Quatre, contains some very lively and pleasing specimens of Mr. Bishop's taste and ingenuity. There is a general novelty of manner about them, which, perhaps, we may trace to the effect produced on the composer's mind by the circumstance of writing for two such singers as Miss Stephens and Miss M. Tree. Mr. Bishop appears inclined to do his best, and his utmost, for both; and to conform to their natural and acquired characteristics, as well as to dramatic propriety, in assorting his music. Miss Stephens's rich quality and volume of voice, are contrasted with the lighter playfulness of Miss Tree's executive facility. To the songs of the one he has allotted, therefore, a chastened and more dignified, and sterling expression; to the other, playful, glittering, and changeful, he lends an illumination As variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made. The songs of Miss Stephens dwell upon tone, till the responsive chords in the heart begin to sound. Miss Tree thrills through florid notation, like the soaring lark, which has just now, by its song of extacy, while trembling, circling, poising herself in her ascent, courted the regard of the writer,-filled him with some of her own delights, and furnished him with a similitude. Pity's Tear is an air of short compass, depending upon the qualities of expression, tone, articulate pronunciation, and sensibility. Simplicity of construction, both in melody and accompaniment, allowing great latitude to the singer, is its distinction. It is a thing of which a good deal may, we imagine, be made; not as a plain canvas to fill with ornaments, but as a regular design, where the figures are all laid in, and require only vivid colouring. The Ray of Hope can cheer the Heart, is a song of pretension, with an accompaniment for the clarionet, upon which most of its orchestral eclat must depend. It is something bare of melody, which is made_secondary to declamatory effect. The passages, though common, are yet not of a vulgar cast; and they are considerably varied by change of accentuation, which confers something approaching to singularity upon parts of the song. It hardly rises to the title of a bra vura, but inclines to that denomination, and is, as a stage song, on the whole, effective. Tell me, my heart, a sweet modern ballad, enlivened beyond the general, by contrasted expression, by changeful passages of feeling and delicacy, tenderness, and gaiety,-by a florid accompaniment, and by affording scope for sensibility, and some execution. It neither languishes in insipidity, nor exhausts by volatility. Fears ne'er assail me: the most original song in the piece; requiring agility, lightness, and brilliancy, but, if sung with all these, capable of fascinating a monarch, provided he be of a temperament to listen to notes, "Wild as the wood lark." The composition is of a gladsome airy spirit, that rises, as the lark seemed to spring into air, to pour forth its own irrepressible extacies. A duet, My pretty page look out afar, concludes the series from Henri Quatre. This is cut, we apprehend, to fit the capacity of the "little tiny boy," who sung it very prettily with Miss Stephens. It is, therefore simple in the extreme. We have this month a ballad from the pen of Mr. Moore, in his sweetest manner. How happy once, has all the tenderness of his muse; though its art is merely new dressing hackneyed ideas. The commencement of the air reminds us (indeed they are the very notes) of a fashionable waltz; but this semblance soon disappears. There is a great portion of melody in this piece, though it is of a straggling, and up and down sort. But, like most others from the same hand, the ballad must tell, for any body may play it, and it will sing itself. Lanza's Tell me, ye little melancholy tears. Expressive, and not inelegant music, to words which, we suppose, from internal evidence, are "by a person of quality." I shall never forget him; sung by Madame Vestris, in Shakspeare versus Harlequin. Miss Dolly Snip speaks sensibly and feelingly, and were the critic to address the composer he might be well satisfied to use theyoung lady's own words And I'm sure I shall never forget him. Bochsa's Donald, with variations, is amongst the most felicitous productions of the richly furnished mind of this most sensitive and elegant composer. We know not where there is such a composition as this. The curious treatment of the subject particularly attracts us; for, though never absolutely lost, it is yet concealed by such beautiful and exquisite passages, that it is seen at intervals, like the rose amidst myrtles and aromatics, when the delicate net-work of their floating branches is moved by the passing zephyrs. Seldom, indeed, is such a tissue of taste, fancy, and fine expression woven as the third variation of this admirable composition. Philomel, by G. Kiallmark—a nice little composition, full of fancy and sweetness, and in good taste-pure, natural, chaste, and poetical. Rousseau's dream with variations, by the same author, is infused with so little of the same qualities, or, is rather so entirely destitute of them, that it is matter of surprise, how they should have both proceeded from the same mind. A favourite Irish Melody, with Variations by the same Author. The subject is the beautiful ballad The Last Rose of Summer, and its treatment is spirited and agreeable. Though not quite exempt from the samenesses of the old school, there is yet so much life and melody that we can pardon the casual lapse into hacknied construction, since it is so light, and redeemed by so much vivacity. The Maid of the Mill, with Variations. We have heard that an ingenious mechanic is about to construct an engine to melodize a bass, to harmonize an air, to