To the Editor of the S1r,—The model settlement, and according to' some people, the first' city in the East, is as yot without a Local Directory, and notwithstanding that there are several presses there does not seem to be energy enough in any of them to effec the compilation of an annual publication of a reliable nature. Shanghai, with all its extent and importance, can boast of nothing more ambitiousthan the Desk Hong List, with which persons unacquainted with the place have to satisfy themselves if in search of any residence, store, or information in the locality they are in for the time being Bombay and Calcutta, presumably me ferior cities to this, have long since found local directories " subject for the fullest consideration, as may be seen from the attention which is paid to them, and the extent of the information to be found in them. There is ample matter here to fill a good-sized volume if any one will only take the trouble to commence it; but with the usual apathy existing in the settlement it is to be feared that some time will elapse before any thing of the kind may be expected.
Such a work ought to contain, after brief sketch of Shanghai and its environs, a local calendar, calculated to this meridian, giving rising and setting of the sun, mon's age, phases, and changes eclipses, and other phenomena; Foreign
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.