of international law, needs no proof. If the projected reforms should so reduce the business and importance of these courts, as to render the practice in them unable to maintain a respectable and efficient bar, it is plain that such an effect must ensue in one, or two generations at furthest.

Such an effect, however, is chiefly to be deprecated as it regards the Church. The ecclesiastical courts have, more than any other cause, hitherto prevented the complete extinction of the ecclesiastical features of the Church, as a branch of the one original, holy, apostolical and Catholic Church, and its complete secularization, into a mere creature of the State, and an establishment by law. Whatever may be thought of the canon law in some respects, still it is a noble monument of a system which grew up within the Church itself, and was developed on principles which were in the main catholic, and were framed with a direct reference to the Church as a divine institution, distinct from the secular power of kings and people. If this system is to be destroyed, and the Church governed by modern statutes, the peculiar and distinctive mark, whereby it is distinguished from all the other reformed Churches, will be partially, or perhaps in time, wholly obliterated. Against the complete secularization of the Church, and her absorption into the State, the code of laws by which she has been governed, have opposed a formidable barrier; and they have borne testimony, in every generation since the first changes introduced by Henry VIII., that she was not a new Church, or a new religion, like the models of Luther and Geneva, but the same Church which had existed all along from her first foundation in this country, only purified and reformed from the accumulated errors of centuries of subjection to a foreign and unlawful usurpation. On this account, Mr. Editor, I feel very great alarm at the projected alterations, and trust the Clergy will every where be led to watch them with ceaseless vigilance.

G. C.

ON THE OLD TUNES AND OLD VERSION OF THE PSALMS, And on the Authority under which they are used in our Churches.

MR. EDITOR.-Whoever may have had occasion to examine the psalm tunes composed of late, will perceive, that for the most part they are without that simplicity which characterizes the ancient style, and are very far removed from the true ecclesiastical mode of composition. Solemnity in the melody, equability in the movement, depth and richness in the harmony, have been superseded by the graces which belong to florid or figurative music. Divisions of notes, accented passages, chromatic modulations, may be all highly ornamental in their proper places; but they are just as suitable to the psalmody of our church, as the Corinthian acanthus or Ionic volute would be to the massive grandeur and severe simplicity of a Tuscan column. There are some tunes which have found their way into modern collections, which seem to have been written in open defiance of all sound opinion and established principle, carrying with them the rhythm and levity of ballad airs, and differing

from them in little else but in speed or rapidity of performance: some of the hymn and psalm tunes recently thrust upon congregations in town and country, would much better suit the orchestra of a play-house than the organ-loft of a Church. Even the old tunes themselves are found in some of the late editions so deformed by slurs, and binding notes, and flourishes, by combinations of crotchets and quavers, where there once was nothing but simple breves and semi-breves, that Mr. Warton might well presume "that much of their primitive harmony was lost by additional variations and transpositions." I will here take occasion to observe, that what is said as to psalm tunes, may be applied to the voluntaries which are played in different parts of the service, the style of which is frequently very unsuitable to the place and occasion. reading of the Scriptures," says Lord Bacon, "it was thought fit there should be some pause for holy meditation before they proceeded to the rest of the service: which pause was thought fit to be filled rather with some grave sound than with a still silence, which was the reason of playing the organ after the Scriptures read, all which was decent and tending to edification; but then the curiosity of division and reports, and other figures in music, have no affinity with the reasonable service of God." (Bacon's Resuscitatio, or Posthumous Works, p. 246.)

"After

All these strange deviations from the old paths of sacred song (and many more might be enumerated) show that it daily becomes more necessary to revert to the genuine original tunes, and to endeavour to restore singing in church to its primitive simplicity; and in aid of such an endeavour, a reference may be profitably made to such memorials relating to the proper style of church music, as are of a date subsequent to the Reformation. The consideration of these may serve to settle that fit and suitable mode of psalm-music, which it is my especial object to recommend.

The first authority which will be adduced is the opinion of Archbishop Cranmer, which, though it immediately refer to a church service then about to be composed by Marbeck, may be cited in evidence of the Archbishop's sentiments generally, as to the kind of music which should be set to sacred words for the singing of a congregation. (See Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 206. (See also Burney's History of Music, vol. ii. p. 166, 170.) "But in my opinion, the song that shall be made thereunto should not be full of notes, but as near as may be for every syllable a note, so that it may be sung distinctly and devoutly, as be in the Mattins and Evensong, Venite, the Hymns, Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and all the Psalms and Versicles. As concerning the Salve festa Dies, the Latin note (as I think) is sober and distinct enough; wherefore I have travailed to make the verses in English, and have put the Latin note to the same; but because my English verses want the grace and faculty which I could wish they had, your majesty may cause some other to do them again."

The same sort of syllabic music (as it may be called) is recommended by Queen Elizabeth in the 49th of her Injunctions, 1559. (See Sparrow's Collection, p. 79.) After providing for the continuance of all such endowments as were intended" for the maintenance of men and children to use singing in the church," she willeth, "that there be a modest and distinct song used in all parts of the common prayer in the church, that the

same may be understood as if it were read without singing; and yet nevertheless, for the comforting of such as delight in music, it may be permitted, that in the beginning or the end of common prayers, either at morning or evening, there may be a hymn (or such like song) to the praise of Almighty God, in the best sort of melody and music that may conveniently be devised, having respect that the sentence of the hymn may be understanded and perceived." A similar observation occurs in the Reformatio Legum: "Qua propter partite voces et distincte pronuncient, et cantus sit illorum clarus, et aptus, ut ad auditorum omnia sensum, et intelligentiam proveniant. Itaque vibratam illam, et operosam musicam (quæ figurata dicitur) auferri placet, quæ, sic in multitudinis auribus tumultuatur, ut sæpe linguam non possit ipsam loquentem intelligere."-De Divinis Officiis, cap. 5.