produce variations upon a theme. The author of this lesson is an organist, and has a domicile" a local habitation and a name," and therefore we presume that this is not one of the specimens from the machine, which, till we turned to the title (the last part of a sonata we look at) we thought to be the case. Three Romances, by G. Bourget. In the genuine French manner, both poetry and music; but they are something above the million of such things. The Maid of Derby, for the harp. Mr. Dussek has chosen a threadbare and a vulgar subject, and his treatment of it is not such as to redeem its original poverty. He has simply made it a pretty lesson, and this, perhaps, is no mean praise, considering how rugged and ungrateful to modern ears the theme is become, by so long a course of dinning and degradation. Mr. Kalkbrenner has received the very high honour of having a sonata dedicated to him by the veteran Clementi " as a mark of esteem for his eminent talents." This great composer has rested, of late, from his long and successful labours, but the sonata before us proves his vigour unimpaired, his sensibility even more exalted, and his judgment now bearing the fullest fruits of maturity. It is like nothing else that we know. Mr. Clementi always writes with the comprehensive grasp of an artist who sees the whole of his design before him. He never appears to be led by chance, but to command his matter and his arrangement: the entire beauties of such a production are therefore only comprehended by the eye of a master, who can ascend from the parts to the whole. This sonata is difficult to execute at all, and far more so to execute in the spirit of the author: but it is rich in ideas, and they are expanded with the genius and learning universally attributed to Mr. Clementi. To understand the variety and nice shades of feeling with which he intends his work to be expressed, we beg the player to examine minutely the continual directions with which the adagio is crowded. A finer and more complete study cannot be recommended. Latour's Le Petit Tambour. Mr. L. has selected an air which admits of rendering the old plan of variations susceptible of apparent novelty; and he has managed his subject with considerable skill. This is a sonata to please. Musicians will be well satisfied with the dexterity and science with which the composer has contrasted his own illustrations, and parts of the theme-while, to the million, the lesson will seem striking and impressive. The author has metamorphosed his sonata into a duet with ingenuity and success. We have, this month, a sixth set of arietts from Mr. Sor. The delicacy of the intrument (the Spanish guitar) for which this professor is chiefly celebrated, makes him less known to the public than his merits deserve; for, as a player, he is spirited and refined; as a singer and composer, polished, various, and full of fire and feelling. His compositions na turally embody these qualities, and we see in them the sensibility of the man concentrated and sublimated, as it were, by the properties of his instrument. These arietts are very ele gant, and breathe of the spirit we have described. Though such things abound in Italian, we have no English songs of the same refined delicacy. The Canzonets of Haydn and Mozart, adapted to English words, are the only things that convey an idea to our countrymen of the pure spirit which produces such very elegant trifles. These last indeed are, at once, the model and perfection of the art. Guttman's Carnival, a Rondo, is a melodious, light, and lively strain, calculated to amuse, and to draw on young players. The passages are sufficiently easy, yet not without such changes, as well diversify the exercise for the hand. Air Martial; by L. Von Esch. A bold theme, handled with a good deal of taste, animation, and ingemuity. Mr. Von Esch has contrived to dissipate the sameness by continual changes in the construction in the measure, and by strong accen→ tuation. The lesson deviates from the cannon, and rises above the mediocrity which is too frequently the only characteristic of such compositions. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. Steam Engine Furnaces and Atmo sphere of the Metropolis.-Mr. M.A.Tay. lor has lately brought forward a motion in the House of Commons, for the appointment of a committee, to consider of the practicability of compelling persons employing Steam Engines and Furnaces, to erect the same in a manner less prejudicial to the health and comfort of the public than those usually employed for that purpose. The object of Mr. T.'s motion, although praiseworthy in itself, scarcely embraces one half of those nuisances which have so long rendered the scite of the metropolis proverbial for its fetid atmosphere, and general unfitness for the support of animal life. Manufactories of ammonia, white lead, vitriol, and other deleterious compounds, thickly beset the environs; and, in some cases, the very centre of London, not to mention the minor nuisances of melting tallow, boiling soap, and the thousand other evils contained in this pandora's box of impurity. The first idea of a furnace for consuming its own smoke was, we be lieve, suggested by M. Dalesme, a cele brated French engineer, who, in 1686, publicly exhibited an apparatus for this purpose at the fair of St. Germains, near Paris; but little attention, however, appears to have been given to the subject at this period. M. D.'s furnace was, in prin. ciple, nearly similar to those generally employed for heating large shops and manu factories, with this exception, that the smoke, instead of passing behind the grate, was made to descend through the centre of the liquid mass of fuel, and by this means nearly the whole of the inflammable