other. If," continues the Inspector, "the removal of such anomalies could be effected, there can be no doubt that the service and the public generally would be materially benefited." We should think not; and why should not the municipal authorities be empowered and required to take the necessary steps for their removal? We boast of being the first commercial nation in the world; we spare neither pains nor expense in the transmission of our correspondence; and yet are content, with unaccountable apathy, to endure such hindrances, which a very little trouble might easily remedy. If the powers were but once definitely conferred, a certain number of officers, and pots of white paint, would effect the whole required revolution. abroad. An investigation showed that the abstraction was made by the publisher's clerk; his object apparently being to appropriate the stamps required to defray the foreign postage. In another case, a general complaint having arisen as to the loss of newspapers sent to the Chief Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, the investigation led to the discovery of a regular mart, held near the Office, and supplied with newspapers by the private messengers employed to convey them to the post. Again, very recently, a man was detected in robbing a newsvender's cart, by volunteering, on its arrival at the entrance of this Office, to assist the driver in posting the newspapers. Instead of doing so, he walked through the hall with those intrusted to him; and, upon his being stopped, three quires of a weekly paper were found in his possession."."-P. 44. The public are also requested to remember that a considerable time is almost always We cannot refrain from mentioning some more of the "Suggestions to the Public." Complaints are constantly being made of let-necessary before alterations can be carried ters and parcels which are alleged to have been either mis-sent or delayed, without the requisite information being furnished with regard to all the facts of the case. In many instances no account is rendered as to the person by whom, or the time when, or even the office at which, the missing article was posted the waste of the time of the PostOffice servants is thus added to the impossibility of redress. In an army of twenty-one thousand servants there will, almost of course, be dishonest and negligent individuals; but a thorough investigation very frequently shows that the blame attributed to them rests really in other quarters. Of this the following examples are given : "The publisher of one of the London papers complained of the repeated loss in the Post-Office of copies of his journal addressed to persons into effect. The different lines of communication are so exceedingly numerous, and so very dependent upon one another in their would be liable to cause a dislocation of the working, that any ill-considered change machinery, and the whole must be kept in order by a careful and gentle hand. Even when inquiries have been made in every quarter, and suitable arrangements for the ned, there may be existing contracts to various intersecting lines have been planbe terminated, and new ones to be entered upon, possibly fresh modes of conveyance to be supplied. All these duties necessarily require high ability, diligence, and precision, on the part of those to whom they are intrusted; and the combination of an immense number of them must fail under the management of any person who is not possessed of very considerable administrative ability. WEAVING BY ELECTRICITY.-An invention | that promises to create a revolution in the manufacture of silks, linens, cottons-in fact of all woven articles-has just been perfected here, and a specimen is now on its way to the Paris exhibition. This is the electric loom, invented by Cavaliere Bonelli, inspector of telegraphs in the Sardinian States. Some time since I noticed to you his application of electricity to the jacquard loom, whereby he was enabled to dispense with cards, and much of the manipulation neces sary for the old system of weaving; but in the more prefected specimen now about to be exhibited, the inventor has added steam power to supersede manual labor, so that one intelligent workman may attend to many machines at the same time, and the operation of making all kinds of patterns will be as easy, cheap, and expeditious, as printing and knitting in different patterns is also performed with similar instruments.-Turin correspondent of the Times. From Chambers' Journal. MEYERBEER AND HIS MUSIC. THE life of Giacomo Meyerbeer, now the most illustrious of living composers for the operatic stage, is one which should convey a hopeful and valuable lesson to those who labor in the cause of art. By no coup de main has he won the command of all the great Opera-houses of Europe; by no lucky chance or clever audacity has he risen to the highest eminence known to his especial vocation; but by a career of extraordinary application, by patient elaboration, and an incessant exacting particularity almost without a parallel in the history of maestri. For forty years has he been climbing the mountainsteep; and now, in the fulness of days, he stands upon the Olympian height-his purpose achieved, his "own idea" so wrought out and impressed upon the world, that the Meyerbeerian Opera is now a distinct and colossal feature in musical art, completely sui generis, and apart from comparison or imitation. To all aspiring artists, the spectacle of a composer rising step by step, in spite of competition and obstruction, and after repeated failures, to the very highest pinnacle