CURRENT LITERATURE.
Longman's Gazetteer of the World. (Longman.)—This magni- ficent volume of nearly two thousand quarto pages must have cost a fortune and almost endless labour to produce ; and so far as we are able to test it, the work has been thoroughly well done. There is scarcely a place in the world, more especially within the British Empire or the United States, which cannot be found in it, with its locality distinctly marked, its population given, and whenever it is of any importance a concise account of its climate, buildings, or claims to distinction. These accounts are often marvels of condensa'ion—e.g., the account of Sutherlandshire, in which we have tried in vain to add or omit an indispensable line. The only defect of the book, in fact, is its completeness, which has induced the editor to include names that will never be looked for, and to make information as to some important places,—e.g., Port Arthur, too concise. He has however, we fear, mistaken the public de- mand, which is not for a Gazetteer of this immense range, but for one in, say, six octavo volumes, with fewer entries and more com- plete accounts of every place recorded. We doubt if publishers know how eagerly a Cyclopredia of Geography of this kind is desired. The only book in English which approaches it is "Blackie's Imperial Gazetteer," and the mass of information contained in that has become antiquated.
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