The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-11 00:00:00

A NOBLE ATLAS.

The Family Atlas. Constructed by eminent Geo-
graphers, under the superintendence of the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
Containing Eighty Maps. Stanford.
In the present age of general discovery and in-
vestigation, the possession of atlases and books of
reference becomes an almost universal necessity,
and the peculiar accuracy and fidelity of
those works are more than ever matters of
very essential importance. "A little learning" is,
proverbially, "a dangerous thing," and insufficient
or perhaps erroneous information is an evil of very
serious consequence. Several new Atlases, and
new editions of old Atlases, have recently been
published to meet the growing necessities of the
times. Amongst them one of the very best has been
issued by Mr. Stanford, being the Useful Know-
ledge Society's Family Atlas, corrected to the latest
date. This very excelleetand valuable publication
contains no less than 80 maps, beautifully en-
graved, with a very admirable geological map of
England, by Sir Roderick I. Murchison, F.R.S.
(whose name is given, by a curious ellipse on the
title-page, as simply Sir I. Murchison), and six
celestial maps, or star maps, representing the
two solstices, the two equinoxes, and the two poles,
these six maps having been designed for the Useful
Knowledge Society by Sir John Lubbock, Bart.
the maps of Paris and London are corrected almost
to the present day, while the old map of France,
divided into provinces, is also given--a map, this last,
so useful for reference to the student of history and
even to the reader of romance. The map of Italy
represents that country as an United Kingdom, but
it defines also the ancient landmarks. The track of
the Peninsula and Oriental steamers to Calcutta and
Hong Kong is very carefully traced out. The
map of India is excellent, the railway routes being
all clearly marked down, whether already completed
or only as yet projected. Ancient Palestine is the
subject of one very interesting plate, while another
delineates the Palestine of to-day, to which is added
a plan of Jerusalem. All the new French settle-
ments at the mouth of the Camboja are fully given,
and another map comprises the British Provinces
beyond the Ganges, Arracan, Pegu, Penang, and
Tenaeserim. In addition to this we have a distinct
map of the Malay archipelago, and a very useful
series of plans of all the chief islands and groups in
the Indian Ocean. Among these are the Nicobar
and Andaman Islands, which latter will be regarded
with peculiar attention by all who have perused Dr.
Mouatt's very interesting revelations. There are also
the Mauritius and Bourbon, as well as a map of
Madagascar. A separate map of the Japanese islands
deserves particular notice : in it the ports already
opened to our merchants are all clearly marked, as
well as those which are to be opened later on. The
recent discoveries in Africa, again, are most elabo.
rately and carefully defined. A new map of the
Empire of Morocco, with a plan of the city of
Morocco, are welcome additions at the present mo.
men% The map of North America represents the
States as still United States. British Columbia and
Vancouver's Island, with the rival boundary lines of
San Juan, are fully given, as is also a very admirable
chart of all the Polynesian groups. The track of
Burke's expedition across Australia will be fol
towed with interest; it is minutely defined. In fact,
it is impossible to praise too highly the great care
and the extraordinary elaboration of detail visible
throughout the entire Atlas. Nothing could
by possibility, as it appears to us, be more
distinct and yet more delicate in the man •
ner of its manipulation than the touch of the
graver as everywhere* applied to these eighty
beautiful engravings. The minute lettering is
wonderfully clear, although occasionally approach-
ing in the more crowded pages, to the microscopic.
Tne refined hair-like lines of the rivers, with those,
yet more refined still, of their numerous tributary
streams, it would be hardly possible to excel in
their combination of precision with unobtrusiveness.
Not a map in the volume before us is in any por-
tion of it confused or jumbled in the smallest par-
ticular. And the merit of this transparency, so to
-peak, of the web- work of outlines—sprinkled over
plentifully with the explanatory lettering of the
names of places, continents, countries, provinces,
water courses, mountain ranges, isthmuses, promon-
tories, cities, towns, et cetera—we ought here par-
ticularly to add, is enhanced in its effect by the
exquisite and, so far as our knowledge of other
atlases, enables us to judge, the very unusual soft-
ness of the colouring. As in a skilfully mixed
salad, with its suspicion of shalot, its hint of such
another ingredient, its faint idea of this or that
highly-appetizing flavour—each map here is, one
might really observe, touched into chromatic beauty
by a notion, let us say, not of red but of pink, by a
dim suggestion not of saffron, but of a most deli-
cate tinge of primrose, or by a vague conjecture,
so to speak, not of blue, but of the very faintest lilac
tincture. The greenish hue, but doubtfully dis-
cernible at the deepest as a hue, along the various
imperceptibly into the whiteness
ocofastthleines,
excellentpales off
paper (almost cardboard) upon
which all these maps are printed. As to the scale
upon which each map has been drawn, it
is adhered to, in each instance, with mathematical
precision in all the proportions of distances de
pendent upon it. Not an instance has yet fallen
under our notice throughout the whole atlas in
which there is any indication of blurring or indis-
tinctness. The engraver, the printer, and the colour-
-Ist, each in succession, has acquitted himself admi-
rably well in carrying out the scheme of the various
eminent geographers whose energies have been de-
voted, with such uniform and harmonious ability, to
the fabrication of an Atlas worthy of appearing,
as this does avowedly, not only with the Useful
Knowledge Society's approval and sanction, but
under its direct and immediate superintendence.
Amongst all the eighty maps in the volume, the
geological map, Sir Roderick Murchison's map, is
the most gorgeous in its colouring, as if to mark
out the more unmistakeably the broad distinctive
tines of demarcation between the various geological
formations. Among all the eighty maps comprised
within the substantial covers of this noble Atlas,
moreover, the one solitary folding map is the very
last of all, namely, the one giving within it a com-
prehensive plan of our own gigantic metropolis. To
add to the convenience of the work as a book of
reference, it is cut and lettered on the margin
like an office book, do that any map can be found
at a moment's notice without our having to turn over
the whole world in search of it. The cheapness of
price for which, among other things, the volume is
so very remarkable, places this valuable Atlas
within reacts of the many. It is calculated to form
a most useful addition to every home and school
library.

