The London papers all publish the following statement from the late boatswain of the rebel steamer Alabama, now second officer of the British steamer Thistle:

* * * On leaving England, the 290 had a crew of 93 men, for the most part belonging to the English Naval Reserve, all being trained gunners, and the majority old men-of-war's men. She was temporarily commanded by Captain Bullock, who had under him the proper complement of commissioned and petty officers. Captain Bullock having learned that a Federal man-of-war (the Tuscarora) lay in wait for him in St. George's Channel, took his departure by what is known as the North Channel, thus eluding the Federal enemy; though even had he been intercepted, the Northerner would have found himself in a dilemma, as the 290 had a set of English papers and other presumptive proofs of her neutrality, in the face of which it might have been difficult for her captor to have acted.--The 290 at the time carried no guns or other warlike stores, but consisted merely of the hall, spars and engines, excepting, of course, coal and other requisites to enable her to reach her destination, which was Tarissa, one of the Azores or Western Islands, belonging to Portugal. This destination the 290 duly reached, after a fine run of eight days, and came to an anchor in

Sometime before the departure of the 290 from the Mersey, a large bark left the Thames (cleared for Demerara, West Indies,) to meet the 290 at Tarissa, and there transfer to the latter vessel the guns and stores destined for her, and which formed the cargo of the bark. Some reason required to be assigned to the Portuguese authorities for the 290 having anchored in the bay, and accordingly the excuse furnished to them was that her engines had broken down. This plea was accepted as a valid one, and during the week that intervened between the arrival at Tarissa of the 290 and the bark, the crew of the former vessel were engaged ostensibly in repairing her engines, but ready in preparing her to receive her guns, &c. During this interval, large parties of the inhabitants of Tarissa made daily visits to the 290, their curiosity evidently excited by the warlike appearance of what laid claim to be an English merchant vessel. Many pertinent questions were asked by the Portuguese, and were as ingeniously evaded or met by the officers of the 290.--Among other things, the Portuguese wanted to know why the vessel had so many ports, and were told that, as she was bound to a warm climate, they were necessary for ventilation; and when they asked why there was such a numerous crew, the reply was, that as she was going on a surveying expedition she required to be well manned. Many similar questions were put, and in like manner answered; but it was all in vain to attempt to undeceive the Portuguese, and they would persist in calling her a "frigate Inglesi."

About the lapse of a week from the arrival of the 290 the bark above mentioned sailed in and anchored, her Captain alleging as a reason to the Portuguese officials that his vessel had sprung a leak, which would require to be repaired ere she could resume her voyage; and on this understanding the Portuguese at once placed her in quarantine, (which in the Azores lasts three days) On the day after the bark's arrival Captain Bullock, of the 290, being anxious to get his guns on board, hauled alongside the bark, and erected a pair of large shears to effect the transfer of her cargo from the bark's hold to the 290's deck. This brought off the Portuguese in a fury that their rules should have been broken by the 290 having dared to communicate with a vessel that had still two days quarantine to run, and they angrily demanded to know the reason why their regulations had been infringed. They were told that the bark was in a sinking condition, and the erection of the shea was accounted for by urging the necessity of an immediate temporary transfer of her cargo, that the leak might be reached and stopped, and Captain Bullock finally succeeded in bearing down all opposition by feigning to get in a passion, saying he was doing no more for the bark than any Englishman would do for a countryman in distress. The Portuguese left the vessel, and the transshipment proceeded without further hindrance from those on shore.

About the afternoon of the second day, and when the transfer was nearly complete, the British screw steamer Bahama came in, having on board Captain Semmes and the other late officers of the Sumter, besides the remainder of the 290's armament and an addition of twenty odd men to her crew. On the Bahama's arrival and anchorage on a somewhat similar pretext to those given to her two predecessors, the Portuguese fairly lost all patience, and peremptorily insisted on the instant departure of all three vessels. The Bahama at once communicated with the 290, and having hauled over to the latter vessel everything destined for her, got up steam and left, followed by the 290, towing the now empty bark. All three went, not to sea, as they had been ordered to do, but to Angra Bay, (a bay in the same island, and only a few leagues distant from

A correspondent of the Charleston Courier, who has run the blockade and arrived safely at Nassau, N. P., is revelling in the fresh fields of literature, from which the South has been so long cut off. He gives a resume of the new publications in England and the United States, which will interest those of our readers who were wont of old to watch the list of forthcoming publications with so much expectancy. We make some extracts from it:

The second volume of Buckle's extraordinary "History of Civilization in England" has been issued. The author died suddenly about six months ago, while on a visit to the Continent. It is not known in what condition he has left the materials for the remainder of the work. Carlyle has published the third volume of his "Frederick the Great." The twentieth volume of Thiers's "History of the Consulate and Empire," treating of the of the Hundred Days, is published work from the pen of his Guizot. "An Embassy to the Court of St. James in 1840, " which is elaborately noticed in all the Reviews.

The muse of Poetry has been remarkably silent. Nothing of importance has appeared since Tennyson's "Idyls." In poetic criticism I notice a "History of Scottish Poetry," by David Irving, Ll D., and "The Roman Poets of the Republic," by Professor Seller, of Oxford. The most noticeable poems are "Elwin of Deirs," by Alexander Smith; "Ancient Poetry and Some Fresher," by the veteran Walter Savage Lander: "Victories of Love," by Coventry Palmore; "The Lady of La Grange, " by the Honorable Mrs. Norton, grand daughter of Sheridan; "Poems," by Adelaide Proctor, daughter of "Barry Cornwall," some additional pieces of Shelley's, edited by Richard Garnett, and "Ballads from Scottish History," by Norval Cline. "The Remains, in Verse and Prose," of Arthur Hallan, the subject of Tennyson's "In Memoriam," is published by Murray.

