The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-10 00:00:00

-4,

LITERATURE.

OFFICIAL DESCRIPTIVE and ILLUS-
TRATED CATALOGUE of the GREAT
EXIIII3ITION. 3 Vols. Spicer and Cloves.
No nobler monument could be contrived for the
perpetuation of the glories of the Great Industrial
Exhibition than the one here presented to us in the
form of this, magnificent publication—the three
volumes compiled as the official catalogue of the
contents of the Crystal Palace, embellished through-
out with a profusion of illustrations, and issued from
the establishment of Messrs. Clowes and Son, the
printers, and of Messrs. Spicer Brothers, the stationers
appointed for the production of these remarkable
works by the authority of the Royal Commission.
It will be remembered by the public at large that the
guides to the Exhibition, already proffered for the
acceptance of the community, have been as diversified
in character as most of them have been excellent in
arrangement. Yet, meritorious as the majority
were, they are now, each and all of them, re-
duced to utter insignificance by the appearance
of the present extraordinary compilation. Every
department in the Crystal Palace has been viewed
separately and consecutively—the arms of the various
powers and principalities being engraved at each com-
mencement. Every separate contribution, moreover,
has been scrupulously particularised—the principal
products of art and industry in the collection being
pourtrayed by the pencil of the illustrator. Is there
an article of furniture in any way distinguished from
the mass of similar fabrications ? it is delineated..)
there a specimen of mechanism evidencing in any
nay en unusual amount of ingenuity ? it is de-
picted sectionally as well as in its general aspect from
the exterior. Is there a stained window, or a carved
buffet, or a costly jewel, or an exquisite statue, or a
bronze casting, or a fountain, or a musical instrument,
or a woven fabric, or an artificial flower, or a wax
modelled marionette,or any other eccentric or beautiful
contrivance in any one of the divisions of any one of
the departments ? it is carefully represented by a
woodcut, such as will convey to distant times some
notion of the progress made by the children of this
generation in the advancement of industry, as a
means of forwarding the holy and sublime cause of
civilization. Every gentleman in the United King-
dom possessing a library of ordinary dimensions, as
well as every public institution throughout these islands,
will, we doubt not, retain a copy of a work like this for
preservation, as the least perishable, end at the same
time as the most suggestive memento of the wonderful
display in Hyde-park, the splendour and variety of
which collected together from all parts of the world
representatives of all the different races of Christen-
dom. No picture of the Crystal Palace itself
can possiby present to the eye so vivid and
actual a semblance of the original as that
which is here given piecemeal. The general aspect
of the naves and of the transept, from within and
from without, under the influence, now of the sun-
shine and now again of the moonlight, on the occasion
of the inauguration by her Most Gracious Majesty,
and of its close by his Royal Highness the Prince
Consort, the illustrious originator of the enterprise,
may afford to the imagination some idea of the skill
displayed by Sir Joseph Paxton, in the design, and
by Sir Charles Fox, in the construction of the Crystal
Palace—but, at the same moment, cannot but fail
altogether in suggesting to remote times any ade-
quate notion of the contents of the Crystal Palace,
or, in other words, literally of the Great Industrial
Exhibition. This, we maintain, can only be pro-
perly effected by means of some such illustrated
catalogue as the one here presented to the
public by the Messrs. Clowes and Spicer,
the joint firms entrusted with the carrying out, in this
important particular, of the intentions of the Royal
Commissioners. Nobly and admirably have the
houses we have here mentioned fulfilled themselves of
the responsibilities devolving upon them in this mat-
ter, by their series of guides and other useful produc-
tions relating to the memorable year of the Exposition.
But conspicuous as had been the merit displayed by
them in these respects during the period when the
Crystal Palace remained open to the general inspec-
tion, they have been immeasurably surpassed by the
remarkable record subsequently published by them, in
which the peculiarities of that unprecedented revela-
tion of artistic and industrial ingenuity has been mi-
nutely, and in every instance most correctly, accumu-
lated. It is understood very generally that the official
publishers of these catalogues of the Exhibition
have not hitherto reaped the reward which was
anticipated, and to which they are unquestionably
entitled—a prevalent indifference as to the possession
of a catalogue marking the visitors to the Crystal
Palace. That such should be the case during the
time when that fairylike structure was "on view"
cannot, we conceive, be matter for much amaze-
ment, when the bewildering riches of the collection
are borne in popular remembrance. Now, however,
that the Palace of the Exhibition is closed, we are
satisfied that the demand for some such substantial
mementos of the World's Wonder, as are furnished
by these same descriptive and illustrated catalogues,
will begin to be manifested, insomuch that the
Messrs. Spicer Brothers, the stationers, and the
Messrs. Clowes and Son, the printers, will have no
cause whatever to complain of not having partici-
pated in the advantages derived by so many from the
commercial activity created by the great year
of the Exhibition. Let any dispassionate
person turn over the pages of the wonderful
three volumes now lying on our desk, and we are
confident that he will admit very speedily that this
one work alone would be a sufficient source of exulta-
tion to those who are disposed to rejoice in the pro-
gress made by the present age in the momentous
race of civilization. Everything combines to assure
us, on turning over these pages of letter-press, pro-
fusely interspersed with explanatory embellishments,
that it was not without some reason that the family
of mankind have during the course more particularly
of the present century congratulated themselves on
having obtained an altitude of enlightenment but little
anticipated by the most far-seeing of our fore-
fathers. Nevertheless, it must be confessed, simul-
taneously that if " much has been done, yet more
remains to do," in penetrating further and further
still into the various departments of human
knowledge. In science, more particularly,
wondrous as our recent advances have been, philoso-
phic research has even now only passed as it were the
outer vestibule. Humility, moreover, is necessarily
forced upon the artistic world by the remembrance
that, exquisite as its modern creations have been, they
have centuries and centuries ago been equalled, and
in many instances immeasurably surpassed, by the
sculptors and the architects of a distant past, when
mankind were for the most part plunged in the dark-
ness of a barbarous heathendom. Witness this those
divine fragments of the Elgin marbles which the poet
Shelley very truthfully and happily termed " the
despair of modern art," or the ruined beauties of the
incomparable Parthenon : witness this the crumbling
walls of the Colosseum, or the matchless figure of the
Apollo Belvidere. If we have cause, therefore, for
exultation in one respect while meditating on the con-
tents of the Crystal Palace, we have in another reason
only for humility and self-depreciation. Therefore is
it that, as a wholesome lesson to mankind in general,
we rejoice in the splendid fact of this Industrial Ex-
hibition ; and seeing that the volumes under consi-
deration are calculated to repeat that same lesson to
many successive generations, we view with infinite
satisfaction the appearance of this masterly Descrip-
tive and Illustrated Catalogue.

