By Charles J. Gratton.

In shorthand skilled, where little marks comprise Whole words - a sentence in a letter lies."

- Creech.

[This interesting chapter from Mr. Gratton's work entitled The Gallery, on the legislative use of shorthand in England, and the admirable sketch of the delights of " mastering stenography," will be read with interest by Phonographers.]

1. The qualifications required in a good reporter are various, and they are not so easy of attainment as is generally supposed. In the first place, a man who pretends to be an ornament to his profession, must be a good shorthand-writer. There are certainly many excellent persons in the Gallery, who use abbreviated longhand, but still a quicker mode of note taking is in general desirable, and, in many cases, absolutely nececssary, unless the reporter is favored with an extraordinary memory. Some persons have been known to supply a column of a newspaper, and that even on financial questions, in which figures form the bulk, entirely from the exercise of memory, no notes having been taken; but these are rare instances.

2. At the present day, unless a man be a genius, he must have a knowledge of shorthand to be a parliamentary reporter; for often enough we read the ipsissima verba of a "crack" speaker reported in the first person, and that just as though we could hear the very words drop from the speaker's lips - words which the swiftest longhand in the world aided by a good memory would be unable to report correctly. There are many systems of shorthand in use, of more or less ability. Some use Gurney's, some Taylor"s, and many Pitman's Phonography.

3. As many of the persons who will peruse this book will probably like to know how the stenographic art is to be attained, it will not perhaps be amiss if we give an extract from David Copperfield, in which Charles Dickens, who was one of the most able Reporters that ever sat in the gallery, enters fully into the subject. In all probability he had his own experience in his eye when he wrote it.

4. "The first subject on which I had to consult Traddles was this; I had heard that many men distinguished in various pursuits had begun life by reporting the debates in Parliament. Traddles having mentioned newspapers to me as one of his hopes, I had put the two together, and told Traddles in my letter, that I wished to know how I could qualify myself in this pursuit. Traddles now informed me, as the result of his inquiries, that the mechanical acquisition necessary (except in rare cases) for thorough excellence in it, that is to say, a perfect and entire command of the mystery of shorthand writing and reading, was about equal in difficulty to the mastery of six languages, and that perhaps it might be attained by dint of perseverance in the course of a few years. Traddles reasonably supposed that this would settle the business; but I, only feeling that here indeed were a few tall trees to be hewn down, immediately resolved to work my way on to Dora through this thicket. axe in hand. 'I am much obliged to you my dear Trad lies,' said I, 'I'll begin to-morrow."

5. "Traddles looked astonished as he well might, but he had no notion as yet of my rapturous condition.

6. "Til buy a book,' said 1. 'with a good scheme of this art in it. I'll work at it at the [Doctors] Commons where I haven't half enough to do. Ill take down the speeches of our court for practice. Traddles my dear fellow I'll master it.

7. "I did not allow my resolution with respect to parliamentary debates to cool : it was one of the irons I began to boat immediately, and one of the irons I kept hot, and hammered at with a perseverance I may honestly admire. I bought an improved scheme of the noble art and mystery of stenography, ( which cost me ten and sixpence,) and plunged into a sea of perplexity that brought me in a few weeks to the confines of distraction. The changes that were rung upon dots, which in such a position meant such a thing, and in such another position something else entirely different; the wonderful vagaries that were played by circles, the unaccountable consequences that resulted from marks like flies' legs, the tremendous effects of a curve in the wrong place, not only troubled my waking hours, but reappeared before me in my sleep.

8. "When I had groped my way blindly through these difficulties, and had mastered the alphabet, which was an Egyptian Temple itself, there then appeared a procession of new horrors called arbitrary characters, the most despotic of characters I have ever known, who insisted, for instance, a thing like the beginning of a cobweb meant expectation, and a pen and ink sky-rocket stood for advantageous. When I had fixed these wretches in my mind, I found that they had driven everything else out of it: then beginning again, I forgot them ; while I was picking them up I dropped the other fragments of the system: in fact it was almost heartbreaking.

9. "It might have been quite heartbreaking but for Dora, who was the stay and anchor of my tempest-driven bark. Each seratch in the scheme was a gnarled oak in the forest of difficulty, and I went on cutting them down, one after another, with such vigor, that in three or four months I was in a condition to make an experiment on one of our crack speakers in the [Doctors'] Commons. Shall I ever forget how the crack speaker walked off from me before I began, and left my imbecile pencil staggering about the paper as if it were in a fit ?

10. " This would not do, it was quite clear. I was flying too high, and should never get on so. I resorted to Traddles for advice, who suggested he should dictate speeches to me at a pace and with occasional stoppages, adapted to my weakness. Very grateful for this friendly aid, I accepted the proposal, and, night after night, almost every night for a long time, we had a sort of private parliament in Buckingham street, after I came home from the Doctors'.