The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-23 00:00:00

CHINA.

The Moniteur de l' Armee publishes a letter from
Shanghai to the 22d March, which furnishes the
following details :—" The Imperial Almanack of
China for 1861 appeared as usual at Pekin in the
beginning of the present month. It consists of
twelve thick volumes, and in addition to the names
of all the officials of the Chinese Government, gives
a summary of the events which have taken place
during the past year. For the first time, foreign-
ers are spoken of in respectful terms, and the text
of different treaties concluded with them given.
Military events are not passed over in silence,
but are explained in a very whimsical manner.
It is stated that the foreign ambassadors, being
accompanied by a numerous guard of honour,
misunderstandings had arisen between the soldiers
of that escort and those of the Chinese army, but
that difficulties had been arranged by the devoted-
ness of the chiefs of the Government. The
Emperor is still at Tching-Te Cheou, a city more
commonly known by the name of Jehol, about 150
kilometres Uths of a mile each) from Pekin. He
there possesses a magnificent summer palace,
built in 1703, in the midst of an immense forest,
where the Court have grand hunting parties in
the summer season. The Palace of Jehol is much
finer than that which was destroyed during the
late war. Its gardens are 15 kilometres in cir-
cumference, and in them is the magnificent temple
of Pou-Tho-Tsoung-Ching-Miao, built in 1770,
and containing 500 statues in gilt bronze. They
represent the Lamas who died in the odour of
sanctity, and are in the same constrained and pain-
ful attitudes which they had imposed on themselves
during their lives, and to which circumstance they
owe their canonisation. The Emperor intends to
return to Pekin on the 6th April, and his entrance
into that capital will take place with great pomp.
Prince Kong, his brother, is to go out to meet him
as far as Hach Kiang, a large village 25 kilo-
metres from Pekin. The situation of Shanghai still
remains the same. The rebels continue advancing
towards the West, ravaging the country as they
pass. On the frontier of Kiang-Sou they destroyed
a convent of Bonzesses, and subjected its inmates to
the most horrible treatment, The general idea is,
however, that they cannot march on the capital, as
the Imperial troops occupy very strong positions,
defended by a numerous artillery, and whi::h the
rebels could not venture to attack. The works of
the cathedral of Shanghai, which is being con-
structed on the ground conceded to France, are
going on with great activity, and hopes are enter-
tained that the building may be inaugurated on the
fete day of the Emperor Napoleon, when a grand
religious ceremony will take place," 11

THE AMERICAN WAR.

A NEW MAP. By James Wyld.

Another—decidedly the finest map, of the seat
of war in America, yet published—has, within the
last few hours, been issued simultaneously from
Mr. Wyld's three large geographical establishments
—The Great Globe, 457, Strand, and 2, Royal
Exchange. It will very speedily, we doubt not, be
decorating the walls of many hundreds of literary
and commercial apartments. It is so complete,
indeed, in many respects as to be almost indispen-
sable in many great commercial houses, as a broad-
sheet presenting to view in one comprehensive or
compendious from the whole sweep of those noble
provinces now given up for an indefinite period to
the horrors of civil conflict—and (worse than
that) threatened, frightfully to the South, with
the additional terrors of the servile war that
must there almost inevitably supervene. Nothing
can be more distinct or bold than the lines
of demarcation, not only between the Free
States of the North and the Slave States of the
South, but between the various integral portions,
on the one hand, of the Confederate States
and the United States, as the latter are still called
in the Message commented upon by ourselves only
yesterday—the Message addressed to his Provisional
Congress by Mr. Lincoln's rival, the Slavery Presi-
dent. Besides the body of the military map, occu-
pying the bulk of this important and attractive
publication—defining, as we have said, the Northern
(United) States and the Southern (Confederate)
States, with the forts, harbours, arsenals, and mili-
tary stations all clearly indicated—there are in
addition to all the ordinary information to be looked
for in an issue of this description, three supplemen-
tary Plans, the nature of which we shall imme-
diately intimate, and together with these an admi-
rably well thought of sketch of the country around
Washington.' As to the Plans—one gives us a
clever outline of the capital just mentioned (Wash-
ington), and with it of the adjoining districts of
another, Charleston and its harbour,
Pensacola Bay and its Fortifications.
_Coal unmo
tbhiear—,
Very possibly—but still we cannot but think not very
probably—Mr. Wyld may perehance even yet, after
the lapse of some little time, issue from the press
yet another map of the American Republic so far
surpassing all his previous efforts in that way as to
render even this map, his latest popular masterpiece,
a thing passed or rather sur-passed. Mr. Wyld
has in this fashion so often before eclipsed his own
earlier achievements by others of a still more re-
markable kind in their excellence, that, we repeat,
it is even now possible that he may yet induce us
to look upon this really brilliant map as subordinate
to some still more recent publication. It is possible
—yes—but, improbable. And therefore while we
can yet do so,
we hesitate not to point out this par-
ticular map of the seat of war in America as the
best of all the popular maps of its kind that has (up
to this time) made ics appearance.