MILITARY MEMOIR OF LIEUTENAIVT-
COLON EL JAMES SKINNER, C. B. By
J. Baillie Fraser, Es. q , 1851.
This is, on many grounds, a very remarkable work,
and likely to encounter a
ingular diversity of opi•
nion as to its merits, according to the view which the
reader may take of the great variety of topics intro-
duced, though of its character as a book, we feel sure
there can be but one opinion, viz.,
werethatit but f
itisnootronthlye
readable but highly interesting,
following reasons. Purporting to give the few well-
ascertained and but partially known acts of the mili-
tary life of a man who, though hain g actedismodestly
aocsotnly-
spicuous part in a most eventful period,
placed on the second rank of its heroes,
eitntgs,ivneostaorniclyh
and abundant narrative of stirring
in his own career, but in that ofansut7trbteinr
gof\Nbirthoththeer
officers, rivals, and even
description of scenes, which might opponents.
d presenting to us
et first hardly seem
to conduce to the end sought, an
men whose efforts are directed to thesuppeoaroth
noft other,
native princes of India, in their wars with
or with invaders, not excluding the British power, it
ultimately powerfully awakens interest in the British
reader,: by the display of those memorable events
which first created, and finally so firmly
our influence in the East. Last, though
not
tstablished
least, for
those whom it most concerns, viz., the public
author, the style and execution of the " Memoir'
the
under our eyes are such as to secure to theai
latter
every possible commendation from the fo
only know one class of men who might objectrer. We
to the
fulness and peculiar interest of the scenes recorded
in it—we mean the advocates of universal peace, and
we question if even they might not find in it abun-
dance of argument in favour of their theory, and on
that score deem it worthy of a perusal. But we have to
deal smith the book, and with that alone. Commencing
with a description of the state of affairs in India,
previous to the introduction of our power in that vast
region, 1760, opening with the battle of Paneeput,
with the defeat of the Mahrattas, and its dreadful
consequences, proceeding with a fair end impartial
vi3w of the acts of men, who, seeking their fortunes
in the East, bad risen to a power which it was only
given to this country ultimately to secure, it brings
us to that portion of Indian history in which circum-
stances forced the hero of the present tale, and many
other British adventurers, to break their connexion
with the native princes, and join the service of their
country. From that time to the close of
these records, we need hardly say, that although sad
things occaalenally incur (the 0911rie of warfare eau