of fame and popularity, cannot but be encouraging and stimulating. Especially to English composers would we point out M. Meyerbeer as an example on account of his loyalty to his own original ideas. The great cause of our weakness in English Opera, lies in the fact that our composers, from Arno down to Bishop, and from Bishop to Balfe, have based their conceptions upon Italian and German models, so that it cannot be said that there is a school of English Opera in existence. But Meyerbeer would always be Meyerbeer, whether writing for the German, Italian, or French stage; and notwithstanding that he commenced his career at a time when the world was ravished with the fascinating strains of Rossini, he kept faith in his own theory, clung to it, worked for it, waited for it, until at length he has secured for it an audience which embraces every city in the world where there is an Opera-house. It must not be forgotten, however, that much of the excitement at present existing with regard to Meyerbeer is the result of | fashion. That excitement will be modified in course of time, when the composer will be more correctly appreciated. However little his music may enter into that general vogue which has been gained by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Weber, his grand operas will live as great master-pieces, as perfected and elaborate chefs-d'œuvre. As we are not aware that any memoir of Meyerbeer has been published, the following few particulars, gleaned from various sources, may not be uninteresting at the present time : Giacomo Meyerbeer is the son of a rich and well-known Jewish banker of the same name, or, as it has been otherwise stated, James Beer; and was born in Berlin, in the year 1791-so that he must be now about sixtyfour years old. At a very early age, he manifested a strong predilection for music, and while still very young, attracted much attention by his talents as a pianist. His love for the divine art appears to have been encouraged by those who superintended his progress in life. When only nineteen years of age, he was placed under the tuition of the celebrated Abbé Vogler, once the detested and ridiculed of Mozart, an old school-teacher of counterpoint, but still a musical doctrinaire with a theory of composition of his own. In this position, he became the fellowpupil of one of the most glorious geniuses the world has ever produced--the unique expositor of German romantic Opera, Carl Maria von Weber. It appears that the two students-"acolytes of immortality," to use a phrase of Goethe's-became greatly attached to each other. Pursuing their studies with enthusiasm, they worked together, sharing the same room, and participating in congenial ambitions. Two years after Meyerbeer had become a pupil of Vogler, the abbé closed his school, and made a tour through Germany for a twelvemonth with his pupils, at that time four in number. Under his direction, Meyerbeer produced at Munich his opera of Jephtha, the libretto by Schreiber, The young composer was as yet, however, too faithful a disciple of the old contrapun The veteran Salieri-who, in his younger days, had, like Vogler, been the contemporary and competitor of Mozart-advised the young composer to visit Italy, for the express purpose of cultivating a taste for melody. This counsel he followed, and made a sojourn in the immemorial land of song. tist. His work did him credit as a student, | trying his powers in the province of French but there was nothing in it to bewitch the grand Opera. He followed, in fact, a course ears of the public. The opera failed. His of close competition with Rossini. Having, second attempt, The Two Caliphs, another by the unequivocal success of Il Crociato, exercise of ingenuity and scholarship, met, established himself as his rival on the Italian in the first place, with a similar fate. This stage, he followed him to the Grand Opera was a comic opera, and was produced both (the Académie) of Paris. M. (now of at Stuttgart and Vienna, but with no success. world-wide celebrity as Dr.) Veron was then Weber, whose friendship for his fellow-pu- the director of the Académie. Rossini's pil was still nobly sustained, and who neg- Guillaume Tell had been produced, and all lected no opportunity of assisting his career, the world was humming those enchanting exerted himself to rescue this work from per- melodies of the green hills of Tyrol, and the dition. Owing to his influence, it was after- bewitching airs de ballet, and talking about wards performed at Prague, under the name the immortal" Suivez-moi !" which, since Duof Abimalek, or Host and Guest, and under prez lost the compass of his glorious voice, its new form and auspices actually met with has never been given with such electric brilconsiderable success. liancy as by the Tamberlik of our own day. At this time, when the star of the Italian composer shone with such meridian brightness, M. Meyerbeer resolved to contest the ground with him. Six years after I Crociato was produced, he brought forward his Robert le Diable, a grand opera on the scale of the Académie, a work on which he had bestowed In 1817, he produced at Padua an opera almost incredible care and pains. The sucentitled Romilda a Costanza, of which, how-cess of this most romantic and exciting of ever, we know nothing more than the name. In 1819 Semiramide Reconoscinta, the libretto by Metastasio, was brought out at Turin-of which also we know nothing. For the great Opera-house of La Scala, at Milan, he wrote Margherita d'Anjou; and for the same theatre, L'Exile di Granata, which was produced in 1823. None