The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-01 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Contemporary Memoirs of Russia, from the Year
1727 to 1744. By General Christopher Her-
mann V. Maustein. Longman, Brown, Green,
and Longinans.
A contribution towards the history of Russia,
and of the nations with which she had dealings in
the above eventful period, by a Russian officer of
distinction ; deemed of sufficient importance to be
edited in Eglish by David Hume, iu his time,
and after being re-edited collated with the original
French, and illustrated with brief notes, to be
again presented to the English public by a Hert-
fordshire Incumbent. In short, a valuable aid to
the historical student ; and far from ill-timed,
even at the present hoar, when a check having been
administered to Russian aggression, peaoe is
all but proclaimed with that country. The
next thing to be looked for is an attempt by Rus-
sian partisans at home to show that nothing was
ever to be seriously apprehended from Muscovite
ambition, and that the war was a costly combat
with a chimera of our own imagination. The
reader has but to peruse these pages to be tho-
roughly armed against any such insidious and
traitorous attempt. He will then discover in the
revelation made by the writer of the hideous self-
fishness and reckless immorality of the Russian
Court and the policy which it pursued towards
Turkey, Persia, Poland, and Sweden a century
ago, a reason for regret that peace was concluded
so early and on such easy terms, rather than occa-
sion for surprise that hostilities were ever entered
on. That so far from combating a Conservative
power the Allies—in waging war with Russia con-
fronted the aggressive march of the most frightful
barbarism that ever menaced the liberties and civili-
sation of Europe.

The Mormons at Home. By Mrs. B. G. Ferris.
New York : Dix and Edwards. London: Samp-
son Low, Son, and Co.
Just the sort of work we have been anxious to
see—a brief, clear, and unexaggerated revelation
of the domestic workings of the Mormon. system, of
whic`i polygamy is now avowedly, though long de-
nied, an important item. The writer accompanied
her husband, newly appointed to the United States
Secretaryship for Utah, to the Mormon capital,
where they resided during the winter, and she had
abundant opportunity of lifting up the veil which
conceals the inevitable consequences of the spiritual
wife system from the gaze of passing observers ;
and most painful are her revelations. All honest
womanhood is described as crushed beneath a load
of wretchedness and misery, and such of the male
population as are not mere dupes, only fit for tko
meridian of Norfolk Island. A society of fanatics
controlled by a gang of licentious villains." "The
effect of the Mormon creed is evidently to
gather together a low class of villains, and a
still lower class of dupes, an I it follows that the
latter are easily governed. The only disturbing
element is that the villains may quarrel among
themselves, and so far as I can learn this has hap-
pened on more than one occasion." " One scarcely
knows whether to be amazed most at the profane
1 profligacy of the leaders or the superstitious credu-
lity of the dupes." Such are the comments of the
author, an American lady, on the exhibition of
Mormonism "at home." Besides penetrating the
mysteries of the harems of Utah, Mrs. Ferris availed
herself of the opportunity afforded by the position
of her husband to give us life-like portraits of some
of the principal Mormon leaders, including the
arch-rascal Brigham Young, with whom they were
brought in contact in the transaction of business.
The chief characteristic of the book is the evident
truthfulness and honesty of purpose of the writer ;
and her revelations, being transmitted in letters to
her friends at home, have all the vividness of first
i'.npressions. In addition to the details of her ex-
periences in Utah, the reader is presented with a
graphic narrative of some incidents of travel in
her journey from Missouri to Utah, and from
thence to California. Altogether the book is one
which will well repay perusal, and cannot be too,
extensively circulated among those classes more
especially open to the arts of the rascally Mornion
missionaries in this country.

The Mercantile and Maritime Guide. By Graham
Willa:lore, Esq., M.A., and Edwin Bedell, Esq.
W. Mackenzie.
A clear and compendious treatise, or series
treatises, setting forth the rights and obligations of
the mercantile and maritime communities in a
popular and reliable form. A work which, it is not
too much to say, it will be to the interest of the
members of both to have by them for consultation
in order to the satisfactory prosecution of business.
In it will be found a lucid exposition of the law
affecting them arising from the custom of merchants,
the decisions of Courts, and the enactments of the
Legislature ; together with the orders and regula-
tions bearing upon shipping, upon foreign and
home trade, issued by Government boards, and
other competent authorities ; and a fund of practi-
cal information upon miscsllaneous matters of fact.
Nothing, in short, appears to be wanting which it
is essentially necessary to the welfare of merchants,
shipowners, masters, mates, seamen, agents, and
brokers, in their respective business capacities and
relations to know. When, therefore, it is remem-
bered how multifarious, and otherwise difficult of
access such knarledge is, and what will arise from
the want of it, the value of a manual so compen-
dious and so carefully elaborated, and easily to be
comprehended as this is, becomes obvious, amd
enough has been done to secure aready and general
acceptance of the "Mercantile and Maritime
Guide."