part of the coal was consumed. The plan proposed to the House of Commons, is that lately adopted by Mr. Barnes, of Warwick; and this Mr. T. states, in his opening speech, to have fully answered the intendand, in proof that no nuisance manufactory after the ed adoption of the above plan, he states that there was a bleaching-ground within ten yards of the furnace; there was also a garden and conservatory; and none of these were injured or annoyed by the smoke. We cannot, however, consistently with our present limits, enter into a detailed account of the various processes employed for this purpose, the major part of which have been already described in the Parliamentary Re port on this subject; but we should be wanting in justice to a most ingenious mechanic, and indeed to the public in ge neral, who are likely to profit so largely by his invention, were we to omit noticing the smoke-burning and fire-regulators in vented by Mr. Brunton, of Birmingham. This very simple apparatus, which is now employed at Messrs. Liptrap and Smith's distillery, Whitechapel, not only consumes the smoke, but it also economises the con sumption of coal, which it distributes upon the fire in small portions, and at short in tervals of time. It may also be right to add, that the whole economy of the fire is taken from the controul of the workman, and put under the same mechanical regularity as the speed of the engine, or the feeding of the boiler with water, and becomes equally subject to the inspecting eye of the proprietor. Mr. Davis, of Duckinfield, we understand, consumes the smoke from steam-engines, and other fires, by the following simple plan; and to those who have falling-doors, it will cause scarcely any expense: the man attending the fur nace, before he supplies the fire with coals, pushes the fire forward, and lays the coals on the place where the fire laid, closing the door within an inch and half of the bottom. The air rushing through the part left open, has the effect of burning the smoke completely, with the exception of a small quantity which passes off during the performance of this operation. Discoveries in Africa. By accounts re ceived from the interior of this hitherto inaccessible country, it appears that the expedition under the command of Major Gray, on whom the direction devolved after the death of Major Peddie, has returned to a colony on the river Senegal, after a most harassing journey through the country of the Foolado. Mr. Docherd, the surgeon attached to the expedition, had, with a few individuals, however, proceeded onwards to Bammakoo, in Bambarra, where, our readers may recollect, the unfortunate Park finally embarked on the Niger. At this place, as well as at Sansanding and Yamina, provisions were in abundance, and every sort of European merchandize in great demand: the native merchants passing from Morocco across the Great Desert being the only channel for a supply of these articles. Phosphoric Acid. Mr. Barry, who has lately obtained a patent for his mode of evaporating vegetable extracts in a vacuum, has observed, during a comparison of the preparations made in this way, and those commonly prepared, that phosphoric acid, in a soluble state, is to be found in all the extracts. On further extending the investigation, it was ascertained that this acid, besides that portion that exists as phosphate of lime, is contained in a vast variety of vegetables; and he has also remarked, that all these vegetables which are cultivated seem to contain phosphoric acid in great abundance. Atmospheric Phenomena. The most striking difference in the results of the atmospheric phenomena, for the last two years, is in the number of meteors (some of them of a large size): of 121, no less than 95 appeared in the evenings of July, August, and September, the three hottest months in the last year. It may, therefore, be inferred, that they are generated by heat in an atmosphere highly charged with electric matter. Philosophic Girl.The Italian journals mention that a young lady, only 13 years of age, named Maria Catherina Gherardi, a native of Serola, has maintained in public a series of philosophic theses, in the Latin language. Ingenious Automaton.----A German journal asserts, that an artist at Cemberg, in Prussia, has constructed a watch which imitates the human voice, and answers questions in German and Polish; besides executing musical airs. Sherry.The name sec, corruptly written sack, signifies dry; the sec wine prepared at Xeres, in Spain, is called, according to our orthograghy, sherris, or sherry. In the manufacture of this wine, lime is added to the grapes; a circumstance, observes Dr. Macculloch, apparently condu cive to its well-known dry quality, and which probably acts by neutralizing a portion of malic, or tartaric acid. French Steam-Packet.---A Royal brig, called Le Voyageur, was lately fitted out at L'Orient for a voyage to Senegal, as a steam-packet, the first of this construction that has quitted a French port for a distant expedition. Intelligence has, we believe, been received of her safe arrival at the place of her destination. Mr. Pond, Dr. Young, and General Mudge, have lately been elected members of the Danish Academy of Sciences. This distinguished honour, as far at least as regards the latter of these learned mathematicians, is but posthumous, the country having been already deprived of his services. New Projection of the Sphere.In this projection, which has been drawn by Capt. J. Vetch, the globe is supposed to be inscribed in a cylinder, the axes of the globe and cylinder being at right angles to each other, and their surfaces, therefore, coinciding at a meridian. The eye is supposed to remain at rest in the centre of the globe, and each point