ment. We do not mean to confine this phrase to the mere application of chords, but to extend it to all the expedients for setting off the composition to the best advantage. He is thoroughly conversant with the business and detail of an orchestra, and can, we believe, play on a stringed instrument. He reads music with the surest facility, and is perfectly acquainted with the limits which the laws of harmony impose upon the use of ornament. He is, however, so unfortunately near sighted, that the best printed music is almost illegible to him by candle light. This impediment at once embar. rasses and distresses him, for it occasions a never ceasing dread of error, from which nothing frees him, but committing every thing be sings to memory, a labour, which were it to be overcome by indus try, is often impracticable from circumstances.

Much of what we had to say of his EXECUTION has been gathered from the preceding notices. His facility is, however, extraordinary, and we can assure our readers, from private observation, that this facility ministers to a fancy not less exuberant and fertile than is his power of rapidly running through passages. In public, MR. LACY generally confines himself to bass singing, and except in such air as those of CRESCENTINI, we have seldom witnessed any exhibition of that volatility which we know he possesses. We have heard him in private sing some of MR. BRAHAM's songs of agility with as rapid, neat, and articulate execution as that gentleman him self. But such excursion is not even yet allowed to bass singers in an orchestra, although the former boundaries upon the imagination have been removed, and the domain is enlarged by modern authori ty and practice.

To conclude our article, we can only repeat what we said at its commencement, that we regard MR. LACY, in point of power, finish, and variety, to be the finest bass singer that has yet appeared. We estimate his Italian something more highly than his English singing. But his numerous excellencies can only be discovered by such a series of performances, as we enjoy during those provincial meetings called Musical Festivals.

The principles upon which he has been taught and upon which he has studied, any judge of vocal art will perceive before he has given half a dozen notes, as well as the rare extent of his natural endowments. These constitute the superiority, and principally, we should say the first, the excellent rudiments of instruction, to which he has submit

ted himself. We regret exceedingly for this reason his departure from England, at a moment when bad taste is propagating in all directions; when the prominent defects of MR. BRAHAM's violencies and extravagancies, and when the radical error of MR. BARTLEMAN'S school have made, and are making lamentable havoc with the rising generation of singers. The beautiful, elegant, and graceful propriety of MR. VAUGHAN goes far to abate the vehement proneness to imitation of the former in every class above the vulgar, and we had formed hopes that MR. LACY would have assisted to demonstrate the justness of the principles we have endeavoured to describe and establish. But it has happened otherwise, and therefore it remains to us only to bid this gentleman farewell, and to wish him, as we do, with a sincerity of heart, not less warm than our admiration of his public qualifications demands at our hands, every good that those qualifications, great and various as they are, give him the fullest title to expect from the new world into which he is about to cast himself. It is in sorrow, that we say to him, and to the admirable and affectionate partner of his life and his voyage-Vive Valeque.

IF we were desired on the sudden to give the most striking and satisfactory proof, not only of the advancement of high musical science and practice, but also of the propagation and reception of the love of fine music amongst the public of England, we should, without a moment's hesitation, adduce the institution and performance of the Philharmonic Society; and for the following reasons.-The associa tion of so many pre-eminent professors upon a common principle of the most perfect equality, who yield and occupy by turns the highest and the lowest situations in the orchestra, affords a test, not to be disputed, of an universal determination to carry perfection to its utmost pitch; and since competition must excite the highest possible emulation amongst men of genius so contrasted and measured against each other, it should seem as if all were impelled to lay aside every

feeling that could impede the progress of science in the utmost stretch of attainment. So far as the profession is concerned, this evidence appears to us conclusive, for active and strong indeed must that motive be, which can allay the inevitable irritation excited by the struggles of personal qualities for personal precedency. When the ungifted part of the world affect to wonder and to laugh at the morbid jealousies which riot round the circle of talent, "they talk of pangs they never felt"-they sport with an evil they never can feel. But to be thrust in a manner down from the pinnacle of estimation to a lower place, to hear the plaudits, which are the sentence of extrusion, ring in the ear without a sigh, is a trial not to be sustained by common philosophy, particularly when we remember that with fame are here connected place, dignity, and estcem, no less than the means of life. When, therefore, we perceive professors not only consenting to such admeasurement, but presenting themselves voluntarily to the standard, and giving place to each other with a condescension as graceful as it is honorable, we can but consider that all meaner passions have been stilled and absorbed in the love of the art to which their lives are devoted, rather than stimulated by the hope of gain or the desire of applause. In the second instance (the eagerness with which these concerts are sought and attended,) we say we read the more general diffusion of the love of science; for when the habits of affluence, when the thirst for light amusements, prevalent in high life, are taken into the computation, a surpassing degree of musical taste is certified by crowded audiences of such persons desiring to listen in perfect stillness to compositions for instruments, during an uninterrupted interval of three quarters of an hour, and the calling for a repetition. Nothing, we think, can speak more decisively the real love and understanding of music amongst the orders we describe. And when again the attention is protracted through six entire evenings the testimony is complete. Such, however, are the phænomena which attend the institution we are about to describe.

