The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-18 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LREUTER'S TELEGRAM.]

THE AUSTRIAN AND PRUSSIAN
ULTIMATUM,
COPENHAGEN, JAN, 18.

The Dagbladet of to-day says :—" The ultimatum
of Austria and Prussia, delivered to the Minister for
Foreign Affairs on Saturday, demands the retrac-
tation of the Constitution of the 18th November
before thin day, and the temporary return to the
status quo existing before its promulgation. What
will happen if Denmark complies with this unjusti-
fiable and brutal demand, they do not state. If, en
the other hand, the ultimatum sheuld not be complied
with, they threaten all the misfortunes at their
command, commencing with the withdrawal of
their ambassadors."

The Dagbladet goes on to remark :—" It is self-
evident that no idea can be entertained of com-
pliance with the ultimatum. What will happen
then depends upon eventualities in Europe and.
Germany; We may observe that in case of war the
German armies will require from three to four
weeks to collect the necessary strength. By that
time the Danish army will be larger than ever, and
the fortified works be able to hold in check an
enemy nearly twice as strong."

PRUSSIA.

THE KING'S REPLY TO THE ADDRESS

OF THE UPPER HOUSE.

BERLIN, JAN. 15.
The reply of the King to the Address of the
Upper House may be summarised as follows :
The objects of the demand of the Government
were, firstly, the fulfilment of Federal obliga-
tions, the means for which could not be
refused ; secondly, the preservation of the
power and honour of Prussia against attack
while such fulfilment was taking place. The
declaration of the Upper House is agreeable to the
king, at a time when resolutions pregnant with
serious consequences are required. In view of
threatening complications it is impossible to define
beforehand the cause of policy ; questions of right
and international relations cannot be decided by
wishes and sympathies, however natural. The
Government must be prepared for all eventualities
in order to preserve the rights of Germany equally
with the honour and power of Prussia. His Majesty
thanks the Upper House for its assurance of aid,
and hopes that the devotion of both houses to the
requirements of the country will be powerful
enough to cause them to lay aside pending differences,
and unanimously grant the necessary means.

The reply is countersigned by all the Ministers.
The debate upon the Budget will take place in the
Upper House on Thursday next.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.
CRACOW, JAN. 18.

Advices received here state that a circular of the
National Government, dated the 4th inst., announces
the dismissal of Gen. Mieroslawski from his post
of General Organiser of the Revolutionary Forces.
lie is said nevertheless to be actively engaged at
Liege in services for the national cause.
The insurgent leader Kruk is reported to have
retreated with a few followers into Gallicia, his de-
tachment having been dispersed.

The Bishops of Lublin, Kieltre, and Cracow have
ceased church mourning.

FRANCE.

BOURSE, Jan. 16.—A slight degree of buoyancy
has shown itself, and a larger amount of business
has been transacted than for some days pis%
Threes, for the Account, are now at 66fr. 65c.
illobilier have also improved to 1,023 fr. 75e. The
arrival of the English funds with en advance has
tended to impart firmness to this market. The
market closed as follows :

4t per Cents .. 94 30
Do. end month....

Italian Loan 6B 70
Do. end month 69
New ditto —
Do. end month —
Russian
Austrian
Spanish Threes., 50 50
home Debt .. 49i
Deferred

3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 70
Credit Mobilier 1025
Do. end month 1028 75
Bank Shares 3300
Credit F oncier 1235
Roman

RA IL'

rAys.
Cash.
990
952 50

OrlennB
Northern ....

Account.
991 25

New ditto —
Lyons and Meditsrranean 935 .. 940
New ditto B9O
Southern 655 .. 660
Western
Eastern
Sardinian 383 75 .. 385
Austrian

Loirbard

North of Spain
505
Saragossa 690 590
Ditto to Barcelona

Ironmasters' Quarterly Meeting.

DUDLEY, Saturday Evening.

The meetings of the ironmasters of this district
terminated for the current quarter in this town this
evening. The attendance was small, very few of
the principal members of the trade being present.
The amount of business reported was only moderate,
and was chiefly in pig iron, the prices ranging at
the meetings at Wolverhampton and Birmingham
—£4 10s. to £4 12s. 6d. per ton—being steadily
adhered to. In manufactured iron there was little
or nothing doing; all who are engaged in the
trade in this locality are well supplied with orders,
and are consequently careless about the acceptance
of any others which may be offered. It was stated
that the demand for sheet iron is increasing, and that
since the meeting at Birmingham buyers have been
anxious to place orders for that description of
finished iron, but have found much difficulty in
doing so where speedy delivery was made a stipu-
lation.

The large works in this neighbourhood, and in the
direction of Kings winfur, Brettel-lane, and Brierly-
hill are all in full operation, the only drawback at
this moment being on account of the scarcity of
labour in some departments. There is also a feeling
of disquietude among a section of the men on the
subject of wages. The general rise to all who are
engaged in the iron and coal trades takes place on
Monday next, and it is hoped that the uneasiness
which has of late existed on that subject will then
be removed.

The coal trade is unprecedentedly brisk ; the
consumption is very large, and the demand consi-
derably in excess of the quantity raised. For native
ironstone there is also a ready sale, and a good quan-
tity of ore is coming in from other districts.

