159 
REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
The Economy of a Coal-field ; an Exposition of the Objects of the Geological 
and Polytechnic Society of the West-Hiding of Yorkshire, and of the best Means 
of attaining them. By Jas. F. W. Johnston, M.A., F.R.SS.L.& E., F.G.S., &c. 
&c. &c. Durham: Andrews. 1838. 8vo. pp. 78. 
Excellently and faithfully does this lecture—delivered at the Wakefield 
Society in May last—perform the promise held out in the title-page. It contains 
a mass of facts and opinions interesting to every individual pursuing that line of 
study which leads us to contemplate Nature in the bowels of the earth. The 
counsel and information conveyed in its pages—though necessarily of peculiar 
value to the geologists of the West-Riding—would prove of no slight advantage 
to other youthful Institutions having a similar object in view. Such being the 
case, we cannot marvel at the desire expressed by the Wakefield Society, that the 
lecture should be printed; but the importance of the subject induces us to inquire 
why it has not b sen published? We conclude the pamphlet may at least be had 
at Wakefield, but elsewhere it can have but few or no purchasers. Those who 
are connected with the public press have good reason to be fully acquainted with 
the difficulty of obtaining an obnoxious work, even when it is published in 
London or Edinburgh; and in the case of country-published books, of course the 
metropolitan trade cannot be expected even to be aware of their existence, when 
ordered by their country correspondents. We have thought it right to mention 
these circumstances, for the benefit of those who may in future wish to address 
the public through the medium of the press. It can never be amiss, even in the 
case of a purely local pamphlet, to place the name of a metropolitan publisher 
on the title-page, and it will generally be found that several copies will thereby 
be disposed of. Even in the present instance, the name of a London or Edinburgh 
wholesale bookseller might easily be added without printing a fresh title-page. 
The rules of the Society which gave birth to Mr. Johnston’s pamphlet will be 
found in our Vol. III., p. 145. 
Seven Weeks in Belgium , Switzerland , Lombardy , Piedmont , Savoy, fyc. fyc. 
By John Roby, Esq., M.R.S.L., author of Traditions of Lancashire , &c. &c 
With a Map, and numerous Wood-cuts from the Author’s Sketches. In 2 vols. 
8vo. pp. 420 & 424. London : Longman and Co. 1838. 
This work will be interesting to our botanical readers, on account of the 
localities of the plants of most of the places visited by our author being 