THE WEATHER AT SHIELDS. Wednesday Night.
—The weather in the counties of Durham and North-
umberland has been extremely fine today, warm and
sunny, with a brisk breeze from the west. The farmers
in these counties have been actively engaged in leading
home their corn crops from the fields, or in reaping that
which was left standing at the time that the recent
rains came on. The night is bright and starlight, with
every prospect of settled weather, On Monday most per-
sons connected with agriculture were almost desponding of
the corn crops being ingathered in a sound state, The de-
lightful change in the weather, however, if it continues, of
which there is every hope that it will, will afford the far-
mers who are sharp enough to embrace it a fair opportunity
of stacking their crcps in a tolerably good state.
The Court of Assizes of the Haute-Loire has just
tried a young man, named Sappet, on a charge et
wilfully wounding his wife's father, M. Mandelly, an
upholsterer, residing at Le Puy, by discharging a
pistol at
him. It was stated in Court that the prisoner, a man of
jealous and suspicious temper, married Mlle. Mandelly on
the Bth April last, and though himself a jeweller by trade, it
was arranged that he should become a partner in his father-
in. law's business. and live in the same house. The marriage
proved a most unhappy cne, and constant quarrels took
place between the young couple. During one of these
scenes M. Mandelly happened to enter the room, and the
prisoner discharged a pistol at him, inflicting a slight
wound on the cheek. The prisoner instantly afterwards
discharged another pistol at himself; but the ball merely
grazed his ribs without doing much injury. The prisoner
did not deny that he had fired the shot which struck DI
Nlandelly, but declared Le had no murderous intention, and
was at the time so excited that he knew not what he was
doing, He had loaded the pistols with. the intention of
committing suicide. His father-in-law had never inter-
fered between him and his wife, and he had no animosity
against him.
The jury, taking a favourable viewof the
case, brought in a verdict. of not guilty, and the Court or-
dered the prisoner's immediate discharge,