Mean- of it is the only instance in which we have known

But in The Creation our great singer was herself again. Her fame as an oratorio-singer had preceded her arrival in this country; but this was the first time a London audience heard her sustain the whole of a principal part in a work of this class. When she previously sang at Exeter Hall

others, which we had expected to hear from her, being assigned to a second performer. But in The Creation she sang every note of the soprano part

the threat will be carried into execution. while, Jonathan is wide awake. The present her to do anything for the sake of display. state of the slavery question in the Union disposes the Northern States to long for the annexation of Canada as a makeweight against new slave states in the direction of Mexico. The newspapers of these Northern States, therefore, record with complacency every symptom of Anglo-Saxon disaffection in Canada. That word, 'Anglo-Saxon,' in Elijah, she only took two or three pieces; should make Lafontaine and his people tremble at what they are doing; for in the new struggle between French and English, which cannot, I think, now be stopped, the English are sure to prevail-every air, duet, trio, and solo passage in the sooner or later. Woe betide the French, if the Anglo-Saxons on our border should come to the aid of their own race in Canada! This the English well know; and this is why (such is now their passionate hatred of the French) they are looking to, and openly talking about, annexation. I am sure they never will submit to what they call 'French domination.' All the power of England will not suffice to make them. The prospect altogether is most gloomy, and the present very uncomfortable for quiet people like me.

choruses; performing her task with the earnestness of a true artist, and evincing a combination of qualities which we have never found equalled by any previous performer who has sustained this part. The matchless beauty of her voice, so soft and yet so penetrating in its tones—her truth of intonation, unerring certainty of execution, strength and variety of expression, and the graceful ease which heightens the pleasure derived from everything she does-are gifts of which everybody is aware; but it is in this oratorio that she has "I wish you to understand that the question shown some of the highest as well as rarest qualnow is completely one of races; and that the war ities of a musician-her classic purity of taste, exof races can only be put an end to, as it was be-quisite sense of propriety, and power of uniting fore, by the triumph of that race which a natural the utmost beauty to the utmost simplicity. energy and the vicinity of Anglo-Saxon America chasteness of style, at the same time, is widely dif render, in fact, the more powerful of the two. ferent from what is too often confounded with that Mark my words for this. I wish it were other-quality, the excessive literalness which precludes wise, but am confident in the opinion. It is the opinion of everybody here who thinks, not excepting poor Jean Baptiste himself, who is getting frightened, but cannot recede."

JENNY LIND has again been devoting her powers to the cause of beneficence. There was a great concert of sacred music at Exeter Hall, at which it was simply announced that Mademoiselle Lind would perform; but it was known that the concert originated with herself, and that it was her intention that the proceeds should be divided among three valuable charitable institutions connected with her own art the Royal Society of Musicians, the Society of Female Musicians, and the Choral Fund. The musical arrangements were made, and the performance was conducted, by Mr. Benedict.

The Creation is an oratorio which generally constitutes an entire performance. Its magnitude, loftiness, and variety, make it quite sufficient to occupy the whole attention of the audience; and its grand opening ought to strike upon ears quite fresh and free from any other impression. It surprised us, therefore, to find that the oratorio was prefaced by two detached pieces of Handel; the Coronation Anthem, "Zadok the Priest," and the trumpet-song from Samson, "Let the bright Seraphim;" pieces, moreover, by no means of the highest excellence. The Coronation Anthem is simple even to plainness, and, perhaps on that account, has been more popular than Handel's other compositions of a much higher order. As to the Bright Seraphim," Jenny Lind's performance

Her

every indulgence of fancy, and produces the dry, hard, and meagre effect, too frequently perceptible in the German school. True chasteness is not evinced by a rigid puritanism, a dogged antipathy to ornament, but by a delicate perception of the kind of ornament that is fitting and appropriate in every style. It is in the most severe and simple music that embellishment demands the most refined and consummate art. Here, florid roulades and arbitrary variations will be shunned by every pure performer; but the prolongation of a tone beyond its measured time, an appogiatura, a graceful turn to round a phrase or give variety to its repetition, and a simple cadenza where it is intended by the composer-such and similar were the means of beauty and expression inculcated by the masters of the Italian school in its most high and palmy days; and such were the means whereby Jenny Lind embellished the melodies of Haydn, scrupulously preserving their native simplicity of form. In the concerted music her performance was equally remarkable. While her clear and brilliant tones sometimes rang through the hall, penetrating and surmounting the whole mass of choral and instrumental sound, the soft and sympathetic quality of her voice was shown by the manner in which, in the trios and duets, it blended itself with the voices of the other performers. In fine, Jenny Lind never appeared to us so truly great as during this performance of The Creation.

