The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-01 00:00:00

indeed, have been one of almost bewildering
activity, the Director has ever found at his right
hand, in Mr, Henry Nelson, a not unworthy aide
or catneriere. Upon the close of a season of such
unutinal brilliancy, we may, therefore, with especial
reason, as we do, offer Mr. Gye our very heartiest
congratulations.

LATEST INTELLIGMICE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

AMERICA.
ARRIVAL OF THE PERUVIAN.
(Via Greencastle,)

NEW YORK, JULY 22, Evening.

Mr C. C. Cl 'y and Mr J. P. Holcomb, semi•
official representatives of the Solt lern Government,
communicated to Mr Horace Greely that they were
willing to proceed to Washington for the discussion
of peace propositions, although not accredited by
the Confederate Government for that purpose.
President Lincoln replied, through Mr Greely,
that the Federal Government would receive and
meet on liberal terms any proposition embracing
the restoration of peace, the integrity of the Union,
and the abandonment of slavery coming from the
authority controlling the rebel army.
Messrs Clay and Holcomb emphatically declined
visiting Washington, Mr Lincoln's answer pre-
cluding negotiations by prescribing conditions of
peace. If peace could only be secured by submission
to terms of conquest,,the generation was yet unborn
that would witness the restoration of peace.
It is reported that Sherman has occupied Atlanta.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

NEW YORK, JULY 22 (Evening).

Money tight. Gold, 252. Exchange on London,
272. New York Centrals, 132. Illinois, 123 i.
Erie, 1099. 5.20 Bonds, 103 i.

NEW YORK, JULY 23 (Morning).

A battle has been fought before Atlanta, in which
the Confederates were driven into their fortifica-
tions with a loss of 600 killed and 4,000 wounded
and prisoners.
Sherman has cut all Hood's lines of retreat, with
the exception of that by way of Macon.
General Johnston has been superseded by Hood.
The Etna and Germania, sailing today for
Europe, take out 290,000 dols.
Gold, 254.
NEW YORK, JULY 23 (Evening).

The reports of the capture of Atlanta are reite.
rated,but no official confirmation has been received.
Semi-official accounts of the battle before Atlanta,
which was fought on the 21st inst., state that
Sherman defeated Flood, who fell back to his forti.
fications, leaving his killed and wounded on the
field. Sherman took 4,000 prisoners, The Federal
loss amounted to 1,500.

A Confederate force, estimated at 5,000 men, is
said to have recrossed the Potomac, 15 miles above
Harper's Ferry.
It is rumoured that a conspiracy has been dis-
covered extending throughout the Mississippi Val-
ley to form a separate Confederacy in the North
West. Several prominent secessionists at Saint
Louis, who were implicated, have been arrested.
Money easier. Gold, 2541. Stocks steady. New
York Centrals, 1321. Illinois, 124 k. Erie, IC9i,
5.20 Bonds, 104 i.
Cotton quiet. Middling Upland, 161 to 162.
Wheat declining. Petroleum—crude, 50 to 51;
refined, 82c.

PROPOSED BASES OP PEACE.
VIENNA, AUG. 1.
The following are stated to be the bases of the

proposed peaco :

Lanenbarg, Schleswig, and Holsteinyvt.)bo
ceded to the two great German Powers.
" The Island of Arro to remain with Danmark;
Alsen, however, and the islands in the North Sea to
go with Schleswig.
" On account of the Danish enclaves in Schleswig,
a rectification of the Jutland frontier will take
place."

FRANCE.

PARIS, AUG. L

Some German newspapers have announced that
the Emperor and Empress were about to make a
tour in Alsace and Lorraine. This statement is
denied in official quarters.
BOURSE, July 30.—The market was duller than
usual, but the business done extremely limited,
Threes, for the Account, are now at 66f. sc. Mo-
bilit.r at 985 f. Rlilway Shares are firm. The
market closed as follows :

41 per Cents 94 30
Do. end month —
3 per Cents
Do. end month 66
Credit Mobilier 9BO
Do. end month 978 75
Bank Shares 3360
Credit I. oncier 1202 50
Roman

Italian Loan 6B 05
Do. end month 67 95
Ditto Threes ..
New Mexican .... 551
Russian
Austrian -
Spanish Threes 5Ol
Rome Debt .. 4Ba
Deferred . 4l

BAIL AYB.

Cash. Account.
Orleans ~... 872 50 .. 870 --
Worthena.... .. 977 60 .. 977 50
Lyons and Mediterranean 897 50 .. 896 25
New ditto
Southern 637 50 .. 610
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lorrhard
North of Spain
Saragossa 523 75 .. 522 50
Ditto to Barcelona

PORTUGAL.

LISBON, JULY 31.

The Royal Mail Steampacket Company's ship
Magdalena, from Brazil, has arrived here, and will
leave this evening for Southampton, with 127 pas-
sengers, £7,545 in specie, 400 bags of coffee, 585
rolls of tobacco, 200 barrels of tapioca, 33 bales of
cotton, 161 serons of ipecacuanha, and 154 packages
of sundries, She passed the Oneida at sea on the
evening of the 213 t, and left Cape de Verde on the
23d July.

POETRY AND PROSE.—How much greater is our
nation in poetry than prose ! how much better, in
general, do the productions of its spirit show in the quali-
ties of genius than in the qualities of intelligence I One
may constantly remark this in the work of individuals ;
how much more striking, in general, does any Englishman
—of some vigour of mind, but by no means a poet—seem
in his verse than in his prose. No doubt his verso suffers
from the same defects which impair his prose, and he can-
not express himself with real success in it ; but how much
more powerful a personage does he appear in it, by dint of
feeling, and of originality and movement of ideas, than when
writing prose I With a Frenchman of like stamp, it is just the
reverse set him to write poetry, he is limited, artificial,
and impotent—set him to write prose, he is free, natural,
and effective. The power ot French literature is in its
prose-writers, the power of English literature is in its poets.
Nay, many of the celebrated French poets depend wholly
for their fame upon the qualities of intelligence which they
exhibit—qualities which are the distinctive support a
prose—many of the celebrated English prose-writers depend
wholly for their fame upon the qualities of genius and
imagination which they exhibit—qualities which are the
distinctive support of poetry. But, as T have said, the
qualities of genius era less transferable than the qualities
of intelligence; less can ba immediately learned and
appropriated from their product—they are less
direct and stringent intellectual agencies, though they may
be more beautiful and divine. Shakspore and the great
Elizabethan group were certainly more gifted writers than
Corneille and his group ; but what was the sequel to this
great literature of genius, as we may call it, stretching from
Marlow to Milton ? What did it lead up to in English
literature? To our provincial and second-rate literatnre
of the 18th century. What, cn the other hand, was,,the
sequel to the literature of the French " great century, to
this literature of intelligence, as by comparison with our
Elizabethan literature, we may call it, what did it lead up
to? To the r:enoh literature of the 18th century, one ot
the most powerful and pervasive .intellectual agencies that
have over existed, the greatest European force of the 18th
century.—MATTunw ARNOLD, in the " Cornlt Alga-
zino" fQr 4u,quiti