The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 5, 1863.

STANFORD'S MAP OF NORTH AMERICA.

Constructed by Alexander Keith Johnston,
Published by E. Stanford, 6, Charing-cross.
Another of his magnificient series of library
Maps—the most apropos of them all—has, in this
superb publication, just now been issued from
Mr. Stanford's E,tablishment. It is the fourth in
sequence from the time when the series was com-
menced. In its dimensions it is precisely of the
same size as its three predecessors—namely, that
of sixty-five inches by fifty-eight. It is particularly
noticeable, however, that while the superficial
dimensions of these huge maps are identically the
same, the scale upon which the four have been con-
structed within that framework of 65 inches by 58,
has necessarily been very different. Whereas the
scale of Mr. Stanford's Library Map of Europe was
one of 50 miles to the inch, that of Australia of
64 miles to the inch, and that of Asia of 110 miles to
the inch—this new and, at the present moment
peculiarly acceptable Map of NORTH AMERICA is
constructed upon a scale of " eighty-three" miles to
the inch. A variation of scales attributable, of
course, to the relative geographical area of the four
vast tracts of land requiring to be pourtrayed
within the same rigidly prescribed outline of sixty-
five inches by fifty-eight. As with regard to the
three preceding Library Maps, I. Europe, 11.
Australia, 111. Asia, so also with reference to this
IV. North America, the Library Map so announced
may be procured, according to the fancy of the
purchaser, for three guineas and a half, for three
pounds, and for six pounds sterling, that is, mounted
to fold in morocco case, mounted on roller varnished,
and mounted on roller with patent spring. One of
enablingthe
volume upon our library
map to be ranged with its
t fellows,he s these fo rams sanother
noble
bookshelves. The other forms adapting it, according
to preference, either to occasional or to permanent
display, upon the walls, whether of library, office,
or schoolroom. To say of this immense and
highly elaborated map of North America
that it is the noblest map of that vast con-
tinent that has ever yet been produced,
is to say of it, according to our belief (and recollec-
tion), the simplest truth. When to the announce.
ment of the scale upon which it has been
constructed, moreover, is added the intimation that
the hand, so constructing it, upon that scale, is no
other than the same master-hand by which the
earlier maps of the series have been produced,
the statement made in our last sentence might be
regarded by many, and not unreasonably, as some-
what superfluous. The Editor of " The Physical
Atlas" has taken his place permanently in the front
rank, and at about the very head of that front rank
of the most skilled and gifted among our modern
geographers. And remembering that—knowing
that perfectly well, as we do—our confidence in
the accuracy and beauty of any new geographical
work of more than ordinary importance and mag-
nitude, such, for example, as this very Map of
North America, coming to us from the hand of
Mr. Johnston, is attributable not alone to our
recollection of what he has already done in this
way It is attributable yet more to our sense of
the fact that he has already done so much and so
well that he applies himself now to the production
of any fresh work of this kind, of more than usual
magnificence, with a perfect consciousness on his
own part that he has a reputation to sustain. The
Editor of the "Physical Atlas"—that superb illus-
trative companion to the Cosmos of Humboldt,
the Geography of Maltebrun, and the Siluria of
Murchison—as a mere matter of course, cannot be
expected by any, even the minutest proportion, to
advance or elevate the reputation acquired for
himself by that magnum opus—which must always
be regarded as his undoubted masterpiece, for he
ecaen hardly be
vieeseeeessity7itpected to u
would
be
astbripss it.
nagquite
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prae.
ticable for him to surpass it by any one isolated
alai), even by a map upon the magnificent scale
and noble dimensions of the library series of which
this very map now under consideration is the latest
instalment. The utmost we could rationally hope
for, would be, what is certainly here recognisable
upon a careful scrutiny of Stanford's New Library
Map of North America—namely, that by this one
isolated performance Mr. Keith Johnston still
does veritably contrive to sustain his reputa-
tion ! That reputation acquired for himself
steadily and progressively during the last score
of years by so many chartographic works
of real and even exceptional excellence, but most of
all, as already intimated, by what is incomparably,
and must always remain, his greatest work—" The
Physical Atlas." Never, by possibility, could any
map of North America appear at a time at which it
would be likely to prove more welcome. This crisis
of the great civil war now raging between the Fede-
rals and the Confederates—constituting of itself for
such a publication what we might almost call a
wonderful " puff preliminary," blown through the
war trumpet. There are other questions,
moreover, besides that of the momentous alter-
native now being fought out upon the soil of
the once United States, the alternative of re-
Union or of permanent Severance—questions con-
tie ually directing the attention of thoughtful ob-
servers in Europe, to a more and more careful
scrutiny of some reliable map of North America.
Several among the more remarkable of these same
difficult and complicated questions relating to
North America, the prospectus issued with this
Library Map has thus happily summarised :7
" What to do about telegraphic communication via
Retiring Strait versus Greenland ; or the Hudson
Bay territory—or Federation and. Confederation—
or Abolition of Slavery—or Overland Transit be-
tween Canada and Vancouver—or Mexican diffi-
culties—or the various projects for rivalling the
Panama Railroad—wherever the mind is directed
on this great continent, some great movement is
found to be claiming attention." And it is in the
midst of the everyday discussion of these all-im-
portant subjects of international solicitude that
Mr. Stanford's Library Map of North America now
makes its admirably well-timed appearance. A
map of North America upon so large a scale had
latterly, moreover, become nothing less than a ne-
cessity. It was a want quite as much as it will (now
that that want is supplied) be found to be a luxury.
No General Map of North America upon a very
large scale was anywhere to be turned to, except one
so old as almost, one might say, to be obsolete. As
it has been here produced at length, with Mr.
Stanford as the publisher and Mr. Johnston as the
geographer, it will be all the more clearly recognised,
the more carefully it is studied, as a work of the
very highest class—a map for which every
student of modern history will be grateful, more
denominationparticularly s uacsh
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