It was stated that there is a probability of the
number of furnaces in blast being increased, but it
is doubtful if this will be the case while there is such
a scarcity of fuel and of labour, the influence of
which must oporato against any increase in the make
of pig iron in this district at present. Nearly the
whole of the pigs stacked some years since have
been sold off.

The series of meetings which concluded to-night
have passed off satisfactorily, and accounts have
been well paid.

MISS BRADDON, the novelist, was recently mar
tied to Mr. Maxwell, the publisher.

MDLLE. ROSA BONIIEUR is engaged on a large
picture, about ten feet high, intended as a companion to
" The Horse Fair."

TEE DUKE OF AUGUSTENBURG 'is described as
a tall man, over six feet high, with hazel hair,
blue eyes, light eyebrows, " good " complexion, man-
ner somewhat slow but stately, and speech sedate, with
a slight peculiarity. He talked " aff ably," as German
princes, when not opposed, generally do, and seems alto-
gether a well-intentioned, but somewhat slow and heavy
person, who will govern Holstein without .1-nany blunders,
but not be a very dangerous personage in Europe. German
princes seldom are, which is one reason wh y they get so
many thrones. Bonapartes are too troubleson le, the House
of Sayoy too warlike, and the Bernadottes too pew.

LITERATURE.

Macaulay's History of England. Ptopie% Edition.

Part 111. Longmqn and Co.

Another instalment of this wonderfully cheap
and beautifully printed edition of Macaulay's great
fragment of a history, carries the narrative down
far into the fifth chapter, to the 304th page of the
first of the four volumes to which the edition will
extend, deep into the year 1685, down to that
dreadful epoch of judicial severity known as the
Bloody Assizes, when the infamous Jeffries reigned
supreme upon the bench as our English Rhada-
manti3us. The more frequently our attention is
recalled to an examination of "Macaulay's History
of England," the more profoundly are we impressed '
with a sense of the great genius manfested so lumi-
nously throughout—the more fully do we realise
the marvellous beauty of its rhetoric—the more
completely are we satisfied with the justice of the
conclusion at which we have long arrived, in regard
to Macaulay as an author, that be is the
most perfect writer of prose, that he is the most
perfect master of style in the English lan-
guage. Yet all the while, too, are we more and
more firmly impressed with a painful consciousness
that this exquisitely accomplished rhetorician, that
this author, in some respects, of incomparable elo-
quence, that this man of encyclopaedic knowledge,
is so far to be read with jealous care in his charac-
ter as a historical teacher that, to put it in the
mildest form, he lacks impartiality. He is per-
petually agitated by passion, either in the way of
stubborn prejudice or of eager predilection. Of
him, too, it might be said, as Goldsmith said of a
kindred genius, the genius also of a great writer,
a great orator, a scholar, a statesman, and a
philosopher, that—
" He gave up to party what was meant for mankind."
Yet,while we are under the glamour of his eloquence,
how willingly, for the time, we yield ourselves up
to its witcheries! How dark, on the magic mirror
of his page, appear the lineaments of those he
loaths ! How radiant and how godlike the aspect of
such as chance to have won the splendid meed of
his approbation, some of them even receiving, as for
example William of Orange, the literary apotheosis
of his superb and already classic eulogiums! Un-
convinced—we cannot but admire, and admire, too,
with an unstinted admiration.

Luttrell of Arran. By Charles Lever, Part IL
Chapman and Hall.

In this instalment the dramatis personae who are
to figure hereafter in these pages are introduced.
In the opening chapter the relations of the recluse's
deceased wife are described with the author's cha-
racteristic ability. They have been summoned to
pay the last rites and honours to their departed re-
lative, and the orgies of the wake concluded, the
husband who has refused ever to see them, sends his
wife's personal effects to them, that they may
choose each one any token to take home as a me-
morial. But the poor relations are so pleased
with these articles that they insist on appropriating
the whole, much to the indignation of the house-
keeper, and hence ensues a native Irish con-
tention such as few but Charles Lever
can describe. Vyner, who will evidently
figure conspicuously in future events, accidentally
meets his old friend before departing from Arran,
and an interesting dialogue ensues. We are fur-
ther introduced to Spier's wife and sister-in.law,
and a few other characters, among whom is an
American. We think that Mr. Lever has but one
type of transatlantic character for all his works,
and that, the individual herein introduced, the
pugnacious " Quuckinboss." We trust that, in
justice to the better class of Americans, he will
possess some of their virtues. Several smart
sketches of English country life, and of tourists
generally, are given, and the tale begins to be
interesting.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Wildfire : A Novel. 3 vols. By Walter Thornbury,

Hurst and Blackett.
A Box for the Season. By Charles Clarke. 2 vole.
Chapman and Hall.

an to Beersheba; or, Northern and Southern Friends,
Chapman and Hall.

Christmas at Old Court. By the author of "Richelieu in
Love." Bentley.
The Pearl of the Rhone, and Other Poems. By William

Duthie. Robert tlardwieke.
The Story of The Guns. By Sir James Emerson Tenneni
Longman and Co.

:ousehold Education. By Harriet Martineau. Smith
Elder, and Co.

Historic Odes, &c. By R. W. Dixon. Smith, Elder, and

Co.
Horrors of the Virginian Slave Trade. A. W. Bennett.
Quarterly Journal of Science. No. I. Churchill and Sons
Quarterly Review : for January, 1864. John Murray.