The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-22 00:00:00

TURKEY.

Sir W. PARKER was to proceed on the 12th to
Constantinople in the Odin. The English squadron
was in the Dardanelles, and the French squadron in
Vourla Bay.

THE POST-OFFICE LONDON
DIRECTORY FOR 1850.
The Post-office London Directory has now been
in existence upwards of half a century. From small
beginnings it has gone on year by year improving
until this, the fifty-first annual impression, which is
incontestably superior to its predecessors, and which
may be considered as near an approach to perfection
as it is perhaps possible to attain in a work of this
description. The Post- office London Directory for 1850
extends to 2,091 pages, and consists of no less than
twelve separate directories, under the heads of the
Official, the Street, the Commercial, the Trades, the
Law, the Court, the Parliamentary, the Postal, the
City, the Conveyance, the Banking, and the As-
surance Directories.
The Official Directory at once indicates the posi-
tion of every public employe.
The Street Directory furnishes the names of the
residents in each street or place; this being the only
work that has ever even attempted to include in one
general list the nobility and gentry as well as the
merchants, professional men, traders, and tradesmen of
the metropolis and its immediate environs.
The Commercial Directory has all these latter in
complete alphabetical order, while the nobility and
gentry will be found in similar arrangement in the
Court Directory.
The Trades Directory exhibits all the members of
each of the two thousand trades classified distinctly—
the sub-divisions of each being suitably distinguished.
The Law Directory is devoted to the classifica-
tion of the members of the profession, together with
the general legal matters appropriate to a work of
this character; while the Parliamentary Directory
furnishes all requisite information as to Peers and
Members of Parliament, and as to their town resi-
dences and country seats.
The Postal Directory gives full instruction on the
subject of money orders, and of the transmission of
letters and newspapers to all parts of the world.
The Conveyance Directory is devoted to the
important subject which its title indicates, as are the
Banking and Assurance Directories.
The proprietors of this, the most useful and most
accurate Mirror of the Metropolis of the World that
has ever been presented to the public, are well justified
in making it their boast that—
"Such a mass of facts of this particular description
was never presented to the public until in the pages
of the Post-office London Directory; and unceasing
efforts have been devoted to secure, not merely a
large amount of information, but such an arrangement,
condensation, and classification, that any desired part
of this large volume may
_be referred to without
difficulty."
As a proof of the desire of the proprietors to
keep this work always au niveau des connaissancea
actuelles, and as an instance of the manner in which
they have redeemed their pledge to the public, to
furnish on every occasion the latest and most accu-
rate information, we may remark that the names of
the present Earl of Albemarle, of the present Lord
Alvanley (who has not succeeded to the peerage above
a week), and of the new Member for Cork, Colonel
Chatterton, who was not elected until the 15th of
November instant, are given in their proper places in
the Post-office London Directory. Not only is the in-
formation contained in this work most ample and most
accurate, but it is arranged in such an admirably
clear and succinct manner, that a reference can at
once be made with the greatest facility to any por-
tion which may be desired. It is not going too far
to say that this is far and away the best book
of the sort ever presented to the public. As might
have been expected, the great and most deserved suc-
cess of the Post office London Directory has induced
several persons to attempt to vend spurious imitations
of it ; and, in order to guard the public against fraud,
we give them the following extract from the preface,
in which the proprietors allude to these attempts at
imposition :
" The great success which has attended these
efforts bas induced the belief that it is only necessary
to announce a book to contain several Directoriea,'
and taking the titles of some of the sub-divisions of
this work, as Street Directory," Parliamentary
Directory,' Banking Directory," Official Directory,'
&c. &c. &c., in order to ensure a sale ; and in conse-
quence, a year now seldom passes without some
experiment of the kind. There has been no instance
of any one of these ephemerals surviving the year of
its production, or, indeed, of being, in the ordinary
sense of the word, published, or even announced in
the newspapers. The circulation is always as secret
as possible, BEd limited to those who have been
induced to order' the book, and who, on scrutinizing,
after having paid for it, are disappointed that it is not
the one they had expected.
" These abortive experiments do no injury to the
Post office London Directory ; probably, indeed, to
the small extent to which they offer a contrast, the
opposite effect is produced. Still it may be well for
the public that the facts should be known."
Ins the case of such a volume, produced but once
a year, mere cost must always be quite secondary to
fulness of information and accuracy of arrangement;
still, it may not be entirely irrelevant to direct
attention to the fact that, taking its bulk only, and
without reference to the general typographical and
other arrangements, it is by far the cheapest book
which issues from the English press.

RUDIMENTARY DICTIONARY of TERMS
used in Architecture, Civil, Architecture, Naval,
Building and Construction, Early and Ecclesiastical
Art, Engineering, Civil, Engineering, Mechanical,
Fine Art, Mining, Surveying, 6-c. By John
Weale.
This is a most useful book of reference; the expla.
nations are clear and lucid, and the dictionary
contains, we believe, every term used in construe•
Live art.