ally vary to 1 per cent., and imports are frequently sold duty paid; the prices, however, so obtained, fully compensate for the trifling increase of charges. The charges on goods exported are-3 per cent. commission; brokerage, so much per cantaro salma, &c., generally amounting to about per cent., except on fruit, on which it is equivalent to from 2 to 3 per cent. Imports and Exports.-The great articles of export from Sicily are-grain, particularly wheat and barley; beans, wine, brandy, oil, barilla, lemons and oranges, lemon juice, almonds, salt, shumac, salt-fish, cheese, with brimstone, argol, manna, liquorice, pumice stone, rags, skins, honey, cotton wool, nuts, linseed, saffron, &c. Wheat is largely exported. It is of a mixed quality, hard, and is generally sold from the public magazines, or caricatori (see post), by measure, without weight. But the best hard wheat, grown in the neighbourhood of Palermo, is sold by the salma of 272 rottoli = 476 lbs. Eng.; the difference between weight and measure being made good by the seller or buyer, as the case may be. Wine is principally shipped from Marsala ; lemons, oranges, and lemon juice, from Messina ; salt, from Trapani; and barilla, from the southern coast. But all the articles to be found on the coast may, for the most part, be had at Palermo; unless, however, the quantity required be small, it is usually best to ship them from the outports, the expense of their conveyance to Palermo being very heavy. The crops of barilla and shumac come to market in August; but brimstone, salt, oil, wine, rags, &c. may generally be had all the year round. The first shipments of lemons and oranges may be made in the beginning of November. Purchases of produce are always paid for in cash, generally on making the purchase, and the other on delivery, when in Palermo, and on receiving order for delivery, on the coast. The imports consist of sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, dye woods, spices, iron, tin, hides, Newfoundland cod, cotton and woollen stuffs, timber for building, &c. We have no means of forming any estimate either of the quantity or the value of the principal articles of import and export. Silk is a staple produce of the island; but its exportation in an unwrought state, except to Naples, is prohibited.— (We have gleaned these details principally from private communications. The best account of the trade of Sicily, though now a little antiquated, that we have met with in any English work, is contained in Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sicilies, 4to ed. vol. ii. pp. 401-413. See also the article NAPLES in this work.) Remarks on the Trade, &c. of Sicily.-This noble island contains about 10,500 square miles, being the largest in the Mediterranean, and one of the most fertile and best situated in the world. Its population is about 1,900,000. In ancient times, Sicily was celebrated for the number, magnitude, and opulence of its cities; and, notwithstanding its population was then, at least, treble its present amount, it obtained, from its furnishing vast supplies of corn and other articles of provision for the use of Rome, the appropriate epithet of horreum Romanorum. When the Roman power had been overthrown, Sicily was occupied, first by the Saracens, then by the Normans, and after them by the French. The Sicilian Vespers put a fatal period to the dominion of the latter; and a prince of the house of Aragon having been called to the Sicilian throne, the island became, in course of time, a dependency, first of the crown of Spain, and more recently of that of Naples. It is It is to this dependence that we are induced to ascribe the backward state of Sicily. The multiplied abuses which grew up in Spain, under Ferdinand the Catholic, and his successors of the Austrian line, flourished with equal luxuriance in Sicily, and have proved no less destructive of the industry and civilisation of its inhabitants than of those of Spain. The Bourbon or Neapolitan régime has been equally pernicious. "The government of this island," says a recent and most intelligent observer, "seems to unite in itself nearly all the defects, both theoretical and practical, of which political institutions are susceptible. It is a model in its way. We find here a system of laws quite barbarous, and the administration of them notoriously corrupt; high taxes, levied arbitrarily and unequally; the land generally held on such a tenure as makes it unalienable, so that few can ever be proprietors; and farming leases, for church land at least, are binding on the farmer only, and not on his landlord. For want of roads, produce cannot be exported from one part of the island to another; the consequence of which is, that a scarcity and a glut may and frequently do exist at the same time in different parts of the island, without the means of timely and effectual communication."