The other solo parts were well sustained by Mr. Lockey, Mr. Whitworth, and Mr. Machin; and the whole oratorio has never, probably, been

more nobly performed. The choruses were sung | written some first-class exercises on that themewith remarkable precision and clearness; and the spirited, sensitive, and kind-hearted. He can read beautiful and picturesque orchestral accompani-you a page in history with due emphasis and disments were delicately executed. cretion, after the most received plan, and will

The hall was crowded. The queen and Prince compose you a theme upon it that would extort Albert were present; and, among other distin- the highest certificates from the college of precepguished persons, we observed the Duke of Wel-tors.

He is very proud to find the house of Bed

lington seated in the middle of the hall. The ford mentioned so often; and he is thoroughly venerable duke has attended every concert at which Jenny Lind has sung.

next.

From the Spectator, 7 April.
OUR MINISTERS.

convinced that the country which produced the said house of Bedford must be the finest country in the world—the prize country, rewarded by its | own virtue in the possession of that house. He is a stanch advocate of the free institutions which have produced the house of Bedford. He is a

AT Bow Street Police-office, Timoleon Vlasto, a young man of fashionable appearance, said to be a native of Vienna, was charged with stealing Roman, Greek, and other coins from the British revolutionist on occasions, and goes along with Museum. About two months ago, the accused the noble barons who extorted the charter from was introduced to the medal department, as a gen- King John; nay, with the country gentlemen who tleman who wished to study the coins in the mu- dictated the bill of rights; but in matters of revseum; and he constantly attended for that purpose.olution he draws the line at barons and country On Saturday week, the label of a Greek coin was gentlemen. The house of Bedford, in his perfound on the floor near to where Vlasto had been son, completed the political trinity by vouchsafing sitting, and the coin was gone. In consequence the reform bill-event enough for this age. of the respectable connexions of the young man, There he rests his political fame. It is most dishe was not at once arrested, but the cabinets were gusting to see the vulgar ingratitude which makes examined; many coins were missing; and a men impatient to get beyond that; but the "ardor search-warrant was obtained against the prisoner. prava jubentium civium" is a classic text for hisAt his lodgings a large collection of coins was torical theses. Lord John is a kind man and a found, including the Greek one first missed; philosopher, and he forgives his fellow-countryothers were identified as belonging to the museum. men. Patience is the great political virtue. Let The whole were valued at upwards of 2,000l. the rabble bawl freely, and it will change its tale; The prisoner told the magistrate that the greater the ebb-tide will restore the balance disturbed by portion of the coins found at his residence did not the flood. Nothing more is wanted. England is belong to the museum. The prisoner was reëx- a glorious nation; it has produced Queen Elizaamined on Thursday, and remanded till Tuesday beth, Lord Bacon, John Milton, and Lord William Russell; John Hampden, and Dr. Hampden, mitred by a Russell; Charles James Fox, and Francis Duke of Bedford, whose statue is in Russell Square; it is swayed by Queen Victoria, and governed by Lord John Russell, assisted by Earl Grey, son of the late Earl Grey, and Sir George Grey, nephew of the late Earl Grey. The English are a free people; and discussion, being quite free, is very animated. Ireland is very poor and turbulent; she always has been so. All these facts are history; it is thus Lord John reads it. Persons who don't read history, but only the newspapers, are for going faster, or going back, or going on one side. Lord John smiles. Demagogues fall in with those wild ideas; so do some statesmen. The Duke of Wellington says that men not used to good society are not suited to hold commissions in the army, because the unaccustomed wine at mess gets into their heads : Lord John sees that men who are elevated to the rank of statesmen, without being well-born, are liable to have their heads affected. It is a sign of plebeian birth. He is never so. Look at the leader, Lord John Russell; a most are; they are not members of the house of Bedestimable man, whose character is patent to all ford, or of any other "house," except the house of the world. Lord John is a model of an English commons. But he is proud to see how our free gentleman-only without any John-Bullishness of institutions enable the man of humble origin to contour, and therefore without many things that attain the highest posts of the state, and it is with belong to that exterior. He is intelligent, highly magnanimity that he encounters the consequences educated, well versed in English history-he has of that freedom which the house of Bedford has

It is an exasperating thing; it might make the spectator of a cricket-match turn misanthrope through contempt for his species, to see a player miss a fine ball; but to see him do it time after time, and never hit-to see all his colleagues do the same provokes a just indignation against such disgrace to their kind. You cannot witness the scene and abstain from picking to pieces the character of the players. Now surely no set of men ever had such an innings as the present ministers such a clear field, such fine blowing weather, such capital balls: yet every stroke is a miss. They play a timid game, and venture only when there is nothing to be gained by it. Accordingly, you pick to pieces the character of the men-excellent men, no doubt, in the bosom of their families, but exasperating performers on a public ground. And the review of the men quite accounts for the failure of the party.

