Nor should we omit to notice, as one of the causes that have contributed to the production of cheap literature, the art of stereotyping, which has been perfected during the present century. Earl Stanhope, the inventor of the admirable press that bears his name, was prominent in bringing that art to perfection. Numerous attempts had been made in the last century to produce casts from pages of type. So early, indeed, as 1700, some almanacks and pamphlets were printed in Paris from castings; and an edition of Sallust was printed in Edinburgh in 1739, from stereotype plates produced by Mr. Ged, a goldsmith. The process, however, was not encouraged, and on his death it was not further proceeded with. The most important advance in the art was made by M. Hoffman, of Alsace, who, in 1784, succeeded in obtaining stereotype plates by casting them in moulds of clay mixed with gelatine in which the pages of type were impressed, with which he printed a work in three volumes; but the castings were imperfect, and the plan was soon afterwards abandoned. Among the many plans tried to obtain perfect casts of the types when set up, was one contrived by M. Carez, a printer of Toul, who, in 1791, endeavoured to obtain casts in lead from a page of type, by allowing it to drop on the fused metal when it was in a state of setting. The matrices thus obtained were in like manner impressed on a fusible metal, which melted at a lower temperature than the lead. Good casts were often thus procured, but the uncertainty of the process, arising from the frequent fusion of the lead matrices, caused it to be discontinued. Other plans were tried in France with more or less success, but nothing was done practically until Lord Stanhope directed his attention to the subject in 1800, and resorted to the original method of obtaining matrices, by impressing the pages of type in a cold plastic substance. He employed plaster of Paris for his mould; and when they were thoroughly dried, they were plunged in fused type-metal; and in this manner a perfect cast in metal of the original page of movable type was produced. The process has been still further perfected, and casts from movable types, and from wood engravings, are now made with great facility, and the impressions from them are quite equal to the originals. When it is intended to stereotype a work, the movable types used in composing it are new, and the "spaces" that separate the words from each other are longer than is customary when the type is to be printed from. These elongated spaces reach nearly to the face of the letters, so that the plaster may not sink between them. By this means the mould is easily removed from the face of the page of type. The metal casting of each page is very thin, and when required to be used, it is screwed on to blocks of wood to the same height as ordinary types.