In engraved seals where coats of arms are used, it will be obvious that the seal must be larger than those generally in use, as the circles must be made to revolve round the outer extremity of the stone, and their usefulness will be considerably diminished. With regard to the possibility of forming a key by which writing in any language may be deciphered, we have the following curious anecdote, furnished by the late learned and ingenious Mr. Astle, keeper of His Majesty's Records: he states, on the authority of a noble Lord, deceased, that the late Earl Granville, while Secretary of State, told him, that when he came into office he had his doubts respecting the certainty of deciphering. That he wrote down two or three sentences in the Swedish language, and afterwards put them into such arbitrary marks or characters, as his mind suggested to him; that he sent the paper to Dr. Willes, who returned it the next day, and informed his lordship, that the characters he had sent to him formed certain words, which he had written beneath the cipher, but that he did not understand the language; and Lord Granville declared, that the words were exactly those which he had first written, before he put them into cipher. No. II. How ten thousand persons may use these seals to all and every of the purposes aforesaid, and yet keep their secrets from any but whom they please. NOTE. As the mode of deciphering inscriptions, dates, &c. formed by these seals, depends on a key, the formation of which is arbitrary, and resting entirely upon the fancy or ingenuity of its composer; it follows, that the smallest variation from the one originally intended for that purpose, will entirely destroy the effect of the proposed combination. No. III. A cipher and character so contrived, that one line, without returns and circumflexes, stands for each and every one of the twenty-four letters; and as ready to be made for the one letter as the other. NOTE. Of this and the following invention, the noble author has left to the curious in the stenographic art, his own definition; a manuscript, in the Marquis's hand-writing, having been preserved in the _Harleian Collection_, appended to an original copy of the Century of Inventions, in which he explains the system upon which these two articles are founded. The MS. alluded to is thus entitled:--"An Explanation of the most exact and most compendious way of Short-hand Writing; and an Example, given by way of Questions and Resolves upon each significant Point, proving how and why it stands for such and such a Letter, in order, alphabetically placed in every page."--_Bibl. Harl._ No. 2428.