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 far the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
Containing Eighty Maps. Stanford.

In the present ago of general discovery and in-
vestigation, the possession of atlases and books of
reference becomes an almost universal necessity,
and the peculiar accurecy 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 leaf! 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
Tenasserim. 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-
ment. 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 every where 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
speak, 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
sand, 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
coastlines, pales off imperceptibly into the whiteness
of the excellent 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. Thq 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
lines 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, t 3 o 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 reach 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 be-n extremely fine to-day, 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 iugathered 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 aro sharp enough to embrace it a fair opportunity
of stacking their crops in a tolerably good state.
`!'he Court of Assizes of ,the Haute-Loire has just
tried a young man, named Sappet, on a charge of
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. Blandelly on
the Bth April last, and though himself a jeweller by trade, it
was arranged that ho should become a partner in his father-
in-law's business, anti live in the same house. The mart iage
proved a most unhappy one, 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 M
Mandelly, but declared he 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 view of the
case, brought in a verdict of not guilty, and the Court or-
dered the prisoner's immediate discharge,

Utt .o=•*S: zA4
lar

HER MAJESTY.

The Queen left the Rosenau on Monday night
at half-past 10 o'clock, with Prince Alfred, Princess
Helena, Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice.
The Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coxburg came over
to the Rosenau in the evening, and took leave of
the Queen.
A special train conveyed her Majesty, the Royal
family, and suite. At half-past 7 o'clock on Tues-
day morning, her Majesty arrived at a station
near Darmstadt, where Prince and Princess Louis
of Hesse were awaiting her Majesty's arrival•
Tne Queen and Royal family immediately entered
Prince and Princess Louis's carriage, and drove to
Kranichstein, a seat of the Grand Duke of Hesse,
now occupied by Prince and Princess Louis, where
the Royal family spent the day. Princess C. of
Hesse, with Princess Anna and Prince William,
and Prince Alexander of Hesse, and Princess Bat-
tenberg, visited the Queen during her stay. The
Queen drove through Darmstadt in the afternoon.
The Ladies and Gentlemen in Waiting went on
to Darmstadt.
At 10 o'clock in the evening the special train wee
again ready at fhe Darmstadt station, and the Queen
and Royal family continued their journey towards
Antwerp.
At half-past 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning
the King of the Belgians, with the Duchess of Bra-
bant, met the Queen at the station at Malines, and
having got into her Majesty's carriage, acconnia"
nied her Majesty to Antwerp, where the trait'
arrived at 20 minutes past 8 a.m.
The Queen breakfasted at the station, and having
taken leave of the King, embarked on board the
Royal yacht Victoria and Albert in the Scheldt•
After a fine passage the Royal yacht anchored in
Margate Roads at 7 p.m.
The Vivid and the Trinity-house yacht Irene an
companied the Royal yacht.
The Osberne and Black Eagle followed.
THURSDAY, Sept. 10.
At 6 a.m. this morning the Royal yacht weighed
anchor, and steamed up to Greenhithe, where the
Fairy was in waiting to convey the Queen and
Royal party to Woolwich.
Earl Granville returned with her Majesty in
the Royal yacht.
The Fairy arrived alongside Woolwich Arsenal
at half-past 11 o'clock, when the Queen and Royal
family disembarked, and immediately proceeded to
Windsor Castle, where they arrived at 10 tainuteo
after 1 o'clock.
The suite consisted of the Marchioness of Ell'
the Lady Augusta Bruce, Lieut. Gen. C. Orel'
Colonel Sir T. M. Biddulph, Major Cowell, Pr'
Joiner, and Mr. Buff.
The Princess Louise, attended by Lady Carolina
Barrington, the Hon. Horatia Stopford, and Colonel
Hon. A. Liddell, and Prince Arthur, attended by
Major Elphinstone, arrived at the Castle yesterday
afternoon.

The Queen will hold a Privy Council to-morrow
(Saturday) at Windsor Castle.

THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES AT A.l3°'
GELDlE.—During the past week his Royal We-
ness the Prince killed five stags, while her Royal lie'
ness the P:incess had her accustomed drives, fishing on 08
Dee, and sketching in the neighbourhood. On Friday the
royal party and suite drove by Ballater to Burn of Ira!'
commonly called Rob Roy's Cave. A few of the dercestif
servants about Abergcldie being sent away previous wit'
provisions, a fire was lighted, potatoes and other vegetables
cooked, and an excellent luncheon was partaken of by the
royal party beside the cavern. Afterwards her royal
ness was busily employed sketching Loch Kinnord,
Davon, and adjoining scenery. They returned throng
il
Ballater in the afternoon, where a number of the visitors
turned out to get a look of the royal couple when changing
horses.—BanSthi, e Journal.
The Grand Duke of Baden visited PIPLIsa
math on
audi
Wednesday, and, accompanied by the general corn ng
in that district, proceeded in the Princess Alice to insPeet
the breakwater. In the evening the grand duke left tot
Tor quay.

His Excellency Sir Andrew and the Hon. LAI
Buchanan have returned to Brown's Hotel from Scotland.

