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

LITERATURE,

Vie Statesman's Year Book. For 1864. By Fro-
der:ck 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 wen 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 15
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 ythis 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 acco ant 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-
tion, upon its Army and Navy, upon its Trade and
Commerce, and, in the instance, resoectively,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.
'Minute 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 hero 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 teem 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 , any where in 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 b 3 ranked among the
number of our intellectual benefactors.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Dr._ Jacob. By the Author of ' John and I.' 3 vole.

_
Hurst and Brackett.
Lost Lenore. Edited by Captain Mayne Reid. 3 vole.

C. J. Skeet.
Sir Victor's Choice. By Annie Thomae. 3, vole, J.

. _ .
Maxwell and Co. -
Mr. and Mrs. Falconbridge. By Hamilton Aide. 2 vols.
Smith, Elder, and Co.
Beppo the Conscript. By T. Adolphus Trollope. 2 vols.
Chap:tan and Hall.
History of Frederick the Great. By Thomas Carlyle.
Vol. IV. Chmaman and Hall.
Incidents in My Life. By D. D. Home. Second Edition.
F. Pitman.
Curiosities of Savage Life. First and Second Series.

S. 0. Boeton. -
Legends of Iceland. Collected by Jo nArnason. R. Bentley.
A Basket of Fragments. By a Quondam Author. R.
Bentley.
Miss Corner's Histories for Children. 9 vols. Dean and

►Son.
C, Butler's Guides to Geography and Useful Knowledge.
2 vols. Dean and Son.
Western Wr+ods and Waters. By J. H. Abraball. Long-
man and Co.
ihe Battle of the Standards. By John Taylor. Longman
and Co.

THE NATIONAL SHAKSPERE COMMITTEE.—The
Duke of Manchester, the Right Hon. William Cowper,
M.P., Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P., Wm. Tite, Esq , M.P.,
Prof. Donaldson, President of the Royal Institute of Bri-
tish Architects, A. J. B. Berestord Hope, Esq., and Daniel
Maclise, Esq., R,A.—the seven gentlemen who were elected
a Shakspere Executive—have all accepted the function en-
trusted to them by the committee.

THE PRINCE OF WALES has consented to pre-
side at the anniversary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund,
to be held this year in St. James's Hall.

THE WOLLASTON MEDAL has been awarded by
the Geological Society to Sir It, I. Murchison, for his emi-
nent services to the science.

TIIE NE'W PRESIDENT OF TFIE GEOLOGICAL SO-
CIETY.—Prof. Ramsay has retired from the presidency of
the Geological Society, in which he has been succeeded by
Mr. J. W . Hamilton.

THE KING AND QUEEN OF PORTUGAL are shortly
expected to arrive in Paris.

Mr. J. E. B. MAYOR has been eleoted Librarian
;o the University of Cambridge.

THE WIFE OF GENERAI, TOM THUMB was de-
ivered of a on and heir on. the 22d of last month.

ANOTHER STEAMER FOR THE CONFEDERATE
STATES.—The fast paddle wheel steamer Dundalk,
the property of the North of Scotland Steam Shipping
Con,pany, has been bought by a Liverpool firm, and it is
understood that the purchase has been made for the Con-
federate Government.

The Berlin jouruals state that M. de Sydow, the
9th inst. for Norway, where his Majesty will open the ses-
sion of the Storthing in penon.

The Kiog of Sweden is to leave Stockholm on the
late Prussian Minister at the Frankfort Diet, is to go to
Madrid to replace Ceu4t de Galen, who has tendered his
resignation.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day,

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

CHARGE OF ROBBERY AT A PAWNBROKER'S,—Fanny
Nicholls and Margaret Levy, the former a married woman,
were charged before Mr. Tyrwhitt with stealing a moire
antique and several other dresses and other property, of
between £3O and £lO value, belonging to Mr. Philip Fry,
of 2, Crown-street, Seven-dials.

Mr. Edward Lewis, of Great Marlborough street, appeared
for the prosecution.

Mr. Fry said the prisoner Nicholls lodged in his house,
and th., other prisoner was her servant. On going into his
bedroom on Saturday night about a quarter past twelve he
missed a number of dresses and other property of the value
of between £3O end £lO, all of which he saw safe in the
room about 8 o'clock. Amongst other articles taken away
was a light check coat.

Oostik, 81 C, said that at half-past 11 on Saturday
night he was passing Mr. Fry's house when he saw Nichol-
son in the passage with a large bundle done up in a light
wrapper. He turned on his light, and 1\ icholls, who ap-
peared to be drunk, shut the door, About one o'clock en
Sunday morning he was called to the house by Mr. Fry,
who charged the prisoners, who were in bed together, on
suspicion of robbing him. Nicholls got up and asked for
her old pair of boots, but Levy could not find them•
Nicholls said abs had been in bed since nine o'clock.
Mr. Fry said he found an old pair of boots in his bed•
room, when he discovered that he had been robbed.

The boots were produced by Mr. Fry, and were com-
pletely worn out, and some merriment was caused in court
by Mr. Lewis asking Mr. Fry whether he was sure they
were not an unredeemed pledge.
Nicholls enteral into a long statement denying that she
had been down stairs at the time the constable spoke.
Mr. Tyrwhitt said he would take ono bail in 413 for
Nicholls, and Levy's own recognisance to appear on
Wednesday.