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

BY AUTHORITY OF THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS.

Complete in Three Handsome Volumes, price Three Guineas.
0 PFICIAL DESCRIPTIVE. AND ILLUS-
TRATE') CATALOGUE of the GREAT EXHIBITION of
the WORKS of INDUSTRY of ALL NATIONS, 1851.
" A complete literary type of the original to which It refers,
opening up sources of amusement or instruction to every class of
taste, and proving equally at home on the drawing-room table.
Inn:fled by fashionable dilettanti in the study, pored over by the
scholar or the man of science, at the merchant's desk as a book of
constant reference —in the factory, t' tie foundry, and the workshop,
as a repertoiro fer designs, and as highly suggestive for future pro-
gress. A more pleasant work to dive into during an idle hour can
hardly he imagined, for wherever it is. taken up there is something
new and striking, and worthy of att ention."—Times.
" The work is without a preceder it in the annals of literature ;
and when we regard tae circumstan rep of difficulty that surrounded
the task of its execution, the praise bestowed on those who under-
took it can searce'y be too great. Tee Contractors, in that enlarged
spirit which appears to have entercid into all that belongs to the
Exhibition, engaged meu of reputation and authority in every
department of science and- manufac tore to contribute such descrip-
tive notes as should render the work: eminently instructive. It thus
contains a body of annotations which express the condition of
human knowledge, and the state of th e world's Indust y in 1851 ; and
Is a document of the utmost importance, as a summary report of this
vast international " stock-taking," wihieh no great library—nor • any
gentleman's library; of those who aim at the collection of literary
standards—can hereafter:be without. It is hot a work of a day, a
month, or a year ; it is for all time. ' Centuries hence it will he re-
ferred to as authority, on the conditie•n to which man had arrived at
the period of its publication. It Is at once a great Trades Directory,
informing us where we are to seek ferr any particular kind of manu-
facture—a Natural 'HiStory, recording the localities of almost
every variety of native production--and a Cyclopredia, describing
how far science has ministered to the necessities of humanity, by
what efforts the Crude products of The earth have been converted
into articles of utility or made the medium of that refined expression
which belongs to the province of creative art. The Exhibition has

lived its allotted time, and died ; but this Catalogue is the snin of the
thoughts and truths' to which it has given birth—and which form
the intellectual ground whereon the generations that we are not
to see must build. . . . . . It will be evident from what has been
already stated that a more important contribution to a commercial
country than the Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of
the Great Exhibition' could scarcely have been offered.. . . All
possible means have been taken to render it worthy of the wonder-
ful gathering of which it is the permanent record,"—Athenxutn. 44*
This Work is also published in Five Parts : Parts 1 and 2, price
10s. each, and Parts 3,4, and 5, price 15e, each.

BROTELERS, Wno.u.skLE STATIONERS.
• WM. CLOWES ,A,XD SONg, PAINTERS:—
Official Catalogue Office, 29, ' New Bridge-street, Blackfriars,
and of all Booksellers.