The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

to the ceaseless energy, enterprise, and vigilance of

the proprietors.
The only question is, whether improvement has
not gone too far, whether successive additions have
not made the book more bulky, and therefore more
expensive, than the great mass of traders require.
These additions do, no doubt, add very materially to
the completeness of the work and facilitate reference,
yet perhaps a smaller book might answer the purposes
of general traders nearly as well.
Watkins's Directory, however, does not, as we think
it might have done, proceed on a different plan. It
takes Kelly's huge volume, which sets compet►tion at
defiance, as its model, and attempts to produce a
directory substantially the same, but cheaper. For
the price it is a wonderful production, but this must
not blind us to its inferiority. We notice errors in it
which hardly came under the class of inexcusable
errors. For example, there is a row of four houses
known as Park prospect, Westminster, overlooking
St. James's-park, and with the entrance in Little
Queen-street, but not forming part of that street..
Turning to Kelly's Directory, we find in the " Streets,"
under its proper heading, the name of " Park-pros-
pect," with a d►rection, " Great Queen-street, part of
Little Queen-street"; and, turning to the latter, we
find that, between the numbers thirteen and nine-
teen of that street, the intervening numbers being
blank, Park-prospect is correctly placed and the
names of the residents given. But in Watkins's
Directory no reference whatever is made to Park-
prospect. In Little Queen-street, the space between
thirteen and nineteen is left wholly blank, nor do we
anywhere find the names of the residents inserted.
Obviously, general inaccuracy can only be inferred
from particular instances. The houses in this case
are good ones and of old date, the residents are in
the rank of professional life, and the omission argues
carelessness, not in details, which would be pardon-
able, but in what may be called the skeleton of the
work. It is disagreeable to point out errors in an
undertaking on which great care must have been be-
stowed, but in this instance, which we can hardly
suppose stands alone, the agent employed must have
been in fault.
In one respect, the plan of Watkins seems inferior
to that of Kelly. In the latter, the suburbs to a cer-
tain range are comprehended as part of the metro-
polis—in the former they make a distinct part of the
book. Thus, if we refer to the name of Abbot, the
eminent brewers at Bow, we find it in every division
of Kelly among the commercial names, the brewers,
&c.; but in Watkins it appears in the suburbs only,
though the firm is to all intents and purposes a me-
tropolitan one.
As this new Directory is recommended by its cheap-
ness alone, it is worth consideration whether the ob-
ject could not have been more completely attained by
greater compression and a simpler plan. Generally,
the names are given three times over, and are often
repeated more frequently. For most trading pur-
poses, a directory of ranks, officials, professions, and
trades, the names, of course, placed alphabetically,
with a directory of streets, which might be arranged
in dist►icts, would be sufficient for all general pur-
poses. Such information, with other details most
commonly required, might be given in a volume less
than one half the size of these huge tomes, which,
in all but large establishments, are felt to be unne-
cessarily cumbersome and expensive. For such a
work there appears room, but we doubt whether the
reduction in the price of Watkins's Directory is suffi-
cient to create any considerable number of new buyers,
or allow it to successfully compete with its more
costly but more complete rival.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

BOOKS.

Mirth and Metre. Routledge.
On the Choice and Cookery of Fish. Longman and Co.
The Peasant-Boy Philosopher. H. Mayhew. Rogue.
The Golden Legend. H. W. Longfellow. Ditto.
The Keepsake. Miss Power. Ditto.
The Court Album. Ditto.
Poems. W. S. Sanders. Longman and Co.
Tamerton Church Tower. Poems. By G. Patmore.
J. W. Parker and Son.
The Church and her Destiny. J. Biden. Aylott and Co.
Lyric Notes of the Russian War. Bell.
Text Book of Geology. D. Page, F.G.S.
Blackwood and Sons.
Maydays at Lynmere. C. F. Mackenzie, M.A. Hatehard.
Esperanza. Anne Bowman. Routledge.
Ancient and Modern Fish Tank. Rev. C. Badham.
J. W. Parker and Son.
Grant and Griffiths.
Knight and Co.
Waterlow.

Faggots for the Fireside.
British Almanac.
Boudoir Almanac.
PAMPHLETS
The Weekly Reporter. Wildey and Scns.
The True Functions of Workmen in Art. 3. Ruskin.
Smith and Elder.
Seeley!.
Stanford.

Sermon. Rev. J. Scott.
Map of Sevastopol.

IT is REPORTED that Cardinal Wiseman, as the
most learned member of the Sacred College since the
death of Cardinal Mai, will most probably succeed to
the office of Vatican Librarian, if such should be
found compatible with his occupations elsewhere.