(Simond's Italy and Sicily, p. 529.) But the grand curse of Sicilian, as well as of Sardinian, industry-(see CAGLIARI)—is the restriction on the exportation of corn. true that the difficulties in this respect are not so great now as formerly, but they are still such as to oppose an invincible obstacle to the spread of improvement, and to the developement of the national resources. No exportation of corn can take place without leave of the real patrimonio,—a tribunal that pretends to take a yearly account of the crop, and of the supply required to meet the home demand. When this body has determined that an exportation may take place, it issues (or rather, we believe, sells) its licences to export certain specific quantities, to a few favoured individuals*, who, in consequence, are able to regulate the price; so that they, and not the corn growers, reap all the advantage! Thus, says M. Simond, "neither scanty nor plentiful crops affording a chance of gain, farmers are discouraged, and corn is frequently scarce in a country once the granary of Imperial Rome, although its own population be now reduced to 1-6th of what it was at that period. Such is the system of minute and vexatious regulations, that a man cannot go in or out of town with a loaf of bread or a joint of meat without special permission. The revenue laws in England are sufficiently vexatious, but they at least answer their fiscal purpose. Here the *The late Queen is said to have been a great dealer in corn on her own account! We cannot help looking upon this as an exaggeration. There do not seem to be any good grounds for thinking that Sicily ever contained more than 6,000,000 inhabitants,-that is, a little more than 3 itars as many as at present. vexation is gratuitous; for little or nothing comes of it ultimately, drained as the little sources of revenue are, in their way to the treasury, by malpractices of all sorts."—(p. 530.) There are only certain ports from which corn can be exported. This limitation has given rise to the establishment of public magazines or caricatori, where the corn may be deposited till an opportunity occurs of shipping it off. Provided it be of good quality (mercantibile or recetibile), and provided it be brought in immediately after harvest, or, at farthest, in August, it is warehoused free of expense; what it gains in bulk after that period (about 5 per cent.) being sufficient to defray all expenses. The receipt of the caricator, or keeper of the magazine, is negotiable like a bill of exchange, and is the object of speculative purchases on the exchange at Palermo, Messina, &c. according to the expected rise or fall in the price of corn. The depositor of a quantity sells it in such portions as he pleases, the whole being faithfully accounted for. The public magazines, in some parts of the island, are either excavations into calcareous rocks, or holes in the ground shaped like a bottle, walled up, and made waterproof, containing each about 200 salme of corn, or about 1,600 English bushels. The neck of the bottle is hermetically closed with a stone fastened with gypsum. Corn may be thus preserved for an indefinite length of time; at least, it has been found in perfectly good order after the lapse of a century.-(Simond, p. 540.; Swinburne, vol. ii. p. 405. For an account of the oil caricatori of Naples, see OLIVE OIL.) Hemp grows very well in Sicily; and when the English were there, their ships were abundantly supplied with that article; but its exportation being no longer permitted, its culture is now, of course, neglected!—(Simond, p. 539.) Sugar canes were, at one time, pretty extensively cultivated in Sicily; but their culture has been long declining, and is now nearly extinct. Were the bounty of nature towards Sicily not counteracted by vicious laws and institutions, she would undoubtedly be one of the richest and finest of European countries. All that she requires is security of property and freedom of industry. Let but these be given to her, and a few years will develope her gigantic resources, and elevate Girgenti, Termini, and Sciacca, to a very high rank among corn-shipping ports. PALM OIL (Ger. Palmol; Fr. Huile de palme, Huile de Senegal; It. Olio di palma; Sp. Aceite de palma) is obtained from the fruit of several species of palms, but especially from that of the Elais Guineensis, growing on the west coast of Africa, to the south of Fernando Po, and in Brazil. When imported, the oil is about the consistence of butter, of a yellowish colour, and scarcely any particular taste: by long keeping it becomes rancid; loses its colour, which fades to a dirty white; and in this state is to be rejected. It is sometimes imitated with hog's lard, coloured with turmeric, and scented with Florentine iris root. The inhabitants of the coast of Guinea employ palm oil for the same purposes that we do butter. -(Lewis's Mat. Med.; Thomson's Dispensatory.) Account of the Quantities of Palm Oil entered for Home Consumption in the United Kingdom, the Amount of Duty received thereon, and the Rate of Duty, each Year since 1821. The price of palm oil (duty paid) varies from 331. to 341. a ton. PAMPHLET, a small book, usually printed in the octavo form, and stitched. It is enacted by 10 Ann. c. 19. 