many
of the journals of New-York, as the _Herald_, the _Sun_, the _Tribune_,
the _Times_, the _Express_, the _Mirror_, and others issued daily; if we
calculate the copies of the _Observer_, the _Home Journal_, the _Christian
Advocate_, and others of the weekly press; the circulation of the monthly
and other periodicals; if we look at the Methodist Book Concern, the Tract
Society, the American Bible Society, the publications of the Appletons, of
Putnam, and of the enterprising booksellers of this city generally, what
bounds can we set to the offspring of the typographic art? The _Herald_
and the _Tribune_ in their distinct circulation, consume an aggregate of
fifty thousand reams per year. The Harpers, who have thrown John
Baskerville, and other eminent typographers of Europe in the shade by the
magnitude of their operations, use one hundred reams of paper daily, at
six dollars per ream, and make about ten volumes a minute or six thousand
a day. On a former occasion I stated to you the agency which Franklin had
in bringing forward stereotype plates, as projected by Dr. Colden, in this
city, in 1779, and the fact that the art was communicated to Didot in
Paris, by Franklin himself. I well remember the anxious John Watts, when
he showed me his first undertaking in this branch of labor in New-York,
just forty years ago. It was a copy of the Larger Catechism, the one I now
hold in my hand. Notwithstanding the doubts of many, he felt confident of
its ultimate success, yet suffered by hope deferred. What is now the state
of the business in the matter of stereotyping? The Harpers alone--a single
firm--have within their vaults plates for more than two thousand volumes.

Need I dwell on the improved appliances in the great art, which enrich the
present day, or on the influences now at work on the intellectual man?
Justly has it been stated, that the press of a single office in this city
issues more matter than the industry of the world, with all its scribes
and illuminators, in an entire year, previous the time of Faust. Let us,
then, reverence the press, as our Franklin did. Let us cherish its
freedom, as the triumph of our fathers, if we love the name of patriot.
Let us teach our children to acknowledge it the palladium of our altars
and our firesides. Let us recognize it as the Great Instructor, knocking
at every door, and rendering every hovel, as well as every palace, a
school-house.

Nor is it solely on the score of quantit