DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

a (flim) which I have no hesitation to say you are making every day of your life, you will provide yourselves with a subject of unfailing enjoyment. When I stated the nature of your first impulse after your day’s work I left out one important point. Probably your first desire will be to read a news- paper, and make yourself acquainted with the political intelligence of the day. After having perused his favourite newspaper, one man will praise the superiority of the Times over the Standard, another that of the Dazly News over the Telegraph; but all will agree in extolling not only the excellence of the style and type of these papers, but the marvellous expansion of the daily press, its immense influence, and its great advantages. Here you will perceive the force of my observa- tion with regard to the advantages of desultory conversation. Let there be one man of a more inquisitive turn than the rest; he will ponder over the actual position of the Press, and he will recognise the fact that the Press has not been born into existence bodily as it is now. He will try to elicit from a friend details regarding its growth. This will bring him to discourse on the origin of books, and foster in him a wish to investigate their earliest composition. I will assume that there are amongst you some members of this Club who are not already ac-