The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-07 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
(Per the China, via Crookhaven.)

NEW YORK, FEB. 23 (Evening),

Two despatches to the Confederate War Depart-
ment, dated 18th inst., state that Sherman, with
from 25,000 to 30,000 men, had reached Quitman,
am the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, without opposi-
tion, but would not be allowed to capture Mobile
without a desperate battle. Sherman is tearing up
the railroad and bridges in his rear. He marched
150 miles in ten days.
The Confederates evacuated Meridian on the 15th
inst. General Forrest was at Oxford, confronting
6,000 Confederate cavalry.

A doubtful rumour has been telegraphed from
Alabama that Sherman had defeated Polk, near
Bandon, capturing 12,000 prisoners. Mobile de-
spatches to the 15th inst. announce that Admiral
Farragut's fleet had passed eastward through the
Sound, in the direction of Grant's Pass.
Despatches to th 3 191 h state that Admiral Far-
ragut had not renewed the attack on Grant's Pass,
the weather being too bad for action.

The Governor of Alabama issued a proclamation
on the 16th inst., stating that Mobile was about to
be attacked.

It is reported that guerilla General Morgan has
crossed the Tennessee River, also that the Con•
federates were blockading the river below Chat-
tanooga.

The National Executive Committee, of which
Senator Pomeroy is the chairman, have issued an
address nominating Mr. Chase for the Presidency.

It is rumoured that Mr. Chase will retire from
the Cabinet, and that Mr. Robert J. Walker will
replace him.

The Maryland Union State Convention has nomi-
nated Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency.
The Canadian steamer Bohemian was totally
wrecked on the night of
the 22d inst. on Alden's
Rock, six miles from Portland. She lies in four
fathoms of water. 19 of the crew and steerage
passengers were lost.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
NEW YORK, FEB. 23, Evening.
Money easy. Gold opened yesterday at 59k, sub-
sequently declining this afternoon under the Mobile
news to 57,-1. Exchange on London, 174 ; on Paris,
3.231. Stocks yesterday were buoyant at higher
prices. There was a
downward reaction of 2 to 3 per
cent. to-day, the market closing firmer. Large
speculative sales were made ; Now York Centrals,
1361; Illinois, 1331 ; Erie, 119; Six per Cent.
United States Bonds,lll. Cotton quiet ; middling
Upland, 80. Flour and wheat dull. Corn slightly
firmer. Provisions and coffee steady. Sugar good
inquiry; molasses very firm. Petroleum quiet;
crude, 301 ; refined, 48.

NEW YORK, FEB. 24, Morning.
Tae Richmond Enquirer of the 18th inst. states
that the War Department had received despatches
announcing that the Federals had been repulsed
with great loss at Grand Pass)
thirty-five miles from
Mobile. Official despatches had also been received
showing that the Federal demonstration at Queen-
'n" was an unimportant affair, their force not
numbering more than 1,000 men. The whole
affair was Probably a raid upon the trestle work of
the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

General Beauregard reports that news bad been
received at Charleston that the Federal advance in
Florida was repulsed at Lake City.

THE SHAESPERE PLAYING CALDS.—Mr. John
Leighton has designed a new cover for a pack of playing_
cards in the fashion of the hour. In the centre of the card
is a bust of Shakspere, and in the compartments of a rich
bonier are illustrations of the Seven Ages of 11Ian, as de,
scribed by the poet. As a mere artistic freak the effect is
pretty. Among the odds and ends of this Shakspere year,
many persons may like to preserve a pack of the ,S,Lakaporo

LITERATURE,

the Statesman's Year Book. For 18G4. By Fre-
der:ek Martin. One Vol., pp. 684. Macmillan

and Co.