Wine Duties. 13y W. Bosville James. Longman,

Brown, Green, and Longmans.
An able reply to Sir James Emerson Tennant en
" Wine : Its Taxation and Uses." The author
discusses the question both on financial and social
grounds, and succeeds in showing, among other
things, that Government, by the perpetuation of
the prohibitory duties on French wines, shuts out
from our manufacturers a most promising field of
commerce, numbers of our operatives from remu-
nerative employment, insures bad wino for home
consumption, and confines the population to bever-
ages the use of which is more or less injurious to
health and morals, and, consequently, to the wel-
fare of society. The wine duties are coining daily
into more prominence ; and those, pion) particu-
larly, who are desirous of acquiring a competent
knowledge of the subject to enable them to form
an opinion and take a course of action thereon,
will do well to purchase this work and master its
contents.

---
Hints to Horsemen. By Harry Hiecver. T. C.

Newby.
A valuable handbook, which ought to be in the
possession of all parties engaged or interested in the
breeding, training, or selection of horses for sale,
or having horses to buy or sell, showing as it does
how money may be made of horses, besides giving
useful general information respecting these animals,
and on equestrian matters generally. What sorts
to buy, what sorts to breed from, what to look for,
what to avoid, when to sell, and how to sell to ad-
vantage—on these and other heads the reader will
find a good deal of trustworthy information. It
is scarcely necessary to remark that " Harry Hie-
over" is considered as authority in such matters,
having already supplied a number of valuable and,
popular contributions to our sporting literature.

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BEITISE A.MITEITI. —Las
night, at a general meeting of the members of this
society, held at their house in Grosvenor-street, Earl de
Grey presiding, the Royal gold medal of the institute
for 1855 was presented by the chairman in a complimea.
tary speech to Mr. Tite, the member for Bath, and a
Fellow of the Institute. Mr. Donaldean afterwards read
an interesting paper on the triumphal arches of Rome.
Silver medals were also presented to Messrs. T. A. Brit-
ton L. R. Roberts, and T. C. Sorby, and a prize in
books to Mr. C. N. Beazley. Mr. F. Marrable was
elected a Fellow, and Messrs J.K. Coiling, J. C. Scoles,
and T. R. Smith, Associate of the Institutes.
THE LATE SEVERE GALE IN THE BLACK SEA.—eom-
STANTINOPLE, March 20.—The British barques Altai&
of Gloucester, Captain Wetheran, and General Chasse,
of Bristol, both laden with hay for the British Govern-
ment., at Bristol for this port, were driven on shore on
the point of Kournbournou, coast of Troy, opposite
Tenedos, on the morning of the 7th March, during a
heavy gale at south, and soon after bilged, and filled ;
they have both been surveyed, and condemned as wrecks.
The loss of a British vessel at Eupatoria, but not her
name, is reported here. several disasters are said to
have occurred on the coasts of the Black Sea, from
Sulina downwards. Assistance is being sent off as far
as Iniada. The weather has been very boisterous and
bad for more than a week.

DEATH OF A M1131111.---On Saturday, Thomas Harri-
son, who was reputed to be in the most abject poverty,
expired in an obscure lodging on Great Saffron-bill.
During an occupation extending over a quarter of a
century, he never associated with any of the neighbours
—he went out every morning at 8 o'clock, and returned
in the evening, and it was considered that he touted for
employment as a porter. About ten days since he was
taken alarmingly ill, when he called for the assistance
of a neighbour, who advised that a medical gentle
man should be sent for, and also that his friends
should be made acquainted with his case ; both of
which were attended to, and some relatives—who are
in cagy circumstances—in St. George's-in-the East, at-
tended, and had the old man, who is nearly 70 years of
age, made comfortable, and supplied his wants. Shortly
before his death, he added a codicil to his will, which he
had deposited in a-secure place. It was ascertained that
he bequeathed upwards of 7,0001. in Coasols to his rola.
tions, not one of whom he had seen for 89 years,
and to the kind neighbour who attended him he left
200/,