was plentifully plastered, passes our comprehension. As regards 

 the printing sorts, they, of course, look very much better and handle 

 surprisingly well when the very low prices at which they are offered 

 are considered. Yet they do not suit our market ; they neither wet 

 well nor work free, and the chronic tendency which makers of "printing 

 sorts" on the Continent have to load their paper heavily with various 

 mineral substances, seriously detracts from the permanent value of the 

 manufactured article. All things considered, we incline to the opinion 

 that the Continental makers cannot manufacture a sound paper such 

 as would command the approval of British consumers, and put it into 

 damaging competion with our own makers, at a price which shall be 

 properly remunerative to the producer. Already the Customs' Returns 

 exhibit a marked diminution in the weight of paper imported from 

 abroad ; so marked indeed as to bring the figures representing the im- 

 ports for the five months ol the present year below those for the 

 corresponding period in 1862, and this is rendered more significant 

 when coupled with the fact that the German paper-makers are com- 

 bining for the purpose of rescuing the trade from imminent peril, brought 

 on by the uirremunerative prices at which sales have been forced for some 

 time back, an immediate advance of 10 per cent, was resolved upon at 

 a meeting of the trade held at Carlesruhe in April last, and the Belgian 

 makers will, in all probability, find it necessary to follow the example. 



When speaking of the adulteration of paper by the admixture of 

 mineral ingredients it has been very much the habit to attribute it 

 almost entirely to foreign makers. And the practice has been most 

 heartily denounced by both printers and publishers, — the former very 

 naturally at finding his forms filled up with fluffy clay, and the latter 

 in the want of firmness in the printed quire ; to pay 6d. per pound for 

 paper in which there was 30 per cent, of China clay, was considered 

 very much too bad even for this advanced period of the century. Some 

 of our own makers, however, as would appear from a letter published 

 in the 'Paper Trade Review' for the month of June, have become no mean 

 adepts in the science of adulteration. Mr. James Eckworth, of New- 

 castle, states that he has just finished the examination of "eleven 

 samples of first-class papers," all British made, " and of the eleven only 

 two were free from adulteration ;" and he goes on to say : " It may appear 

 almost incredible, but 1 can vouch for its being correct, th 1 1 some of these 

 papers were so heavily charged with mineral ingredients, that the propor- 