Other men

done so much to maintain. Lord William Rus-extravagant projects; but he always retracts sell suffered for it at the block, and Lord John them. He looks very impracticable, but he is Russell would do the same; only that nowadays much more negative than he looks; yet he speaks we are too polite to use such filthy modes of en- boldly, and could ill be spared in the house of forcing noble responsibilities. All these trouble-lords, if it were only to be pitted against Lord some incidents of statesmanship are history; it Stanley. And Lord Stanley's high tory politics always has been so, and always ought to be. are truly useful to Lord Grey, especially in coloThe wise statesman sits on high and moderates nial topics; they enable him to seem still quite all; Lord John is doing so; it only requires "the liberal. application from time to time of plans suited to the occasion ;" and there is always somebody at hand to provide a little plan when it is wanted. People blame him; great statesmen always are blamed; their country is always ungrateful; but these things do not move him, at least not much; he looks to posterity to do him justice, and to the future historian of the lives of British statesmen. That is all; there is nothing else going forward in the world, nothing extraordinary-only another volume of history brewing, just like the whole set.

only get along while the band makes a noise, so
he cannot manœuvre unless there is a stir. It is
his way.
It keeps Lord Grey in a fidget; and
Lord Grey, who is a man of old traditions, for his
own crotchets are a mere morbid twitching, which
passes off-cannot see the necessity for admitting
the noble adventurer to the family party. But
Lord Palmerston is too adroit to be spared.

The Marquis of Lansdowne's position is still more peculiar. As principal minister in the house of lords, it falls to his lot to answer for Lord Palmerston; and the venerable marquis is a man of still older and more steadfast traditions than Earl

Grey. Besides, he has antiquated ideas as to the dignity of statesmanship. Accordingly, he cannot frame his lips to talk Palmerstonisms in his capacity of extra under secretary for foreign affairs; and so the incohesive state of the cabinet often appears through Lord Lansdowne's candor. Lord Lansdowne uneasily remembers the days of strong ministries, and cannot conceal his present discomfort. Political death would evidently be a happy release to him; but he has not the heart to shut the door against the sons of old friends who used to enjoy the hospitalities of Lansdowne house; although the young fellows do sometimes bring strange new companions.

Then higher, higher, higher, burned the old-fashioned fire

Through the ranks!

Then the old-fashioned colonel

Galloped through the white infernal
Powder cloud;

The government is formed of these and the like incongruous materials. The analysis of the personnel explains the history of its administration; unconstructed itself, but only pieced together, it cannot construct. It brings in "bills," according to form, but they are only the simulacra of bills; there is no power in the engine to form a measure of substance. A review of the personnel is a review of the session thus far, as it has been of former sessions, and will be of the rest of the And the trooper jackets redden at the touch of the session, and of future sessions; for the ministry will last forever.

SONG OF THE WAR.

And his broad sword was swinging,
And his brazen-throat was ringing
Trumpet loud:
Then the blue
Bullets flew,

leaden

Rifle-breath,

MR. ABBOTT'S History of Mary Queen of Scots

THE following little poem, from the Knickerbocker for February, is the very best thing of the kind that we ever chanced to meet with in our periodical lit-calls mechanical art to its aid, in a way which might erature. There is an old-fashioned Saxon sound to it that is quite refreshing, and nothing could possibly convey to the reader a more vivid idea of the din of a battle-field. It has great artistical merit, and is worthy of perusal, if for no other reason than to notice the surprising effect wrought upon the mind by a skilful collocation of words.

Of the isles

old as well as for young readers. A map of the be advantageously adopted in histories designed for central parts of Scotland, where the principal events took place, is prefixed to the volume, done upon the principle of a birds-eye view, so that mountains, forests, cities, castles, &c., are presented to the eye, and a notion of the features of the country, as well as of distances and positions, impressed on the mind. Plans illustrate an event occurring in buildings-as the murders of Rizzio and Darnley; and views of cities or localities are not mere "pictures," but are made to exhibit the principal feature of the scene. The literary execution also deserves praise. It is a plain, clear narrative of facts, interspersed with reflections, in the main impartial, and moderate in tone. Though the author leans to the view of Mary's guilt throughout, he does not assail her, or leave any harsh feeling in the reader's mind.

From the smoky night encampment, bore the banner Believing, as he seems to do, her general complicity

of the rampant

Unicorn,

in Darnley's murder, and her guilty connection with Bothwell, he is scarcely stern enough.-Spectator.

POETRY.-Messiah's Names; The Restless Spirit's Warning, 351.-Resignation; I Love not now, 352.-An Evening's Romance, 365.-Song of the War, 383.

SHORT ARTICLES.-Maraschino; The Holy Land, 357.-Corns, Peerage and Syn'ax, 352.— Journal of Design; Plunder of India, 372.-Mary Queen of Scots, 383.

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Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me to be the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the English language, but this by its immense extent and comprehension includes a portraiture of the human mind in the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS.