The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-10 00:00:00

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

President Davis's house is situated on the brink of ono
of the Richmond hills, looking to the north, a small stream
running at its foot, and the rail to Gordonsville winding-
through the valley. There are two porticoes; the en-
trance one to the north, and the lawn and garden one to
the south. The house is granted by the State. The negro
servant ushered me into a lofty and cool dining-room, and
in a few minutes in walked his Excellency; his height
about 5 ft. 10 in., and shoulders board, as they need to be
to bear his awful responsibilities ; calm his eye, smooth his
voice, measured his words; his whole demeanour making
you feel at once at home: his dress of the plainest, being
a suit of blue Virginia manufacture, a sort od light flannel-
cloth. We sat down tete-a-tete, and I enjoyed a cup of
excellent tea. Mrs. Davis and the children were at Raleigh
in North Carolina.

Could anything be more vapid or colourless than
this pencilling of President Davis ? It affords one
not the faintest notion of what the man is really
like. And precisely in that way is the book
before us written throughout, It is as if
we were scanning a succession of outlines
drawn very lightly with an ill-pointed slate-pencil
upon a rather dull slate—the wnole being (as we
have already described the above as being) utterly
and completely colourless. As a narrative of an
Excursion into the South, it is perfectly conscien-
tious, but—it is colourless. And these pencillings
are in another way precisely like pencillings upon a
slate, they are so easy of obliteration. Closing
the book, we remember little or nothing of its
contents.

The War in Poland, 1830-1831. By Sir Archi-
bald Alison, Bart., D.C.L. Bvo., pp. 79.

Blackwood and Sons.

A chapter from Sir Archibald Alison's world-
famous History of Europe has here been most
opportunely republished in a separate form. So
republished, it constitutes the most apropos little
pamphlet well imaginable. For, anyone who
watches (and who does nut?) with profound interest
the course of events in this new insurrectionary
movement in Poland, can hardly appreciate the
import of it, as a national rising, with the smallest
approach to accuracy, without having first of all
recalled to mind the character of the last war in
Poland, the war of 1830-31, the war here succinctly
but also, it may be said without any real contradic-
tion of terms, most comprehensively, described by
the Historian of Europe. As one of the most re-
markable episodes of his great work, the incident
recorded in this memorable chapter upon Poland le
one of the most mournfully enthralling.

Beeton's Dwtzonary of Universal Biography. One

vol. Pp. 1,117. S. 0 Becton.
The compiler of this really marvellous volume of
curiously condensed and well compacted knowledge
has, in the very best meaning that can possibly be
attached to the words, fairly out-Maundered

maunder. Within little more than a thousand
closely but clearly printed double-columned pages,
he Las given us the pith and marrow of the volu-
minous Biographze Universelle. Altogether, the
book is as nearly perfect and complete, as a repertory
of biographical information, as such a book well
could be. Its general accuracy is surprising,
if it be only borne in mind how many countries,
and languages, and centuries are comprised within
the range taken by the compilation. More parti-
cularly, is this remarkable, if the multiplicity of
dates and localities, requiring to be here accurately
specified, is borne for an instant in recollection.
How so much could by any possibility come to be
compressed within so moderately-sized a volume,
bewildered us to conjecture upon first taking up this
same volume and turning over the leaves of it. The
mystery, however, we soon enough learned to
recognise and to appreciate, when the preface had
been read and the body of the work itself
consulted. The selection made by the compiler has
been most carefully made throughout. Names of
no appreciable value have been cautiously and sys-
tematically excluded. No commentary or criticism
whatever has been indulged in. Yet is the result
by no means a mere record of names, end dates, and
• a few illustrative particulars. On the contrary,
-while the space has been most sedulously economised,
" life-like touches of conduct and character" have
been intended to be imparted—and that good inten-
tion on the part of the compiler will be found to
have been most cleverly carried out. Another fea-
ture of the work, not yet alluded to, is especially
deserving of mention, and not only of mention but
of commendation. In every instance where there
could be a chance of doubt upon the matter, the pro-
nunciation of the name has been scrupulously de-
fined. Besides which it should be observed, in
reference to the mere arrangement of the work—an
arrangement made of course throughout. as in
every dictionary, alphabetically—persons bearing
the same name have been arranged in due sequence,
chronologically. Lastly, as in the " Ndtfona,
Cycloiwdia" of Mr. Knight, and again in th.
" Men of the Times" of Mr. Walford, in additioi,
to the renowned dead, the illustrious living are in-
troduced into the collection. So that the range of
the work is really and truly one of the very widest
amplitude. Improvements will probably be made
in the work in subs( quent editions, but as yet
have failed in our efforts to conjecture even who
possibly those improvements can be.