To return to Mr. Clowes. In the course of a few years, the

original humbleestablishment of the Sussex compositor, beginning
with one press and one assistant, grew up to be one of the

largest printing-offices in the world. It had twenty-five steam
presses, twenty-eight hand-presses, six hydraulic presses, and

gave direct employment to over five hundred persons, and indirect
employment to probably more than ten times that number. Besides

the works connected with his printing-office, Mr. Clowes found it
necessary to cast his own types, to enable him to command on

emergency any quantity; and to this he afterwards added
stereotyping on an immense scale. He possessed the power of

supplying his compositors with a stream of new type at the rate
of about 50,000 pieces a day. In this way, the weight of type in

ordinary use became very great; it amounted to not less than 500
tons, and the stereotyped plates to about 2500 tons the value of

the latter being not less than half a million sterling.
Mr. Clowes would not hesitate, in the height of his career, to

have tons of type locked up for months in some ponderous
blue-book. To print a report of a hundred folio pages in the

course of a day or during a night, or of a thousand pages in a
week, was no uncommonoccurrence. From his gigantic

establishment were turned out not fewer than 725,000 printed
sheets, or equal to 30,000 volumes a week. Nearly 45,000 pounds

of paper were printed weekly. The quantity printed on both sides
per week, if laid down in a path of 22 1/4 inches broad, would

extend 263 miles in length.
About the year l840, a Polish inventor brought out a composing

machine, and submitted it to Mr. Clowes for approval. But Mr.
Clowes was getting too old to take up and push any new invention.

He was also averse to doing anything to injure the compositors,
having once been a member of the craft. At the same time he said

to his son George, "If you find this to be a likely machine, let
me know. Of course we must go with the age. If I had not

started the steam press when I did, where should I have been
now?" On the whole, the composing machine, though ingenious, was

incomplete, and did not come into use at that time, nor indeed
for a long time after. Still, the idea had been born, and, like

other inventions, became eventually developed into a useful
working machine. Composing machines are now in use in many

printing-offices, and the present Clowes' firm possesses several
of them. Those in The Times newspaper office are perhaps the

most perfect of all.
Mr. Clowes was necessarily a man of great ability, industry, and

energy. Whatever could be done in printing, that he would do.
He would never admit the force of any difficulty that might be

suggested to his plans. When he found a person ready to offer
objections, he would say, "Ah! I see you are a difficulty-maker:

you will never do for me."
Mr. Clowes died in 1847, at the age of sixty-eight. There still

remain a few who can recall to mind the giant figure, the kindly
countenance, and the gentle bearing of this "Prince of Printers,"

as he was styled by the members of his craft. His life was full
of hard and useful work; and it will probably be admitted that,

as the greatest multiplier of books in his day, and as one of the
most effective practical labourers for the diffusion of useful

knowledge, his name is entitled to be permanently associated, not
only with the industrial, but also with the intellectual

development of our time.
CHAPTER IX.

CHARLES BIANCONI: A LESSON OF SELF-HELP IN IRELAND.
"I beg you to occupy yourself in collecting biographical notices

respecting the Italians who have honestly enriched themselves in
other regions, particularly referring to the obstacles of their

previous life, and to the efforts and the means which they
employed for vanquishing them, as well as to the advantages which

they secured for themselves, for the countries in which they
settled, and for the country to which they owed their birth."

--GENERAL MENABREA, Circular to Italian Consuls.
When Count Menabrea was Prime Minister of Italy, he caused a

despatch to be prepared and issued to Italian Consuls in all
parts of the world, inviting them to collect and forward to him

"biographical notices respecting the Italians who have honourably
advanced themselves in foreign countries."

His object, in issuing the despatch, was to collect information
as to the lives of his compatriots living abroad, in order to

bring out a book similar to 'Self-help,' the examples cited in
which were to be drawn exclusively from the lives of Italian

citizens. Such a work, he intimated, "if it were once circulated
among the masses, could not fail to excite their emulation and

encourage them to follow the examples therein set forth," while
"in the course of time it might exercise a powerful influence on

the increased greatness of our country."
We are informed by Count Menabrea that, although no special work

has been published from the biographical notices collected in
answer to his despatch, yet that the Volere e Potere ('Will is

Power') of Professor Lessona, issued a few years ago,
sufficiently answers the purpose which he contemplated, and

furnishes many examples of the patient industry and untiring
perseverance of Italians in all parts of the world. Many

important illustrations of life and character are necessarily
omitted from Professor Lessona's interesting work. Among these

may be mentioned the subject of the following pages,--a
distinguished Italian who entirely corresponds to Count

Menabrea's description--one who, in the face of the greatest
difficulties, raised himself to an eminent public position, at

the same time that he conferred the greatest benefits upon the
country in which he settled and carried on his industrial

operations. We mean Charles Bianconi, and his establishment of
the great system of car communication through out Ireland.[1]

Charles Bianconi was born in 1786, at the village of Tregolo,
situated in the Lombard Highlands of La Brianza, about ten miles

from Como. The last elevations of the Alps disappear in the
district; and the great plain of Lombardy extends towards the

south. The region is known for its richness and beauty; the
inhabitants being celebrated for the cultivation of the mulberry

and the rearing of the silkworm, the finest silk in Lombardy
being produced in the neighbourhood. Indeed, Bianconi's family,

like most of the villagers, maintained themselves by the silk
culture.

Charles had three brothers and one sister. When of a sufficient
age, he was sent to school. The Abbe Radicali had turned out

some good scholars; but with Charles Bianconi his failure was
complete. The new pupil proved a tremendous dunce. He was very

wild, very bold, and very plucky; but he learned next to nothing.
Learning took as little effect upon him as pouring water upon a

duck's back. Accordingly, when he left school at the age of
sixteen, he was almost as ignorant as when he had entered it; and

a great deal more wilful.
Young Bianconi had now arrived at the age at which he was

expected to do something for his own maintenance. His father
wished to throw him upon his own resources; and as he would soon

be subject to the conscription, he thought of sending him to some
foreign country in order to avoid the forced service. Young

fellows, who had any love of labour or promptings of independence
in them, were then accustomed to leave home and carry on their

occupations abroad. It was a common practice for workmen in the
neighbourhood of Como to emigrate to England and carry on various

trades; more particularly the manufacture and sale of barometers,
looking-glasses, images, prints, pictures, and other articles.