Don Jose de F. Gargoilo and Don Nicolas di
Ojesso have left Ea‘Vards's Royal Cambridge notel'
George-street, Hanover-square, for Faris, on their NOY t°
Madrid.

Yesterday, at St. George's Church, Lord Londesl
borough was married to Lady Editha Somerset, youDges
daughter of the late Duke of Beaufort.

Despatches were sent yesterday from the Colonitd
office to the Governors of Canada, Malta, Ceylon, 11°,,5a,
Kong, Labuan, and to the Lord High Commissioner of um"
Islands.
THE LATE LORD CLYDE.—We are glad to oe°
that a committee, including his Royal Highness the
of Cambridge, has been formed for the purpose of raisiPg -
memorial to the late Lord Clyde.
THE KING OF DAHOMEY, when visited by CO'
modore Wilmot, was reclining on a raised dais,
about three feet high, covered with crimson cloth, onolciebr
his pipe. One of his wives held a glass sugar-basin 1.42
him to spit in. He was dressed very plainly, the uPPef
,
part of his body being bare, with only a silver chain Mlci
ing some fetish charm round his neck, and an unpretendillp

cloth round his waist.
RIDICULOUS POPULARITY OF SPIRITUALISM 114
FRANCE 1-At the very time when M. Renan's iroPi°ll",
book is all the rage among our Gallican neighbours, 12-
fewer than 17 books on magetiam, spirit-rapping, illuireini
ism, and mesmerism are announced on the paper cover °e
the translation into French of M. Home's memoirs, so tt.r:
it is, says the Saturday Review, in noticing this fact, tP,''a
people are most gullible when they boast of being t''

greatest espritsforts.
• PORTLAND BREAKWATER !—On the summit Uf
the island, when the works were begun, it tae
roughly reckoned that 20,060,000 tons of rubbly dcbr is 'weft
outdwohw csnho themseu supports
inclines. lying useless. Out of this material, during the lost
years, the convicts have sent more than 6,000,00001
tOs to tons
several srlleS
aTr daya
li
lines
el
osonf
of
f irontrhaei waggons
aasnt d thus,
utimbers, have
t;
boo'
degrees, the whole of this stupendous mass has been
" tipped" into the sea. It now forms a bank, 100 feet big-
and 300 feet broad at the base, well nigh as indestructibl6/
by wind and weather as Portland itself.
II
the north of France, but the yield is not so abundant as v°l°
FRENCH HOPS.—Hop-picking has commenced
expected. Sales of this year's crop are effeoted at fronl
10,5 f to 110 f the 50 kilos. The stock of 1862 is .completeii
exhausted.
WONDERFUL CAVES OF ARTA IN MAJORCA'
;
These caves are situated in a chain of hills, covered
with pines, mixed with abundance of arbutus and wild
flowers. The mouth of the caves—formerly there were tWw
.°0
but, since they have been artificially united, there is no
ri
reality only one—overlooks the sea, and the approach to it
is by a path cut out of a precipitous mass of mountai!
liuiest ,ne, leading up to a flight of steps, at the top of wlricP.
is a majestic arch, measuring 140 ft. from the crown to °I:
base, which gives entrance to the cavern. The gull*"
having prepared his lamp of three branches, which gave,
very good but yet insufficient light, we entered, anu
of
passed on after him, from chamber to chamber, many
which were at different levels, but all connected by st°l3:t
steps or wooden staircases. It is impossible to give 9 jta
idea of the marvellous beauty of these lofty chambers. rr'"-
calcarous deposits are of gigantic magnitude and eyer;
varying shape. Sometimes they have the most gratesr
appearance ; but usually they present familiar forms. lr
the entratce I saw what looked like trunks of larg° 111,
trees, apparently decayed with age, and I struck there et
my stick, to be assured they were not wood. More Of;
monly the stalactites assume the form of date trees, 610;116
towards the middle, as the date palm often °lto
rough bark, and tall stems. At times, they niungii
roof and sides, like leaves and flowers delicately
out of alabaster, At other times, reaching from floor t 0 0-13"
they showed like the massive pillars of a Norman elluetc!.
or the clustered shafts of a later and more graceful of
°°f
tecture. Heavy pendants or bosses from the„,hreto
assisted the illusion of a Gothic cathedral. ,10.•
are many chambers, which have cash their .(10,,
tinctive character and name. In " the Ilall of the Virgitra,
there is a tall majestic figure standing on a high Pedee,, to
and when seen under peculiar light, holding what Bon,
be a child iu her arms. Thera is "the Baptistery, iv
i°
its capacious font ; and " the Hall of the Pulpit," There
only wants the figure of a priest to give it reality. ~ct
is "the Hall of the Organ," with its many parallel twr,
and contiguous pipes, which, when struck with a haultee
give out musical notes of almost metallic sweetness and v-t
ncl9ll
riety. There is " the Hall of the Banners," each pe „13
from its own staff; "the Hall of the Curtain," massive "Wo'vs,`
solid folds; and " the Hail of the Theatre," with its
of boxes, where the people of the neighbourhood sornet'.:d,
assemble for a ball or a pie-nic. But the variety
less. I had heard much of the wondrous extent and beau ,
of these halls, but half had not been told me,—,oed(l 5
f SMB in XaiQrCa I