The announcement recently made in _The Athenæum_ of the intention of the Government to print in a neat and inexpensive form, a series of Calendars or Indices of the valuable historical documents in the State Paper Office, cannot but be very gratifying to all students of our national history--in the first place, as showing an intention of opening those documents to the use of historical inquirers, on a plan very different from that hitherto pursued; and, in the next, it is to be hoped, as indicating that the intention formerly announced of placing the State Paper Office under the same regulation as the _Record Offices_, with the drawback of fees for searches, is not to be persevered in. To the citizens of London, to its occasional visitants, as well as to the absent friends and relatives of those who dwell within its walls, Mr. Archer's projected work, entitled _Vestiges of Old London, a series of finished Etchings from original Drawings, with Descriptions, Historical Associations and other References_, will be an object of especial interest. The artistical portion will, we believe, be mainly founded on the collection of drawings in the possession of William Twopeny, Esq., while the literary illustrations will be derived entirely from original sources, and from the results of careful observation and inquiry. It is said to have been a rule with Charles Fox to have every work bound in one volume if possible, although published in two or three. The public have long felt the convenience of such an arrangement; and the great booksellers have very wisely gratified their wishes in that respect. The handsome "monotome" edition of _The Doctor_ is doubtless well known to our readers. The success of that experiment has, we presume, induced Messrs. Longman to announce the _Complete Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith_, and _Mr. Macaulay's Critical Essays_, in the same cheap and convenient form. We believe, too, that another (the sixth) edition of that gentleman's _History of England from the Accession of James II._, is on the eve of publication.