Without one particle of hesitation, we at once
pronounce this volume to be the most comprehen-
sive Book of Information—revealing the World As
It Is—that has ever yet made its appearance.
Now that it is within our hands the marvel with
us is, how we could have remained contented with-
out it, or at any rate without something very like
it, something approximating to it in the variety
and accuracy of the facts and figures it has now col-
lected together for the first time. Once issued from
the .press, as it happily is now, and that, more-
over, in a sufficiently substantial, and (remem-
bering this to be the first publication of it) in a
really wonderfully complete form—once issued
from the press, as it is now, we cannot believe that
the annual publication of it can ever be lightly
abandoned. It at once assumes its place as a dis-
tinct necessity in the great world of politics, and as
a luxury as wel as a necessity to Statesmen and to
Journalists. The idea of the work appears to have
been suggested to the able and ingenious compiler
of it, by a casual remark uttered by the late Sir
Robert Peel—the great Sir Robert Peel—some 1-5
years ago. Precisely the very Book Sir Robert then
mentioned as one urgently required by all classes
of intelligent men-of-education in this country, but
more especially by the busy class of politicians, has
here in Ithis goodly tome of nearly 700 pages, at
last, after 15 years further waiting without it, been
published. A Book, it is, giving a complete and
perfectly reliable accoant of all the States of Europe,
without exception, as well as of all the principal
States of Asia, of the two Americas, and of Austral-
asia, considering each of them under its three most
remarkable aspects in the eyes of every man of the
world—namely, its aspects political, social, and com-
mercial. In doing this, the compiler has begun his
work of delineation, in every instance, wisely, from
a distinct point : that is to say, as he himself ex-
presses it in his Preface, " beginning at the apex
and ending at the base of the various forms of
constituted society." The apex, here, meaning
obviously, as the contents show indeed by their
arrangement—the reigning sovereigns, whenever
the form of government is in any way monarchical
—in point of fact, in every case, without exception,
under whatever name, style, or title the head of the
State may chance to be designated—Pontiff, Em-
peror, Sultan, Caliph, Czar, Kaisir, King, Queen,
Grand Duke, or President. The " base" referring
to the population, to the wealth, to the extent of
commerce, to the distribution of industry, and so
forth. Under their several heads, we have here, in
regard to each State, in due turn presented to us
sections or minor treatises upon the State's Constitu-
tion and Government, upon its Religion and;Educa-
don, upon its Army and Navy, upon its Trade and
Commerce, and, in the instance, respectively, of each
great European State, upon its Colonies. Opinions,
one way or another, for or against, will be found
to have been carefully, scrupulously, conscientiously
excluded from the work altogether. Facts alone
are given. Facts, that is to say, and figures.
klinute and elaborate accounts of all the
States and all the Sovereigns of the Civilised
World (for this present year of grace 1864)—ac-
counts statistical, genealogical, historical, political,
ethical, geographical, commercial! Altogether a
wonderful repertory of information ; and, informa-
tion—so far as we have yet been enabled to test it
—reliable in its accuracy to an extraordinary
degree. As to the marvellous character of the
information here brought together, or focussed, let
us take a single haphazard instance by way of illus-
tration. We will open the volume as nearly as
possible at the middle, Pages 326 and 327 there-
upon confront us. And upon the latter
we find epitomised the ecclesiastical admi-
nistration presided over in the Eternal City by
the Sovereign Pontiff. Assisting the Pontiff him-
self, the members of the College of Cardinals—Six
of them Cardinal Bishops, Fifty Cardinal Priests,
Fourteen Cardinal Deacons. Spiritually subject to
the Pontiff—Twelve Patriarchates —176 Arch-
bishoprics-791 Bishoprics ! And so forth—a won-
derful organisation ! In the compilation of the
work Mr. Frederick Martin appears to have
exercised extraordinary discretion. The masses of
details requiring to be here sifted and systematised,
some of them even carefully to be tabulated, must
have been enough, by reason of their very multi-
plicity and diversity, to bewilder any compiler.
The compiler in this instance, however, they have
in no way whatever bewildered. We cannot re-
member any inaugural issue of any elaborate guide-
book, designed to have thenceforth an annual edition
of it published, at once so full and so accurate in its
information as The Statesman's Year Book,
now issued for the first time for this current year of
grace 1864 by the Messrs. Macmillan, of London
and Cambridge. There are no signs whatever dis-
coverable anywhere is it, of anything whatever
crude, jejune, confused, or precipitate. The contents
have been put together manifestly with the utmost
possible deliberation. They have been accumulated
from the most authentic sources. They have been
selected with an eye in every instance to their intrin-
sic worth, and portioned out with a due regard
to their relative importance. Now, especially,
at this time, in the very thick of the Parliamentary
Session the volume comes to hand with an ap-
positeness rendering it as a book of ready and re-
liable reference thrice welcome. Those who em-
ploy it as such, namely, as a book of frequent
reference, will certainly not be long in arriving at
the conclusion that both the compiler and the
publishers of it ought to be ranked among the
number of our intellectual benefactors.