OKFK'IAFj DESCRIPTIVE AND ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE.

logue of’ Ills demands and aspirings, their position, number,and supply in the annus Mirabilis'bl. The initial year ofthe second half of the nineteenth century sees the com-pletion of the first 4 census’ of commerce, art, and industry ;tlte first marked epoch, 'whence hereafter shall date thehistory of pursuits as yet without chart, chronology,record, or the means of comparison and estimate. Suchare some of the many thoughts suggested by a sight ofthe uninviting and multifarious catalogue of the objectsassembled beneath the crystal bow in Hyde Park, lint, ;above all, and superseding other ideas, arises wonder at^the vast labour of revision, the unsparing severity ofexcerption, the kind yet cruel pruning redundancies thatniust have been herein exercised, ere the crude and un-digested mass of material furnished by the various exhi-bitors could he reduced to the concise form in which wehere possess it.

“To omit mention of the diligence, enterprise andexecutive ability here shown by the contractors, Messrs.Spicer Brothers, and Clowes and Son, would be morethan an oversight, it would be n positive injustice.

“As a whole, the ‘ Ollicial Catalogue/ like the greatvitreous palace which stores the invaluable treasures, de-serves study as one of the monuments of the nationalindustry in the year which gives it to the world.”

Examiner.

“Here in three handsome volumes we have the Inhi-bition itself upon paper minus the pleasure of the sight,nnd plus a great deal of information. What the eyeloses, pictures, abounding in these volumes, do a gooddeal to supply; and what the understanding gains is theconcentrated aid of about forty of the best attainableSnides (writers employed for the purpose), who tell thestory of the building thoroughly, and take us through it,giving interesting information about everything that it

contains.

“These three volumes, in short, are of a size somewhatcommensurate with their subject, ami of a quality thatdoes not. throw discredit on their size. Tlcy are alsomost liberally indexed. There is a directory of namesconnected with the undertaking, as exhibitors or other-wise, which occupies about ninety closely-printed three-columned pages. 'There is an index of all the articlesexhibited; and really it is quite an amusement to lookdown this index merely, and note the strange variety ofarticles, contained in the grand omnium gatherum whichc< ^. u< r * nt0 opposition under the laws of alphabeticalmlinity^ For example, here is a succession of tilings —

, .pww, mm mmv, iu loweiung.

“ The volumes of Messrs. Spicer and Clowes will ofcourse he necessary furniture in every large library ; andbeing anything but an uninteresting catalogue, being truly11 real living, talking record of the Exhibition, and talkingmoreover in a very pertinent and interesting manner, it

will be a pleasant book for any man to have upon hissheh— J

“ We need say no more to recommend this catalogue as^ work most worthy of its object; a work that will re-main for ever as the record of the famous undertaking.

do not know with what pecuniary results the 4 officialcontractors’ may have brought their labours to a close;but it is certain that they have perfectly kept taith withlbe public, and that among those who have largely con-tributed in various ways to the completeness of our in-dustrial triumph they have established a strong claim tobe remembered.”

Morning Herald,

“ Among the many wonders which the Crystal Palace contained, the Catalogue itself, from the extensive arrange-ments attendant upon its compilation, and the giganticencyclopedical size to which it necessarily swelled out, isnot the least. We have now before us three goodly sizedvolumes, containing about 2/HiO pages of engravings andletter-press, the result of the literary industry 'of many

months, and the fruits of the skill and intelligence of awhole army editors, commentators, and correspondents,whose services were called into requisition for their pro-duction. We know of no department of literary labourwhich is at once so onerous, so uninviting and so thank-less as the compilation of catalogues; and yet there arcmany points of interest to the public involved in the com-plicated and extensive arrangements connected with thecollection and arraugment, from so many thousand con-tributors and so many countries, of the varied and valuablemass of information contained in these volumes. It maybe stated, in the first place, that the work is without aparallel ora precedent in the annals of our literature, andthe design and means of execution being novel, renderedthe publication a task of extraordinary, and, we may add,unforeseen difficulty.

“ Every branch of science, art, and industry is herefully and efficiently represented. The most striking andremarkable features, and the whole scope and significanceof the Exhibition, are here embodied, divested of all thepromptings of partiality and all the infirmities of judg-ment. The literary department lias been presided overby men fully conversant with the various processes in ourmanufactures, aud the character and uses of the immensevariety of objects collected in the building in llydc Park;and the work will thus have an enduring interest in themass of valuable information of almost every descriptionwhich it contains, inasmuch as original information ofgreat interest and novelty has been obtained from foreigncountries which have taken a prominent part in the Exhi-bition.

“ In addition to these difficulties, which have been sur-mounted to an incredible degree, it must be observed thatthe Catalogue embodies to a large extent, the science ofcommerce. The changing and inaccurate conventionalterms of trade are here, in many instances, converted intothe precise and enduring language of science; and wehave no doubt that, this improvement will not he withoutits fruit in flic promotion of the objects of industry ; be-cause hitherto obstacles have been experienced by com-mercial men in their endeavours to introduce into tradeany new materials of industrial importance.

“ Of the manner in which the wood engravings, amount-ing to upwards of 1,200, have been executed it is im-possible to speak too highly. 'They have all the delicacyand finish in many instances of steel; ami from manymonths' personal observation, we can boar testimony tothe accuracy with which forms the most complicated andelaborate have been transferred to paper. Unlike a cata-logue, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, it aboundsin sources of amusement, and instruction for every classand every taste, the vast collection of the Exhibition herefinding its literary type, and furnishing matter for enter-tainment and reflection, as well to the iaslionable reader,the student, the man of science, as to the hard-humlcdsons of labour, by whose energies and industry the vastpile and its contents have been brought together. Thatthe respectable contractors, Messrs. Spicer and Clowes,have amply fulfilled all the stipulated, requirements andconditions of the agreement cannot, we think, be ques-tioned. Indeed, we have reason to think that they havefelt something of the dignity aud importance of the occa-sion, and have acted with a spirit and liberality beyond,perhaps, what the pecuniary results would justify. * Oneof the great obstacles to the progress of the work, as wellas one of the chief causes of the great additional expenseincurred, was the incessant necessity for the alterations ofdescriptions ami places, and insertions of fresh material.In its preparation, however, an amount of literary labourlias been expended which communicates to it a value en-dui big beyond that of the occasion of its production. Thevast and wonderful accumulation of the productions ofhuman industry, of which it is the type and the exponent,was collected only for a time. Its intention accomplishedand its objects achieved, the industrial store is being againrapidly scattered among the nations of the earth. TheIllustrated Catalogue, the record of the history and ob-jects of the Great Exhibition , will form an" enduringmemorial, which lew of those who have rambled throughthe vast collection and can afford the means will willingly