Concerts sustained by professors may be found in the musical his tory of this country for more than a century back. Of such a kind was that held originally at Haberdasher's Hall, afterwards at the King's Arms, Cornhill, and which expired in 1774. We allude to this more particularly, because perhaps, it may have had some influence in establishing the Philharmonic, as we observe the name of MR.

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DANCE among the performers there. GIARDINI led and MR. D. played the principal second. MRS. BILLINGTON also, being then only seven years old, played a concerto on the pianoforte, in 1773. The Academy of Ancient Music, held at the Crown and Anchor, which sunk and re-appeared several times, till at last finished under the conduct of DR. ARNOLD, in the beginning of the present century, was also of the same kind. BACH and ABEL'S concerts afterwards taken up with so much liberality by LORD ABINGDON, who expended 16007. in a fruitless attempt to support them, came nearer in point of excellence. After the loss of this sum his Lordship declined to volunteer any further pecuniary guarantee, and the profession determined to try their fortune in carrying them on. From 1785 to 1793 the performances continued to flourish, but the opposition established by SALOMON, and the increasing taste for vocal music, put an end to the efforts of the professors in that year. This musician was piqued at being left out of the professional concerts, and hearing that HAYDN had been engaged by LORD ABINGDON, and that he was disappointed by the termination of his Lordship's management, SALOMON set off to bring him over. It is to this circumstance that the world probably owes those symphonies which are the finest monuments of instrumental art. HAYDN was engaged not only to compose but to direct the performance of his productions, and thus he was roused by every motive, and excited by the highest instances of talent, that could be engaged in his service. So it happens that even our bad passions are enlisted on the side of general utility.

After the dissolution of these concerts, instrumental music gave way to vocal, which rose by such rapid advances that its former superior was in imminent danger of losing that degree of encouragement which is indispensible to it nourishment and support. Living talent languished for want of patronage, and the works of departed genius were likely to be soon forgotten. The dormant recollections and appetites were however revived by the spirited exertions of a few individuals. MESSRS. J. CRAMER, CORRI, and DANCE, met at the house of the latter, and agreed to invite, at a subsequent meeting, the attention of the profession to so excellent a purpose. To this intent they summoned twelve other gentlemen to their aid, and an immediate attempt to institute a concert by the gratuitous exercise of their talents was not only resolved upon, but a subscription of

three guineas each was entered into. A plan was digested and the number increased to thirty, to which it was then limited. An opening, however, was left for subscribers amongst the profession, to which no bounds were assigned, who were to be admitted under the title of associates, but who were neither to enjoy the privilege of a vote, or any other interest in the constitution of the society. After the original thirty all vacancies were to be filled up from the list of associates by ballot. These gentlemen were as under, and it will be seen that the list comprises a great proportion of the finest talents of the country.

Subscribers at four guineas each, and members of their families at two, were also admitted. The Argyle Rooms were engaged. Wind instruments and some other performers were employed, and eight concerts (the first of which was in February, 1813,) were led by SALOMON, F. CRAMER, VIOTTI, SPAGNOLETTI, YANIEWITZ, and VACCARI, in turn. The principal of the conduct of the musical department will be explained by the following law ;—

"Rule second. That the chief object of the society is the performance, in the best style possible, of the most approved instrumental music; consisting of full pieces, concertantes for not less than three principal instruments, sestettos, quintettos, quartettos, and trios; that no concerto, solo, or duetto, shall ever be performed at any of the society's concerts; that if the directors should think it expedient at any time to introduce vocal music with full orchestra accompaniments, it must be under the above limitations." The directors for the first season were-MESSRS. AYRTON, BISHOP, CLEMENTI, CORRI, CRAMER, F. CRAMER, and DANCE, and sixty-one professors joined the society, as associates, including almost every name known in the annals of the science in the country. To crown the