in the earth's surface is transferred to that of the cylinder by a right line passing from the earth's centre through that point. The cylinder being then unrolled, a view of the earth is obtained on a plane surface. Gathering of the Clans.It is a singular circumstance, that, in the Island of Ceylon, a custom prevailed among the natives of the former kingdom of Candy, similar to the "Gathering" described in Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake:-On any sudden call of the natives to rise up in arms, one of them, carrying a crooked stick in his hand, ran swiftly along, announcing to all he met the spot of rendezvous. The place was generally some small rising ground, and marked by a single tree left standing. There are many such in the Candian territory, and they are commonly the resort of the natives for religious or other purposes. Earthquakes. Intelligence from the Ionian Islands announces, that on the 21st February last, a terrible shock of an earthquake had devastated the island of Saint Maura. The church, several public buildings, and almost all the houses, were demolished, and the roads destroyed. At Corfu, also, we understand, considerable volcanic phenomena have been observed, and a small island has since emerged from the sea off Santa Maura, which is attributed to the late subterraneous commotion. His Majesty's sloop Aid has been dispatched to survey it, and to christen it Lauderdale's Rock. The sack of Shakspeare was probably sherry; a conjecture which receives additional strength from the following passage: Falstaff. You rogue, here's lime in this sack too: there is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it: a villainous coward !" POLITICS AND PUBLIC EVENTS. HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL SUMMARY OF INTELLIGENCE. THE return of the Queen from Italy, in defiance of a menace held out by ministers, and in opposition to the known and earnest wishes of his Majesty, has caused discussions, and led to events, which may be said to have entirely occupied the public attention since the arrival in question. Never, perhaps, did so many important topics, connected with the state of the nation, press directly for the serious consideration of the people of this country. The greater number of the notices, now standing on the lists of the two houses of Parliament, may be said to include points which immediately affect the very existence of the state. We have no interest now to lavish on secondary subjects of debate, for we have become familiar with the language of life and death, and live in the near approach of an inevitable crisis. Yet, encompassed, borne upon, as we are, by the most momentous objects of deliberation, and demands for decision, the arrival of the Queen in this country has in an instant, suspended all public sympathy, except that which is so intensely engaged in the accusations brought against her, and the treatment she has received from the crown and its counsellors. Among the many grave evils, which most persons seem to anticipate from discussions, that it has been found more easy to excite, than, we venture to predict, it will be found to set them again at rest, this does not appear to us to be one of the least. In no one way can the public interests be promoted by the disagreeable investigation with which the country is threatened; not one advantage of a really public nature is involved in these disputes-for it is allowed by all impartial persons, that, whatever the result may be, no lesson favourable to morality can possibly be derived from it ;-that whichever party may ultimately triumph, neither good example, nor virtue, is likely to derive much honour from their success. Here then are the time and ability; the physical powers, the attention, the spirits, of the two legislative assemblies, likely to be fully occupied, and for a long and tedious period, with a matter, at once grossly distasteful and totally useless; and that, too, when affairs of great and crying urgency thrust themselves forward to be considered and regulated. The country is in a state of difficulty which leaves both the ministerial party and the opposition, equally at a loss to suggest any thing like probable means of relief; it is in a state of discontent which has called, say ministers, for new and severe laws, and an addition to the standing army. The industry of the nation is divided against itself,-agriculture against manufactures,--and both these are calling upon Parliament for protection. Our commerce is assailed by unparalleled difficulties and competition, and prays that a new legal system, likely to enable it to cope with these, may be adopted in regard to it. Our currency is in the very crisis of a revolution, which must sensibly affect all private fortunes, and which will try the very foundations of the state. The party most averse to any change in the constitution of Parliament, has acknowledged the necessity of correcting certain coarse and obvious abuses in the practice of elections; and the inquiry as to the expedient remedy is at present pending. The public feeling has at length raised itself in resistance to the sanguinary and unenlightened provisions which disgrace our criminal code; and the legal position in which the poor of the country are placed relatively to the other classes, is at once disgraceful and destructive-it provides for their corruption as well as misery, it throws an intolerable burthen on industry, and enlarges and perpetuates the evil which it is intended to relieve. Such are a few of the more promi❤ nent points, claiming immediate consideration, and energetic measures on the part of Parliament: and never be❤ fore was it so unanimously allowed as at present, that every step taken |