The proper, because the best instrument for reporting, is a gold pen - provided the writer obtains one suited to his hand, and style of writing. Pen and ink are as superior to pencil for reporting as for correspondence: in both cases the reading is as important as the writing. A pencil may be occasionally used for practice, and for actual reporting, when a pen cannot be conveniently employed; as when the writer is obliged to make a desk of his knee, or his hat, or the shoulder of the person in front of him, at a public meeting. One of the best reports of a meeting we ever remembei reading, was made in a standing crowd, the reporter having to hold his note book considerably above his head.

Most reporters who have had equal opportunities of judging of the relative advantages of pen and pencil, prefer the former. A small glass inkstand, two inches square and one inch high, with large mouth and screw top, will be found most convenient. Smooth paper should never be used with a pencil, nor rough paper with a pen.

A pencil of medium hardness and blackness, of the quality of Faber's No. 3, is adapted for Phonographic reporting. For a report of a sermon, three or four pencils should be sharpened. Those who are unaccustomed to drawing will perhaps need to be told, that a pencil is best sharpened by cutting the wood to a long bevel, and rubbing the lead to a point upon a piece of sandstone, or a file. The pencil should be held somewhat more upright for reporting, than for longhand writing, otherwise the point will be liable to be broken off.

The Phonographer who uses unruled paper, will not be likely to become a very rapid reporter, but he is almost sure to become a careless, straggling writer, covering a great deal of paper with a very few words. Ruled paper is necces -sary to accuracy and speed, and double ruled paper is unquestionably the best. Paper ruled with faint red, rather ban blue lines, is generally preferred.

The professional form of the reporter's note book is oblong, like a small music book, and for pencil notes or sermons, written on the knee at church, this form is the best. When a desk or table is used, paper of the usual octavo form is nearly, but not quite so convenient. Whichever kind the reporter prefers, he must of course, fill the entire of one side of his note book first. When it is of oblong shape, he should write only on the lower leaves; when a sqnare form; is used, he should write only on the right-hand page. When the note book is thus written through, it is turned and the vacant pages filled.

Reporting covers, that is, stiff, leather covered cases, with an elastic band stitched in the back, for holding the paper in place, are useful to reporters, and absolutely necessary when notes are taken without the convenience of a desk or table.

Portable desks, and port folios, of varied construction, but usually contrived to fasten on the back of a seat or chair, have been sent to us in model or description. Such con trivances are needless, and as far as we know, worthless Fountain pens are equally so.

When notes are to be transcribed for the press, and when expedition is as important as accuracy, the following plan presents some advantages. Use post-size paper, (usuall about 8 1/2 by 7 1/2 inches,) and write the Phonographic notes at the left hand edge of the sheet, filling a column somewhat more than two inches wide. On the remaining blank portion of the page, the longhand transcription is made; the Phonographic strips being separated by a pen knife or scissors, before the copy is sent ot the compositor. The proximity of the Phonographic notes to the paper on which the longhand transcription is made, is a point of considerable importance.

The opinion of Phonographers will probably remain divided as to the best method of holding the pen or pencil. The usual method is to hold it at the end of the first and second fingers by a slight pressure of the thumb. The second method is to allow it to rest between the first and second fingers as far back as it will go, keeping it in place by a slight pressure of the thumb.

In writing longhand, where the strokes incline in a uniform direction, the usual method is doubtless the best; but in writing Phonography, where lines are struck in all directions, there appears to be a freer action of the muscles of the hand, and less fatigue when a lengthy report is taken, by holding the pen or pencil as here directed.

In transcribing notes, where speed and distinctness are more to be considered than beauty of form, this method presents many advantages. The elbow being allowed to rest somewhat apart from the side, the hand and arm are in an easy position, as for sketching, and the body is kept in a more upright position than is usual in writing; while the characters produced, being a kind of back-hand, have a decided advantage in point of distinctness. It was probably this consideration which led Lord Campbell, Chief Justice of England, to adopt this method of holding the pen in taking notes of evidence, by which means he was enabled to follow the business of the scribe without sacrificing the dignity of the Judge.