of these works, however, whatever degree of success they might have won at first, have been able to keep the stage. But the next in chronological order was a great step in advance, and presents the first work which made a marked and wide-spread impression-namely, Il Crociato in Egytto, which was produced at Venice in 1825. This caused a complete furore, and seems to have almost turned the heads of the enthusiastic and impassioned Italians. It contains some charming music, and among other things, one delicious little chorus, "Nel silenzio!" the beautiful melody of which is popular to this day all the world over. Besides these works, M. Meyerbeer composed two which have never been performed -namely, La Porte de Brandebourg, written for the Berlin stage, and Almasor, written for the Roman theatre, but never played, on account of the sudden illness of Madame Rossi the prima-donna. Il Crociato is the last opera which M. Meyerbeer composed for the Italian Opera. He seems to have been satisfied with his success on that field, and to have resolved upon operas was immense. Amidst the acclamations that greeted its most original snatches of melody, its impassioned scenas, and stirring and extraordinary choruses, Signor Rossini quitted Paris, declaring that he would never write another bar for the stage. Unfortunately he has kept his word. Passing most of his time at Bologna, leading an eccentric life, he has provoked the patience of the world by studiously keeping aloof from the field on which he had won a name and fame which will endure as long as there are minds and hearts to appreciate the sweetest melodies and the richest style of vocal partwriting which any theatrical composer, excepting Mozart, has yet attained. And the provocation has been all the more intolerable, since, from time to time, the " hermit of Bologna" has put forth fugitive works-now a Stabat Mater, and now a few choruseswhich have proved to demonstration that he still possesses as strongly as ever those glori ous gifts which so charmed the last generation as to give color and justification to the mot of Talleyrand: "At present, I and Rossini govern the world." Robert made the fortune of the lucky Dr. Veron. Following up this grand success, M. Meyerbeer still further clenched his hold upon the public by the production of Les Huguenots, still regarded as his greatest work, which took place at the Académie in 1836. This, undoubtedly, is one of the most extra- | dramatic coloring, A terzetto, a quartetto, ordinary productions with which the public or a chorus from Les Huguenots, Le Prohas ever become acquainted through the ope- phète, or L'Etoile, detached and performed at ratic stage. For seven or eight years, M. a concert, would be about as uninteresting an Meyerbeer was busy over it. The result is a affair as an extracted chapter of Guy Manwonderful exhibition of artistic ingenuity and nering to a reader who knew nothing of the dramatic coloring. The excitement it occa- story. Meyerbeer's music can only be heard sioned even surpassed that produced by Rob in the theatre, in connection with the inciert. The work incontestibly contains some dents and scenery of the drama. There is of the grandest music in the whole operatic nothing of empiricism in his operas - he répertoire. Twelve years after this, the now writes nothing for the music-shops. The sitillustrious maestro brought forth his third uations and passions set forth in his libretto grand opera, Le Prophète, on the same have his concentrated attention. To portray boards, in 1849, after being in rehearsal more these with the utmost possible fidelity, seems than a year-a characteristic speciality of the to be his sole aim. He bas certainly never composer's exacting deliberation and inexor- courted popularity by means of catching-balable conscientiousness. The immense success lads and easy choruses, but has always of this production must be still fresh in the worked like an artist having ideas and a theomemories of all readers who take any note ry of his own, and resolute to achieve their of musical affairs. development. Having, by these remarkable successes in works of the highest pretension, won a leading name in Italian Opera and French romantic Opera, M. Meyerbeer turned his conquering gaze towards the Opéra Comique-the domain, as it has been properly styled, of Boildieu, Auber, and Halévy. Here, again, he has been triumphant. In 1854, at that most brilliant of theatres on the Boulevard Italian, he brought forth his latest work, L'Etoile du Nord. It was performed one hundred times uninterruptedly, and alternately brought forward with no less fortunate results in the chief musical cities of Germany and France; and now during the present season in London, at the Covent Garden Opera, where the enthusiasm of an audience of dilettanti compelled the composer to cross the stage twice amidst applausive ovations, which, perhaps, have never before been equalled so far north of Milan as this. Here, for the present, is the culmination of a busy and indefatigable career of upwards of forty years. With regard to M. Meyerbeer's music, its besetting peculiarity is its unintermittent dramatic character. His operas are great master-pieces as wholes. With the exception of the fine scena, Robert, toi qui j'aime," the romance, Quand je quittais la Normandie," the scena, 66 Va, dit-elle," and or two other pieces, none of his compositions find their way into the programmes of popular concerts. You will find a score of morceaux by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, to every one of