which sacred music so preeminently inspires, but every thing that

The Festival began on Tuesday morning ; Monday

association can furnish is abundantly supplied,—.with such an ad- devoted to rehearsal. The Princess VICTORIA and her motherm vantage to start with, it ought to be the most perfect demonst— -

filled, but the places appropriated to ordinary hearers were but that the mere assembling a large band in this noble building was

thinly attended. The performance (like that at the Abbey) began all that they were called upon to do; and the arrangement of the

with the most vulgar of HANDEL'S Coronation Anthems. There band, the music on which it was to be employed, and the persons is one of these which, independently of its superior musical pre- selected to perform it, were matters of very inferior moment. They

have forgotten that where ample means and extensive resources tensions, (and it is one of HANDEL'S finest anthems,) would have Queen; are confided, corresponding and well-directed exertions are justly been singularly appropriate in the presence of our future QS Crea- expected. These have never been found at any present one. preceding York I ut this was rejected. Such was the prelude to HAYDN Festival, and they are deplorably deficient in the tion ; which never but once was thus ushered in, and that too was

The public were kept in the dark, until the last minute, as to at the Abbey. If a hundred volumes of sacred music had been

what they were to hear. The printed schemes were only circu- the mind ibr the sublime intrcduction to that oratorio, " Ube

how the disjointed limbs of these eminent writers were to be

• INSCRUTABLE are the ways of managers, or atbest, but "dimly united, and in what proportions the fragments were ts be served seen" to us who enter only the audience part of a theatre. For up, remained a profound secret—perhaps prudently so. We example—this unfortunate company, run aground by their pilot, stated that the only novelty in preparation was a Chorus. by NEU., take the command of the vessel into their own hands, resolving to ROMM. But if the scheme exhibited little that was new, it cannot redeem their fortunes and restore their fames by a combined and be denied that there was something quite original in the selection Vigorous effort ; and as a proof of their skill and experience, they. of the performers. With the exception of Mrs. KNYVETT, hoist the colours of Meecanarcre ! MERCA DANTE—the butt and who undertook the part of prima donna, most of the English byword of every orchestra in Europe—a fellow who lives only by singers were employed in singing concerted pieces,. while the pilfering, and is not even yet an adept at his trade—as Peachum songs were chiefly committed to the Italians. Thus, in the third said of one of his gang, " a poor, petty larceny rascal, without a morning's performance, Pnumes had only a recitative to sing ; spark of genius for his profession "—ignorant of the value of what and BRAHAM'S name occurred but once in the bills of Friday. he purloins, and discovering the extent of his thefts by the blun- To make amends for these deficiencies, we were (shall we say ?) dering use to which he applies his stolen property. And in order indulged with "Angels ever bright 'and fair," " What though to fill up the measure of their folly, they fasten upon Elisa e I trace, " Lord to thee," and "From mighty kings." But the Claudio—the very opera of this author which a few years since weight of attraction was evidently thrown into the scale of GRISI, bad been tried and condemned at the King's Theatre, where alone, RUBIN', and LABLACHE. In all this jumbling and jostling, this if anywhere, it could have succeeded. Our opinion of its character mixture of jobbing and bad taste, we do not recognize the hands was then given; an opinion which the performance at the English of the Conductors. WILLIAM KNYVETT is a cautious and a timid Opera House has not changed for the better. As nothing in the field man, unaccustomed to control, and trained from infancy to obey-- of dramatic literature is so barren as the modern opera buffa of Italy, implicitly to obey and reverence the dictum of a titled person, our adapters have usually found it expedient to plant a new cha- especially should that person chance to be an Ancient Concert Di- racier or scatter a few flowers of wit or humour, where they were at rector: but he could not have made this scheme. Ksivvarr has command: but here the libretto stands forth in all its native dreary an instinctive love of good music—you may see by the glisten of dulness ; the only change on which the arranger has ventured being his eye how he feels it : often, when the bigots of his school look the substitution of dialogue in the place of recitative, or of singing grave or frightened, you may observe in his countenance the in some of the concerted pieces,—a change by which both singers triumph of natural good taste over prejudice. Therefore we acquit and auditors were much relieved. It is strange that those who him of the fabrication of this scheme; and we acquit him, also, of undertake this kind of work don't discover the utter unfitness of any design to expose his English brethren to contempt and humi- our language for the purpose to which they seek to apply it; or, if liation. ''The fact is, that he, and Dr. CAMIDGE (who has less in- they are too ignorant to discern this, that the singers to whom it fluence than Karvverr), though styled Conductors in the scheme, must be sufficiently palpable, don't remonstrate, and if remon- are but mere instruments in the bands of another, to whose in- stmnce be ineffectual, rebel against such an attempt to render thience the arrangements of the Festival are really to be referred. them ridiculous. The smoothness and pliability of the Italian Ian- It was precisely so last year at the Abbey Festival. Certain guage fit it for the union of rapid with distinct articulation—a persons were appointed, and a list was published of the individuals combination which our stubborn tongue will not admit ; and there named as the Committee of Management, upon whom it was in- are a thousand vernacular expressions which in the former are tended to cast all the odium which attached to the proceedings. gracefully ludicrous, but which rendered into English are incorn- We exposed the artifice then, and made known the fact that this prehensibly absurd. Such lines as these occur in the opera of Committee, like the Convocation at St. Paul's, met only to be dis-

which we are speaking— missed : and the same game has now been played at York, with

Ill have myself righted ; The arrangements of the Orchestra differed in some respects I'll stop all their funning, Although they are running : from those of the' ast festival ; and differed for the worse. The Yes—once they are retarded orchestra stood, as before, in the very worst place, for its purpose, I must be regarded." in the building,—that is, directly under the Lantern Tower,—

the hind part before ; all the subordinate, the less important divis having been be

turned over to find the piece which, of all others, would most unfit the Priest" must have been selected. SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY. Only the first and second acts of the Creation were performed : any rational cause for this mutilation it would be difficult to assign. P

such Was *very far from being the case: scarcely one of the

telling," end " Achieved is the glorious work," were completely .

to do. The recitative and air, " N3W Heaven in fullest glory,'' MIMI', were rillotted to a Mr. MACHIN, (PHILLIps sitting by, idle); who completely drove the band out of the field, and at length left the SOUTH AUSTRALIAN LAND BANK.

aecompaniment in the lianas of the Conductor. It ought to be

Milton's Version. s

a matured and unequivocal decision in favour of absurdity. plished may be shortly stated.

So the majestic energy of BARTLEMAN spoke in " Why do It is scarcely necessary to say, that this plan is an improve- the nations," and the purity and pathos of HARRISON in ment on most of the schemes of a national bank which have been " Behold and see." When another SIDDONS or another KEMBLE recommended for this country. Instead of depending upon arises, let Macbeth and Hamlet be revived—when another MARA the heedlessness and the reckless ignorance of a Parliamentary and BARTLEMAN, let us hear again the Messiah. The actors of majority, and upon the accommodating integrity of a Ministry or the present day wisely allow these plays to repose : if our singers an influential party, notes cannot be issued but upon the request bad equal prudence, they would place the Messiah on the shelf, of men who have security to offer, and who must pay a portion of There is one part of their vocal duty which they all religiously per- any expense that may attend a compliance with their demand; form—cadence-making. Oh, that these ebullitions of folly and con- whilst the tests of the over-issue, and the checks by which it may ceit could but be penned down and preserved! Is there no one with be regulated, seem constructed by parties well acquainted with the a quick hand and retentive memory able to perpetuate and enshrine difficult science of currency. So far, therefore, as any scheme is these vocal gems? They would sell for something abroad, as advantageous which substitutes the ingenious contrivances of curiosities. The accompaniments of MOZART, now generally used men for the immutable laws of nature, the South Australian Land when the Messiah is performed, preclude the possibility of a Bank may take place among the best. But it cannot be denied, cadence to any one of the songs: he evidently thought it a piece that the notes not being convertible on demand, all responsibility of impertinence, of which no singer would be guilty, to volunteer for an over-issue is diverted from the bankers (whose trade, whilst such an appendage : our singers (including all the young gen- it enforces the inducement to study, gives them the means of tlemen and ladies who make their first appearances) think diffe- learning the wants of the district) to persons who have little rently ; and in compliance with their mandates, all these parts of knowledge of the facts, perhaps none at all of the principles of the MOZART'S accompaniments are cut out, that their cadences may business in hand ; whose responsibility is remote, and divided