The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-07 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

AINSWORTII'S UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER
PUBLISHED BY MAXWELL AND CO , 122, FLEET'

STREET.

A splendid volume of more than a thousand
double-columned pages has, within the last few
weeks, under the above title, made its very welcome
appearance. That it is illustrated by a variety of
woodcuts scattered in abundance through the letter.
press, is, to our mind, its least recommendation.
The enterprising publishers apparently think other-
wise, it is true—not merely, we say this, by reason
of the fact of this work being illustrated at all, bat
moze particularly because of that circumstance being
notified prominently upon the title-page. Never-
theless, to our thinking, that this Universal
Gezeteer is an "Illustrated Universal Gazetteer,"
appears to us a matter in itself of really trifling
consideration. In a scientific book of reference, it
would, of course, be quite otherwise. Diagrams
and other drawings of a kindred description in such
works being of the utmost possible utility—say, for
example, that it were in some volume relating to sub-
jects connected with geometry, mechanics, hydrosta-
tics, dynamic, or other departments of natural philo-
sophy. But in a Gazetteer the letter-press is hardly
in any way assisted by the introduction of little
vignette landscapes, in which a few trees in the
foreground, and a spire or two in the distance, are
the principal objects of interest. What, we cannot
but think, would have been infinitely preferable to
this lavish squandering about these pages of pretty
little sketches, like those of Buenos Ayres, of
Chateauroux, of Folkestone, and so forth, would
have been the introduction to the work before
us of a well 'selected series of maps—no
matter how restricted the number of those
maps might have been. Say Mercator's Chart; the
the two hemispheres; the Four Quarters of the
Globe, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America—with
the Irishman's fifth quarter, Sir Archibald Alison's
" fifth hemisphere" (vide" Continuation of the Hist.
of Eur.," 1., 9) in Australia and Oceania ! If to
these were added, each in turn, the principal civi-
lised countries, precisely as they are given in any
tolerable Family Atlas, well and good. And, still
better would it be, were it possible to have the

value of such a series of useful embellishments to

"The Universal Gazetteer" enhanced by an engraved
plan of the world's chief capitals, London, Paris,
Rome, Vienna, &c. ; charts of the principal seas,
such as the Mediterranean, the Caspian, the Baltic,
&c. ; together with comparative views of the lengths
of the principal rivers and of the heights of the
principal mountains. Suggestions, these are, which
have been originated purely by the fact of the pub-
lishers of this noble volume having, as it seems to
us, almost extravagantly, distributed through it,
engravings that are nothing less than superfluities
in the way of decoration. They serve no useful
purpose whatever, these abundant illustrations.
They explain nothing—they simply adorn. If
the " Universal Gazetteer" must needs be illustrated
at all, let the embellishments be marked by their
utility—let them compete with the letterpress by
affording the reader, who consults the work, a mass
of valuable information. Considerably of more in-
terest to us than the mere circumstance of its being
illustrated, however, is the really noteworthy fact
that the whole work has been compiled under
the editorial supervision of so accomplished a
geographer and so experienced a traveller
as Mr. William Francis Ainsworth, F.R.G.S.,
F.S.A., Corresponding Member of the Geo-
graphical Society of Paris, of the Oriental
Society cf Germany, of the German National Verein
of the Natural History Society of Moldavia, and we
don't know what all besides—but far better known,
than in all these respects, among literary
classes here in England as a very able contributor
during many consecutive years to the various

magazines edited by his gifted namesake,
William Harrison Ainsworth, the celebrated
Novelist and Historical Romance Writer. Another

peculiarity about the work, quite as remarkable at
a first glance as the one already particularised, and
one to a certain extent of a kindred character, as
evidencing the almost extravagant scale upon
which the getting•up of the volume was planned
originally by its open-handed projectors, we would
now at once direct attention to. Meaning by this,
the far larger scope, seemingly, at first allo wed to
the editor in the arrangement of his huge compila-
tion! What is thus referred to, may be, perhaps,
the most readily indicated by remarking that,
whereas the whole Universal Uazetteer is com-
prised in 1,040 quarto pages of doubled columned

letterpress, about half that number of pages in it
have been filled up before the alphabetical arrange-
ment of the contents has carried us to the end
of D ! .Dzoungaria, a region of Chinese Turk-
istan, appears upon the middle of page 509
E only then and there commencing with
Eagle, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire. Yet
within BE nearly as possible the same space that
was apparently found necessary for the adequate
record of places comprehended under the four first
letters of the alphabet—those requiring to be de-
fined under the remaining twenty-two are corn-
pressed together. It is as if the four leading sec-
tions of the alphabetical list had been stretched out
to the utmost possible extent upon a procrnstian
framework of gigantic proportions : A, B, C, and
D, including thereby under those respective initials
villages, rivulets, and places of comparatively minor
importance. While to the same identical length of
framework, the residue of the twenty-six letters,
have had to be restricted inexorably. By
reason of which modification of the original
scheme of the Gazetteer, very many places of
corresponding insignificance have had to be dropped
out of those t wenty-two twenty-sixths of the compi-
lation. We have here been particular in thus
specifying, distinctly, at the outset, the two only ex-
ceptions that could in reason be taken by any cap-
tious caviller, upon searching vigilantly through
this noble volume in quest of its salient merits and
demerits. One exception, it will be perceived, ap-
plies simply to what we have already in-
dicated as a mere lavish superfluity of (as it seems
to us) quite unnecessary illustrations. The other and
graver exception relating to a modification of the
original outline of the projectors of the work—a
modification that really and truly appears to us
little less than a conspicuous improvement. For—
supposing the original plan to have been persisted in,
the Gazetteer, instead of being (as it is) completed
in one volume, must inevitably have expanded and
multiplied into three or four, if it failed to reach a
good round half dozen. Upon a reissue of the
work, later on, we woald therefore suggest to the
Editors and Publishers, in the event of their ad-
venturing upon any kind of comprehensive revi-
sion of this work by way of improvement—
the substitution of a well-selected series of maps for
the present vignette embellishments now squander-
ing among the letterpress; not folding maps, but
whole page maps, or, in some instances, double.
page maps, giving,
we will suppose, the two hemi-
spheres in confronting leaves of the volume. That—
as the first possible enhancement of the value of the
I work as a book of reference. And as the second—
the elimination of the minor places mentioned in
the first half of the Gazetteer, actually reduc-
ing the bulk of the volume, and thereby
affording room for any really desirable additions
that might be deemed requisite. As it is, how-
ever, even now, we may, with reason, be thankful
for the mass of valuable and instantly accessible
information afforded
orded by Ainsworth's " Universal
Gazetteer," in reference to almost any place, of any
importance whatever, upon the surface of the habit-
able globe. Considering the immense variety of
statistics included in the mass of this motley infor-
mation, the book is a marvel of accuracy. As a
reliable work of reference, not only statistical and
geographical, but scientific, political, and otherwise,
tho volume merits for itself a place upon the library
table alike of merchant and man of letters, of states-
man, of magistrate, and of journalist, as well as
of any and every active member of the group
of the learned professions. Even in regard to
the mere material peculiarities of the publica-
tion under notice, its handsome and substan-
tial binding, its clear and excellent typography,
the book (bearing in mind, when we say this, that,
as a book of reference, it is certain to be continually