And these are subdivided and cla.s.sified with care and industry into heads of easy reference, so that each particular subject is preserved distinct and entire. The dimensions of the sheet, which folds into sixteen large quarto-sized pages, containing forty-eight columns, afford this cla.s.sification facilities which few other publications possess.
NEWS.
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES reported on a scale of magnitude far exceeding other weekly Journals.
PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, a digest of all Parliamentary doc.u.ments of obvious reference and popular utility.
FOREIGN NEWS, the current events in foreign countries, arranged in the form of historical narrative, collated carefully from contemporary authorities, and distributed under the heads of the different countries and colonies to which they belong.
BRITISH NEWS, a clear epitome of all domestic occurrences, under the various heads of Public Meetings, Trade, Agriculture, Accidents and Offences, Police, Proceedings of the Courts of Law and Sessions, Court and Fashionable News, Church and University Intelligence, Military and Naval Affairs copiously given, the Money Market, and the miscellaneous news of the week up to midnight on Sat.u.r.day. The Local News of Ireland and Scotland, under separate heads. In the conduct of this department of the ATLAS recourse is had to many exclusive sources of information, and correspondents have been established who furnish expressly the latest intelligence. The Gazettes and Tables of Markets, and all matters interesting to the Commercial World, are especially attended to.
Preserving an independence in its editorial capacity, the ATLAS affords a faithful reflection of the opinions and proceedings of all political parties.
The attention that is observed in the purity of language and selection of subjects, down to the minutest paragraph in the ATLAS, recommends it especially to the use of families and the guardians of youth; and the copious details it affords of Military and Naval Affairs, invest it with valuable attractions for the members of these professions, and the residents in the Colonies.
LITERATURE.
The Contributions to this department are from the pens of Professors and Gentlemen of acknowledged reputation, and are cla.s.sified under the following heads:--
1.--ORIGINAL ESSAYS ON MEN AND THINGS, embodying a lively commentary on pa.s.sing events and men and manners.
2.--THEATRICAL CRITICISMS upon the written and acted Drama, in which both are reviewed in a spirit of truth and perfect candour.
3.--REVIEWS of all new works of ability, with numerous extracts.
Independent and free from all literary and personal prejudices, the opinions of the Reviewers in the ATLAS may be consulted with confidence in their integrity.
4.--LITERARY MEMORANDA, notes of all novelties in literature abroad and at home, and summary criticisms on all works of minor importance.
5.--MUSIC AND MUSICIANS, or scientific criticisms on vocal and instrumental performers, operas, and new music, on the Continent as well as in England, with occasional engraved ill.u.s.trations.
6.--FINE ARTS, Weekly notices of pictorial exhibitions, and critical descriptions of paintings, drawings, and engravings, with commentaries on all new works of art.
7.--SCIENTIFIC NOTICES, or descriptions of improvements in Mechanics and the experimental Sciences, ill.u.s.trated occasionally by diagrams, with an account of New Patents, Meteorological Tables, Proceedings of Literary and Scientific Inst.i.tutions, &c.
The Literary division of the ATLAS in the various branches has formed an era in the cla.s.s of publications in which it ranks; and exhibits a remarkable union of the essential features of the more elaborate Reviews, with the popular and practical objects of the General Newspaper.