113., that no person shall sell, or expose to sale, any pamphlet, without the name and place of abode of some known person, by or for whom it was printed or published, written or printed thereon, under penalty of 201. and costs. It is enacted by the 55 Geo. 3. c. 185., that every book containing 1 whole sheet, and not exceeding 8 sheets, in 8vo, or any lesser size; or not exceeding 12 sheets in 4to, or 20 sheets in folio, shall be deemed a pamphlet. The same act imposed a duty of 3s. upon each sheet of one copy of all pamphlets published. This duty, which was at once vexatious and unproductive, hardly ever yielding more than 1,000l. or 1,1001. a year, was repealed in 1833. PAPER (Ger. and Du. Papier; Fr. Papier; It. Carta, Sp. Papel; Rus. Bumaga; Lat. Charta, Arab. Kurtas; Pers. Kaghas). This highly useful substance is, as every one knows, thin, flexible, of different colours, but most commonly white, being used for writing and printing upon, and for various other purposes. It is manufactured of vegetable matter reduced to a sort of pulp. The term paper is derived from the Greek uρos (papyrus, see post), the leaves of a plant on which the ancients used to write. Paper is made up into sheets, quires, and reams; each quire consisting of 24 sheets, and each ream of 20 quires. Historical Sketch of Paper. Difference between ancient and modern Paper.-It has often been a subject of wonder with those learned and ingenious persons who have written VOL. II.-Z 34 concerning the arts of the ancient world, that the Greeks and Romans, although they possessed a prodigious number of books, and approached very near to printing in the stamping words and letters, and similar devices, should not have fallen upon the art; the first rude attempts at typography being sufficiently obvious, though much time and contrivance have been required to bring the process to the perfection in which it now prevails. They ought rather, perhaps, to have wondered that the more civilised nations of antiquity did not invent paper, which must precede the invention of printing, as may be easily shown. The rocks, pillars of stone or of marble, and especially the walls of edifices, supply fixed surfaces, upon which, were we unprovided with more convenient tablets, much valuable information might be preserved; and were all our public and many of our private buildings thickly covered with inscriptions, the memory of divers historical facts, and other matters of importance, might be handed down to posterity. Men wrote thus in very remote ages; and the old usage is still retained in many instances, particularly in our churches and cemeteries. In very remote ages, also, we read that they were accustomed to write upon portable surfaces of various kinds and if it were possible to deprive us of our ordinary means of fixing and communicating our thoughts, modern ingenuity would speedily reinvent numerous expedients which have long been superseded; and we should have recourse to plates of metal of various dimensions, sometimes, probably, as thin as foil; to slices of soft, light wood, not thicker than those of which band-boxes are sometimes made; to cloth, leather, and the like. These materials would often be primed like the canvass of painters, that they might more readily receive, and more plainly show, the ink or paint that formed the characters. It is evident that, in the course of time, large libraries might be gradually composed of books constructed in this manner; and the whole amount of human learning might still be very considerable. The substances which we have enumerated are all somewhat costly: it would be desirable, therefore, to find one that was cheaper; and we should doubtless direct our attention very early to that which has served the office of paper in all times, and is used as such in some countries of the East at this day,-we mean the leaves of trees. Some of the palms, and other vegetables, that are natives of hot countries, furnish the Orientals with books that are not incommodious: the leaves of the indigenous plants of Great Britain are not so well suited for the purpose; but by care in the selection and skill in the preparation, some might certainly be chosen, which would, in some degree, be fit to receive writing. Leaves, when they are dry, are apt to split in the direction of the fibres; it has commonly been found expedient, therefore, to glue others at the back in an opposite direction; and by thus crossing the fibres at right angles, the texture is strengthened; and when it has been pressed and polished, the page is less unseemly and inconvenient than might have been