The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-11 00:00:00

.. 2,567,907 17
.. 12,980,750 14
.. 9,125,000
4,000,000 -

.. 7,549,418 25
.. 4,487,879 14
.. 3,169,030 7:

.. 59,890,500 55
.. 128,209 880 75
.. 26,068,307
856,901 75
.. 2,805,449 03
.. 15,991,531 07
.. 1,554,317 16
.. 1,016,709 23
.. 12,126,266 07

1,222,292,254 06

The Post-office London Directory for 1864.

What this gigantic book will come to in the end
it is more than ever difficult to conjecture. It has
now some time since passed its grand climacteric.
Yet, as though it were still the most promising
young stripling of a publication in the world, it is
actually—in the sixty-fifth year of its age—growing
rapidly and quite appreciably. So appreciably that
we can state at once the precise amount of its
growth since the date of its last annual appear-
ance. The Directory, then, for 1864 is larger,
in other words, than the Directory for 1863
by very nearly 100 pages. To be as precisely, in-
deed, as the Directory itself is in its every minute
particular—the huge tome has expanded within this
one year last past by exactly 96 pages. Improve-
ments in the way of arranging their stupendous
mass of materials, the Messrs. Kelly and Com-
pany absolutely had not within their reach. And
for the simple reason that any better arrangement
than the one upon which the work has been
constructed now for a long while, we don't think
it is within any reasonable man's power to sug-
gest. The Fourteen Grand divisions of this mar-
vellous collection of names and addresses—giving
to us, in fact, just so many separate clues
•through our labyrinthine world of three millions
of Londoners—the old fourteen divisions are
here still presented to us in their accustomed
sequence. There is the Official division—the Street
—the Commercial—the Trades—the Law—the
Court—the Parliamentary—the Postal—the City
—the Conveyance—the Banking—the Assurance.
The last mentioned trailing off into a marvellous
collection of companion, but miscellaneous, adver-
tisements. Evidences there are—wherever we open
the monstrous volume, haphazard—of the scrupulous
attention paid by the firm, to whose unflagging
energy and assiduity in its compilation, we are
indebted for it—evidences there are, wherever we
may chance to open it, quite haphazard, of the
minute, almost, as one may say, microscopic
attention paid to every entry contained in it. How
carefully the work is brought down in its scrupu-
lous regard to the latest and minutest correction
before publication, may at once be indicated
by our specifying a few illustrative par-
ticulars in this way. For example, the name
of Mr. Bonamy Dobree—whose death was
announced in our columns as recently as
the 26th ultimo, is eliminated 'from the Official
Directory, p. 47—from the list of the Directors of
the Bank of England, p. 83—from the list of the

City Lieutenancy, p. 2281. The new Solicitor-
General, again, Sir Robert P. Collier, gazetted
only November 27th, appears as such throughout
the book, in Streets, pp. 325 and 710; Commercial,
p. 925 ; Law, pp. 1986.2008 and 2012, Court, 2154.
Parliamentary, p. 2253 and 2262. Sir Gellery
Pigott, Baron of the Court of Exchequer, gazetted
Dec. 4, appears in Law, pp. 1985-1989 ; Court, p.
2185. The new French Ambassador, Prince de la
Tour d'Auvergne, who was presented at Court on
the 2d Dec.. will be found entered in the list of
Foreign Ministers, p. 111, and Court, 2110; and,
to give one other instance, the new member for
Andover, W. H. Humphery, Esq., gazetted only
on the 24th of November, is inserted in Court,
p. 2147, and Parliamentary, p. 2256 and 2261.

For scope, accuracy, and lucidity, the "Post-office
London Directory," us compiled by the Messrs.
Kelly and Co., still continues to be what it has long
vindicated its right to be regarded as, namely.
in one simple but sufficient word—unrivalled.

The work has swept out of view all other
competitors. And although it has by so doing
attained a sort of monopoly as the guide-book
through the metropolis of the British Empire, it
hoe evaded the evil fate of most monopolies—by
not degenerating into indifference by reason of the
mere fact of its being free from farther wholesome
incentives in the way of competition. It is, in effect,
as energetically conducted year after year as
though it were appearing year after year sur-

rounded by a throng of formidable rivals and corn.
petitors. And it is precisely for this reason, of

course, precisely because it evidences a no less ecru.

pulous care than ever, that it is enabled still to set at

defiance all serious thought of competition. It is
worthy of its title—this wonderful index of we
don't know how many hundreds of thousands of

names and addresses, called " The Post-office Lon-
don Directory." It appears, as usual, authorita-
tively, under the Direct and Special Patronage
of her Majesty's Postmaster-General, and it is
the simple truth to say here that it is not only de•
serving, but that it is more than ever deserving,
of that patronage. It is as complete as com-
plete can be. in this marvellously ever-
changing human kaleidoscope—the three mil-
lion particles in which are perpetually fluc-
tuating in their position relatively to each other.
Accompanying the substantial volume—not ab-
surdly folded in it as a frontispiece, fated either to
be torn or to be treated as inaccessible—there comes

to us with The Post-office Directory a noble Post-
office Map of London, mounted upon calico on a
roller, and glazed, ready for display, during the
ensuing twelvemonth, upon the office-walls of the
metropolis. It is an admirably exact and compre-
hensive Map, and one, consequently, which is well
fitted to accompany so wonderfully exact and com-
prehensive a Directory!

SidOKING AT %IIY DSOR CASTLE.—Several weeks
ago a paragraph went the rounds of the papers,
announcing the prohibition of smoking at Windsor Castle,
when it was particularly stated that a notice to that effect
had been posted in the dressing room of the Prince of
Wales in the York Tower. We are now enabled to state
that his Royal Highness did not occupy that suite of apart-
ments in the York Tower on his arrival from Sandringham.
His Royal Highness was lodged in Edward 111.'8 tower,
whole no such notice was placed.