In politics, international law, and political economy, have appeared John Stuart Mills's work on "Representative Government," which is anti slavery in sentiment; Mr. Spence's admirable essay on the American Question; a work on International Law, by Travers Twiss, D. C. L., said to be the best since Wheaton; "Jefferson and the American Democracy, a Study translated from the Dutch of Cornelius De Witt; "The Duties of Man," by Joseph Mazzini, the crazy Italian reformer, and something from John Raskin, the Arts Critic, entitled "Unto This Last," four essays on the first principles of economy.

"The Roundabout Papers" is a series of essays by Thackeray, republished from the Cornhill Magazine. A readable trifle is "A Book about Doctors," by J. C. Jefferson, who gives all the gossip and scandal about the fraternity.

A learned controversy upon the proper style of translating Homer is raging between Matthew Arnold, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and Francis W. Newman, Professor of Classics in University College, London. Each disputant has issued a brace of books, and the Reviews have ranged themselves on either side.

No department has been more prolific than that of fiction. At least two-thirds of the publications named in the book lists are of this character. At the head, in popularity, stands Victor Huge's remarkable political romance of "Les Miserable" It has had an enormous sale in France, and has been translated by a dozen hands into the English language. Numerous editions have been issued in London and New York. It might be a table enterprise if one of our ston or Richmond publishers would print it. Thackeray's "Philip" has been lately issued in complete form. The critic think it hardly equal to its predecessors, but it exhibits the same wonderful photography of character and manners so characteristic of the style of the greatest of English novelists. "East Lynne," by Mrs. Wood, has been exceedingly popular.--"Lady Audley's Secret," by Miss Bradden, is described as a "sensation novel," and has had an immense sale. Among the favorite novelists of the time, Bulwer has published his "Strange Story;" Wilkie Collins (author of the "Woman in White") his "After Dark;" G. A. Sala, "The Seven Sons of Mammon;" the authoress of "John Halifax," a domestic story called "Mistress and Maid; " and the authoress of "Adam Bede," another contribution to the intese school of romance, entitled "Siles Marner, the Weaver of Raveloe." The cruelties of the King of Dahomey are made the subject of "The Negro Prince," by a Captain Livingstone who takes his hero to the cotton fields of the Confederate States, and, perhaps rather strangely, says a good word for the "slaveholders." Mrs. Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," has published two stories--"The Pearl of Orr's Island" and "Agnes of Sorrento," the scene of the first being in New England and the last in Italy. The critics pronounce them inferior, and bid her stick to the "nigger" if she wants to keep alive her popularity. The posthumous publications of Major Theodore Winthrop, who was killed at the battle of Great Bethel, "Cecil Dreeme" and "John Brent, " are noticed in the Northern papers. Among the other popular novels are "Chronicles of Carlingford," by Mrs. Oliphant; "The Prodigal Son," by Dalton Cook; "Abel Drake's Wife," by John Saunders; "C Wrong be Right?" by Mrs. S. C. Hall; "Marietta," by Anthony Trollope; and "Barren Honors," by the author of "Guy Livingstone."

In "All the Year Round" Wilkie Collins is publishing a mysterious story entitled "No Name." Ainsworth is writing a serial called "Cardinal Pole," for Bentley's Miscellany, and the authoress of "Adam Bede" another; "Romala," for the Cornhill Magazine. Buliver is contributing some miscellanea for Blackwood, under the title of "Caxtoniani."

Quite a number of pamphlets on "Cotton Cultivation," as well as upon the American war, are appearing in England. The "rebellion" is a fruitful provocative of pamphleteering at the North. Some of the titles are amusing — for instance, "The Present Attempt to Dissolve the Union a British Aristocratic Plot," "Patriotism and the Slaveholders' Rebellion;" "The Drift of the War;" "Cheap Cotton by Free Labor," etc., etc

The American civil war has brought forth a "History of Federal Government from the foundation of the Achaean League to the Disruption of the United States, a bulky work, by Edward A. Freeman, of Oxford University; and "Eighty Years of Progress in the United States," a Yankee glorification affair.

The Westminster Review notices a German work devoted to biographies of German heroes in America. Steuben and DeKalb form the subjects of the first two volumes, and the third is devoted to the notorious Sigel, who is dubbed "the hero of Carihage and Pea Ridge."

"The Washingtons," by J. N. Simpkinson, an English clergyman — an attempt to trace the ancestry of the "Pater Patriæ" in England.--[According to the author, Washington had a right to the title of baronet, which his emigrating ancestry received from James the First; but abandoned upon going to America.]

Besides Anthony Trellope's book, the American Continent is the subject of "Ten Years in the United States," by D. W. Mitchell, and "Down South," by Samuel Phillips Day, correspondent of the London Herald, who is intensely Southern in his sympathies. There are two works on the Mormons, "A Journey to the Salt Lake City," by Jules Remy, a Frenchman, in two volumes, and "The City of the Saints," by R. F. Burton.

The Harpers, of New York, are publishing in numbers a "History of the Great Rebellion. " "The Life and Writings of General Nathaniel Lyon," who was killed at Carthage, is the title of a book from the New York press.

--The Louisville Journal publishes a communication from Hon. John H. McHenry to his son, Col. McHenry, of the 17th Kentucky regiment, which he calls a patriotic letter. The following sentence will give our readers an idea of its enlarged patriotism: --The President is not the country. At one time I thought him an honest man, but I have been compelled to change that opinion. He is a miserable driveller, yielding to outside pressure when it tends toward abolitionism, but ignoring it altogether when it tends to constitutional conservatism.