supposed. Such, in the main, was the structure of the ancient paper. In Sicily, and in other countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, but principally in Egypt and in the Nile, or rather in the ponds and ditches that communicate with that river, grows, in the nineteenth century after the death of the last of the Ptolemies, as of old under that illustrious dynasty, and under their predecessors the Pharaohs, a lofty and most stately reed or rush, the Cyperus Papyrus of modern botanists. It has been introduced into the hot-houses of some of our botanical gardens, where it may be seen conspicuous with its long, drooping, and graceful plume. A description of the various purposes to which the ancients applied this useful plant, would fill a volume; we shall speak of that only from which it has earned an immortality of renown. The inner bark was divided with a needle into very thin coats; these were placed side by side longitudinally, and the edges were glued together; similar layers were glued across these behind, at right angles, to give the page the requisite strength; and the sheets were pressed, dried, polished, and otherwise prepared for use. Ancient writers have described the process, and especially Pliny, (Hist. Nat. lib. xiii. c. 11, 12, 13.). From that naturalist, and the notes of Hardouin and his other commentators, it may be fully traced; and Mr. Bruce has collected the authorities, and has added his own observations, in the 7th vol. of the 8vo edition of his Travels. That remarkable person even attempted to make paper from the papyrus; in which, however, he was not very successful; and he imputes his failure to the erroneous directions of Pliny; for it seems not to have occurred to him, that, had he endeavoured, trusting to written directions, without experience and traditional art, to make modern paper, or even a pair of shoes, he would, most probably, have been equally infelicitous. Alexandria was the chief seat of this valuable manufacture; but in later periods much was also made at Rome, where an article of superior beauty was produced. Pliny enumerates the various kinds of paper that were composed, from the coarsest, which was used, like our brown paper, for packing, to the most expensive and finest. The consumption of paper was very considerable; it seems to have been tolerably cheap; and since the principal part was made at Alexandria, it was an important article in the commerce of that city-furnishing employment for many workmen and much capital. Flavius Vopiscus relates, that in the 3d century, the tyrant Firmus used to say there was so much paper there, and so large a quantity of the glue or size used in preparing it, that he could maintain an army with it :-" Tantum habuisse de chartis, ut publice sæpe diceret, exercitum se alere posse papyro et glutino." We may doubt whether the value of the paper which any single city now contains would do the like. Learned men have discussed the antiquity of this manufacture. It is not improbable that an earlier date ought to be assigned to it than is commonly given: nor ought we rashly to conclude that it was unknown at a particular period, because it is not mentioned in a poem of that time; for the poet sought to celebrate the achievements of gods and heroes, and not to compose an Encyclopædia, or a Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences. Ancient paper was white, smooth, durable, and well adapted in all respects for writing; but it was not suited for the printer: by reason of the closeness of the grain, it would not receive the ink from the types more kindly than shavings of wood, &c.; and so brittle was its texture, that it would have shivered into pieces under the press. Nor did it resemble modern paper in its structure: it was, in truth, an inartificial mass; leaves, or rather strips of bark ("viscera nivea virentium herbarum"), being pasted together by the edges, others were laid across them behind; whereas the paper which we now use is, perhaps, the most subtle and extraordinary of human inventions. If a cistern or other vessel be filled with water turbid with lime or clay, and the earth allowed to subside slowly, the water being evaporated, or drawn off gently, and the sediment left to dry, the calcareous or argillaceous deposit will represent faithfully the formation of paper; and it will be smooth, and of an equal thickness throughout; for an equal portion of the earth of which it is formed was suspended in the troubled water over each point in the bottom where it finally lodged. In making paper, the water is turbid with the pulp or paste of triturated rags, and the suspended pulp is not suffered to subside slowly; but a sieve or frame of wire gauze is dipped equally into the cistern, and is raised gently to the surface, and agitated in a level position, which facilitates the passage of the water through the wires, while the fibres of rag are in