Meyerbeer's, notwithstanding that the latter has now for many years been at the head of existing operatic composers. The reason lies in his intense and perpetual 66 Yet, he is not without the power of writing melodies, beautiful and engaging, simply as melodies; witness the chorus "Nel silenzio" in Il Crociato-the romance “Quand je quittais" in Robert-the first romance of Raoul" and the airs de ballet in the Huguenots-the beautiful chorus "Ecco già il se Profetti," the aria "Sol pianto il ciglio versur," and the famous march, in the Prophète, not to mention many other examples. The melody in each of these morceaux is original, flowing, or piquant, and possessing that attribute of popularity which exhibits itself in music haunting our ears long after we have heard it. The closeness with which M. Meyerbeer adheres to his text, makes his compositions appear patchy when heard in a detached form; and the indifference with which he frequently interrupts the course of a beautiful melody, when the sentiment of a line of poetry excites him, has been remarked by every hearer of his works. There is no doubt that the effect of early training has something to do with this peculiarity. Those who have read the memoirs of Mozart, must remember how, in one of his letters to his father, he grumbles about the music of the Abbé Vogler, declaring that he "goes into keys as if he would tear one in by the hair of the head;" and that though one should discover, now and then, "an idea that is not bad,” yet no sooner is the discovery made, than the composer starts off into something else, and disappoints expectation. This was between twenty and thirty years before Weber and Meyerbeer became pupils of the abbé; but though each of them has proved the possession of genius, of which their teacher never made any manifestation, yet it is very possi ble that his theory of composition tended to- To conclude-we do not believe the name wards the development of that peculiar style of Meyerbeer will ever be a household word of writing in which great effects are pro- | amongst us. He has written for the theatre duced by abrupt changes of key. Weber alone, and in the theatre only shall we be was always so felicitous in this expedient for able to hear and admire him. For our home effect, as to render it highly popular; and to amusement, our social practice and displays, this day he has a host of imitators, especially we are still left to the songs, duets, trios, and among the German lied writers. M. Meyer- quartettos of Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, and beer, however, is, after all, not a Weber; Weber-that is, if our taste inclines us to though it is very possible that his grand the music of the Italian and German masters operas, from their individuality, largeness of rather than to that of our own, as the writer structure, and completeness of elaboration, of these remarks confesses is the case with may live as long as the incomparable Freis- himself. chütz. From Dickens' Household Words. PETER THE GREAT IN ENGLAND. THERE was to be seen till lately in the Palace at Hampton Court, a fine full-length portrait of a beardless young man (intentionally beardless), in armor, with a broad and vigorous expression of face, with large eyes that betray a fixed determination of purpose, and, must add, a liking for strong drinks. I refer to the portrait of Peter the Great, which Sir Godfrey Kneller painted for King William the Third during the brief visit of three months which the Czar paid to England in the exceeding sharp and cold season of the year sixteen hundred and ninetyeight. Kneller was never happier than in this picture. He knew his strength; and in the background-a sea-scape (as painters affect to call such things)-he obtained the assistance of the younger Valdervelde, a master in the treatment of maritime matters. This picture is now, I believe, at Buckingham Palace. Prince Albert took it away during the visit to England of the late Emperor Nicholas; but his royal highness, now that the case is altered, may perhaps think proper to return it to its old quarters. Peter was in his twenty-sixth year when he first set foot in England. He had been learning ship-building at Amsterdam, and his visit to England was for no other avowed purpose than that of improving his mechanical skill by steady labor in our naval dock VOL. XXXVI.—NO. IV. yards. He came among us with the approbation of King William the Third; houses were hired for him and his rough retinue, and paid for by the king. His first London lodging was in Norfolk Street, in the Strand, then a newly-built street, and one of the best inhabited streets in London. Some red brick houses of Peter's time still exist. His second house-I might almost call it his country house-was at Saye's Court, in Deptford, on the banks of the Thames, contiguous to the Royal Dockyard-then in the tenancy of Evelyn, author of the Sylva (now better known by his memoirs), but recently sub-let by him to no less a person than the bluff and brave Admiral Benbow. The chief native attendant of the Czar bore a name that has lately become familiar enough in English ears: he was called Prince Menzikoff. His English attendant was Osborne, Marquis of Caermarthen, afterwards the second Duke of Leeds. The marquis was a naval officer of talent and distinction; and this selection by the king was in every way appropriate. His visit was one of entire privacy, and consequently without those courtly ceremonies attending his arrival which usually accompanied the visits of kings and emperors and their ambassadors. He came to this 66 |