It must not be supposed from the tenor of these remarks that we are opposed to the publication of a properly conducted and creditably executed illustrated paper. "On the contrary, quite the reverse." We are passionately fond of art ourselves, and we believe that nothing can have a stronger tendency to refinement in society than presenting to the public chaste and elaborate engravings, copies of works of high artistic merit, accompanied by graphic and well written essays. It was for the purpose of introducing a paper containing these features to our appreciative community that we have made these introductory remarks, and for the purpose of challenging comparison, and defying competition, that we have criticized so severely the imbecile and ephemeral productions mentioned above. At a vast expenditure of money, time and labor, and after the most incredible and unheard of exertion on our part, individually, we are at length able to present to the public an illustrated publication of unprecedented merit, containing engravings of exceeding costliness and rare beauty of design, got up on an expensive scale which never has been attempted before in this or any other country. We furnish our readers this week with the first number, merely premising that the immense expense attending its issue will require a corresponding liberality of patronage on the part of the Public, to cause it to be continued. _PHOENIX'S PICTORIAL_ _And Second Story Front Room Companion_ [Illustration] ----------------------------------------- Vol. 1.] San Diego, Oct. 1, 1853. [No. 1. ----------------------------------------- [Illustration: Portrait of His Royal Highness Prince Albert.--Prince Albert, the son of a gentleman named Coburg, is the husband of Queen Victoria of England, and the father of many of her children. He is the inventor of the celebrated "Albert hat," which has been lately introduced with great effect in the U. S. Army. The Prince is of German extraction, his father being a Dutchman and his mother a Duchess.] [Illustration: Mansion of John Phoenix, Esq., San Diego, California.] [Illustration: House in which Shakespeare was born, in Stratford-on-Avon.] [Illustration: Abbottsford, the residence of Sir Walter Scott, author of Byron's "Pilgrim's Progress," etc.] [Illustration: The Capitol at Washington.] [Illustration: Residence of Governor Bigler, at Benicia, California.] [Illustration: Battle of Lake Erie (_see remarks_, p. 96).]