some degree interwoven by it, and, remaining on the surface of the sieve, form the sheet of paper. This is pressed between felts, to exclude the water, and to render its texture closer; it is dried and sized, and undergoes various operations, which it is unnecessary to enumerate, as we seek only to show that the result of this wonderful invention is as much an aqueous deposit as the earthy sediment at the bottom of a cistern, although it is obtained more rapidly. Modern paper has nothing in common with the ancient, save the vegetable fibre which is the basis of both. The application of rotary motion has effected wonders in many of the arts; nor have the results been less astonishing in the paper-mill: instead of dipping the sieves or frames into the cistern of turbid water, a circular web, a round towel of woven wire, revolves under the vessel, receives the deposit, conveys it away, and, by an adjustment of marvellous delicacy, transfers it uninjured, although as frail as a wet cobweb, to a similar revolving towel of felt: thus an endless web of paper is spun, as long as the machine continues to move, and the water charged with pulp is supplied. We are unable to pursue the process, however interesting; for we desire merely to explain the general principle according to which our paper is constructed. It is to this admirable material that we owe the invention of printing, which could not subsist without it: its pervious and spongy texture imbibes and retains the ink, and its toughness resists the most violent pressure; and, in a well-bound book, under favourable circumstances, its duration is indefinite, and, for all practical purposes, eternal! It is true that legal documents are sometimes printed on parchment, which is less liable to be torn, or injured by rubbing; and the luxury of typography occasionally exhibits a few impressions of a splendid work upon vellum; and that these two substances were known to the ancients: but they are necessarily expensive, and the cost of either far exceeds the price of the best penmanship; so that it would be altogether unprofitable to cast types, to construct presses, and to incur the various and heavy charges of an establishment for printing, unless we possessed a cheaper material. We owe the introduction of paper into Europe to the Arabians or Moors. There is some uncertainty as to the precise era of its first appearance; and we are unable to trace the origin of the precious invention, or even to imagine by what steps men were led to it. We cannot conceive how any one could be tempted to pound wet rags in a mortar, to stir the paste into a large body of water, to receive the deposit upon a sieve, to press and to dry it. The labour of beating rags into pulp by the hand would be as hopeless as it would be tedious and severe. It is true that paper was originally made of cotton,-a substance less obstinate than linen rags, which are now commonly used. At present, the fresh rags are torn in pieces by a powerful mill: formerly, it was the practice to suffer them to rot; to place them in large heaps in a warm and damp situation, and to allow them to heat and ferment, and to remain undisturbed until mushrooms began to grow upon them; so that, being partially decayed, it might be less difficult to triturate them. Nevertheless, the invention of paper is a mystery. The Chinese possess the arts of making paper and of printing; but we know not how long they have had them, nor whether the Mohammedans learned the former from them. The illiterate inhabitants of some of the islands in the South Seas were able to compose a species of paper, which they used in fine weather for raiment, of the bark of trees. The basis of paper being the vegetable fibre, it has been made of various substances, as straw, as well as of rags.* * We are indebted for this valuable historical sketch to our learned friend, T. J. Hogg, Esq., barris · ter-at-law. The reader may resort, for further information as to the history of paper, to the article on it in Rees's Cyclopædia. Manufacture of Paper in England.-The application of paper to the purposes of writing and printing, and the fact of its being indispensable to the prosecution of the latter, render its manufacture of the highest utility and importance. But, even in a commercial point of view, its value is very considerable. France, Holland, and Genoa had, for a lengthened period, a decided superiority in this department. The finest and best paper being made of linen rags, its quality may be supposed to depend, in a considerable degree, on the sort of linen usually worn in the country where it is manufactured; and this circumstance is said to account for the greater whiteness of the Dutch and Belgian papers, as compared with those of the French and Italians, and still more the Germans. The rags used in the manufacture of writing paper in Great Britain, are collected at home; but those used in the manufacture of the best printing paper are imported, principally, from Italy, Hamburgh, and the Austrian States, by way of Trieste.-(See RAGS.) We believe, however, that it was owing rather to the want of skill, than, as has sometimes been supposed, to the inferior quality of the linen of this country, that the manufacture of paper was not carried on with much success in England till a comparatively recent period. During the 17th century, most part of our supply was imported from the Continent, especially from France. The manufacture is said to have been considerably improved by the French Refugees who fled to this country in 1685. But it is distinctly stated in The British Merchant (vol. ii. p. 266.), that hardly any sort of paper, except brown, was made here previously to the Revolution. In 1690, however, the manufacture of white paper was attempted; and within a few years, most branches were much improved. In 1721, it is supposed that there were about 300,000 reams of paper annually produced in Great Britain, which was equal to about two thirds of the whole consumption. In 1783, the value of the paper annually manufactured was estimated at 780,000l. At present, besides making a sufficient quantity of most sorts of paper for our own use, we annually export about 100,000l. worth of books. We still, however, continue to import certain descriptions of paper for engraving from France, and a small sup◄ ply of paper hangings. The duty on both amounts to about 2,800l. a year. t In 1813, Dr. Colquhoun estimated the value of paper annually produced in Great Britain at 2,000,000%; but Mr. Stevenson, an incomparably better authority upon such subjects, estimated it at only half this sum. From information obtained from those engaged in the trade, we incline to think that the total annual value of the paper manufacture in the United Kingdom, exclusive of the duty, may at present amount to about 1,200,000l. or 1,300,000%. There are about 700 paper-mills in England, and from 70 to 80 in Scotland. The number in Ireland is but inconsiderable. Of these mills, we believe very few have lately been unemployed. About 27,000 individuals are supposed to be directly engaged in the trade: and, besides the workmen employed in the mills, the paper manufacture creates a considerable demand for the labour of millwrights, machinists, smiths, carpenters, iron and brass founders, wire-workers, woollen manufacturers, and others, in the machinery and apparatus of the mills. Some parts of these are very powerful, and subject to severe strain; and other parts are complicated and delicate, and require continual renovation. Owing to this, the manufacture is much greater in importance, as a source of employment, than might at first be supposed, or than it would seem to be considered by government, who have loaded it with an excise duty amounting to more than three times as much as the total wages of the workpeople employed! The modern discoveries in chemical science have not only materially facilitated the manufacture, but have greatly enlarged the supply of materials from which paper may be made. Until within these few years, the sweepings of cotton mills, owing to the grease and dirt with which they are mixed up, were of no value whatever, except as manure. But means having been discovered of rendering them white, they are now made into very good paper; and the neighbourhood of Manchester has, in consequence, become a principal seat of the manufacture. During the present century, so remarkable for improvements in the arts, this manufacture has been signally promoted, notwithstanding the excise regulations, by the application of machinery to the conversion of pulp into paper. The first idea of this originated in France: a model of the machinery was brought to this country by a M. Didot, which, though very far from giving assurance of success, was yet sufficient to induce English capitalists and engineers, particularly Mr. Donkin, to follow up the scheme; and in the course of a few years they have brought it to a high degree of perfection. Mr. Dickinson, of Hertfordshire, one of the most intelligent mechanists and extensive paper manufacturers in England, has invented a machine of a different construction for the same purpose, and has also introduced various subsidiary improvements into the manufacture. The result is all but miraculous. By the agency of a great deal of complicated machinery, so admirably contrived as to produce the intended effect with unerring precision and in the very best manner, a process, which in the old system of paper-making occupied about three weeks, is performed in as many minutes! A continuous stream of fluid pulp is, within this brief space of time, and the short distance of 30 feet, not only made into paper, but actually dried, polished, and every separate sheet cut round the edges, and rendered completely ready for use! The paper manufactured by |