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 up of deeds and contracts, to avoid the duty and stamp upon paper. Their countrymen preferred a bolder mode of settling the question. Copies of the Malay gospels, and other books, are frequently brought from the East, written on long slips of reed or bark, fastened by strings at each end.

The Egyptian papyrus was applied to the purpose of writing upon before the preparation of parchment and its application to the same use were known. The particular species of the papyrus, till lately, was not known; but it is now ascertained to be the cyperus papyrus of Linnæus, growing on the banks of different rivers in the east, and, likewise, it is believed, in Trinidad. It is impossible to ascertain, with any degree of certainty, when the papyrus was manufactured into paper, but there were, no doubt, manufactories of it at Memphis, at least three hundred years before the time of Alexander. Afterwards, and at the time of the conquest of Egypt, by the Romans, it was made chiefly at Alexandria. Till this conquest, however, the paper was of inferior quality. The Roman artists paid great attention to its improvement, and at length, made it of considerable thickness, perfectly white and smooth. Even in this state, however, it was so friable and weak, that, when great durability was requisite, leaves of parchment were intermixed with those of papyrus. "Thus the firmness of the one substance defended the brittleness of the other, and great numbers of books, so constituted, have resisted the accidents and decays of twelve centuries."

A great number of manuscripts, written upon papyrus, have been found in the ruins of Herculaneum, which was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, The manuscripts thus obtained are completely calcined, though, by incredible labour and patience, fragments of some of them have been unrolled and copied.

This famous town originally stood in Campania or Italy, but it was swallowed up by an earthquake, produced by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, August 24, 79, together with the city of Pompeii ; and after having been buried under the lava for more than 1600 years, Herculaneum was discovered twenty-four feet beneath the surface of the earth, by labourers digging for a well in the year 1713, and Pompeii about forty years subsequently, twelve feet below the surface. The houses and streets, in a great measure, remained entire, and from them, at different times, have been recovered busts, statues, paintings, utensils, and ancient manuscripts written on papyrus, both in Greek and Latin. In the space of a year or two, about two hundred and fifty Greek and Latin rolls were found and the library near which they were contained, appeared to belong to a large palace. These volumes were all rendered brittle by the fire, but there were likewise eighteen larger rolls in Latin, lying separately, and more injured than the Greek. The first papyrus was at length unrolled, and proved to be a Treatise on Music, by Philodemus, the Epicurean, whilst another, was on the subject of that class of Philosophy. These papyri, were at first so firmly connected together, that every roll was almost as hard as if it had consisted but of one piece ; and all attempts to open them seemed to be in vain, and it was only by slitting them that some words were discovered. Such was the laborious and slow operations in unrolling them, that a whole year was consumed in opening about half a roll ; and some of the papyri was so fine, that unrolled they would have extended to nearly one hundred feet. In 1802, the Rev. John Hayter was sent to Naples, under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who had proposed to the