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Lastly, the judicious Hooker remarks, (Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. $38,) In church music, curiosity and ostentation of art, wanton or light, or unsuitable harmony, such as only pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind and degree of those impressions, which the matter which goeth with it leaveth, or is apt to leave in men's minds, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do, than add either beauty or furtherance unto it; on the other side, the faults prevented, the force and efficacy of the thing itself, when it drowneth not utterly, but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edify, if not the understanding, because it teacheth not, yet surely the affection, because therein it worketh much."

From all these testimonies it may be collected, that it was the opinion of the martyred Reformer of our Church, of that monarch under whose auspices it was established, and of that sage who so triumphantly defended its polity and discipline, that Church music should be sober and distinct, as near as may be for every syllable a note, so that it may be sung distinctly and devoutly; but though it should be a modest and distinct song, it should also be the best sort of melody and music that may conveniently be devised; having respect that the sentence may be understood and perceived, and that ostentation of art, wanton, light, and unsuitable harmony should be avoided.

I am aware that it may be objected to these references, that they do not relate specifically to psalm music; that psalmody, so far from having any rules from authority to direct its composition or performance, was reluctantly admitted into the Church at first, and at one time was discouraged rather than recommended. I readily admit that the practice of singing metrical psalms never has received any direct and explicit sanction, ecclesiastical, regal, or parliamentary. I farther admit that the very tunes, which were sung to the old metrical version of Sternhold, were once heard with a jealous ear, as incentives to schism and sedition, and as vehicles for the expression of hostility both against the constitution of the Church, and the government of the country.

In a rare tract published in 1674, entitled "Dr. John Cosins, Bishop of Durham, his Opinion (inter alia) concerning the English Psalms," there is to be found "an historical deduction of the original design and sacrilegious progress of metrical psalmody through many parts of France and Flanders." See also Burnet's History of the Reformation,

part 2, book ii. p. 367. There is in Burney (vol. iii. pp. 42, 61,) a reference to a letter from Bishop Jewel to Peter Martyr, in which the Bishop writes, "sometimes there will be 6000 at Paul's Cross singing psalms together." Warton also may be referred to upon this point.History of Poetry, vol. iii. p. 166. Heylyn writes, that in 1565, 1500 of the Guex, after singing some of Clement Marot's Psalms, proceeded to commit every kind of outrage in and about Ghent and Oudenard.— Heylyn's Aerius Redivivus, pp. 111, 126. At p. 440, it is stated that in 1641, when the priest had began the communion service at St. Margaret's, Westminster, the Puritans began to sing a psalm so loud that the minister was forced to desist. In De Thou's History, there are numerous instances of the Hugonots proceeding to the greatest excesses singing Marot's Psalms.

In these early periods of our Reformed Church, many wise and good men, foreseeing the course and consequences of puritanical virulence, wished to deprive it of one of its most envenomed shafts, by opposing the introduction and use of metrical psalms and psalm tunes. But those were times when the greatest enormities were perpetrated, under the excitement which those tunes occasioned; when men committed sacrilege and murder, after they had inflamed their passions and bewildered their understandings by the reiteration of their unhallowed songs, But besides these, there was another reason equally obvious for the discouragement which psalmody experienced in those days. The Puritans were then labouring to suppress the ancient antiphonal plain song, to expel the liturgic hymns, and to introduce the singing psalms, (as they were called) to the exclusion of every other form of church music. With these, and such like evidences of ill designs and dispositions, not only against the liturgy of the Church, but the peace of the kingdom, it can be no matter of surprise that psalmody was never sanctioned by any express act or ordinance of the Church or Crown; it may rather appear surprising to those who consider the usual course of legislative provisions under existing evils or threatened dangers, that it was not altogether prohibited.

From this representation it may be concluded that the opinions and observations contained in the passages before cited do not expressly and particularly refer to psalmodic composition; the authors of some of these passages had witnessed the mischiefs which had arisen from the abuse of psalmody, and therefore it cannot be supposed that they would write in its support. Had it not happened, unfortunately, that the metrical psalms and their tunes had become as war-songs to excite to tumult, or as watch-words for the assemblage of enthusiastic multitudes, they would have met with a very different reception: they would have been probably recommended to the use of the pious as plain and simple melodies, soon learned and easily performed, to which the words of praise, prayer, or thanksgiving, might be properly set and sung, so as to be verbally enunciated and distinctly heard and understood. Under these circumstances, the extracts before referred to from Cranmer's Directions, the Reformatio Legum, the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, and Hooker's Description, are adduced as general directions as to all sorts of church music, equally applicable to psalmody, as to anthems, hymns, and choral services; and if they are received as conveying the

sense of the church upon the true ecclesiastical mode of musical composition, they will serve for authorities to those who profess to compose for that church. They should teach them to retrench what is exuberant, and simplify what is figurative in their music: they should persuade them to consult the solemnity rather than the decoration of their tune. Instead of studying how to vary the modes of its movement and the pulses of its time, their attention would be more profitably bestowed if they were to seek how to enrich each note by the most affecting and impressive combinations; and if, instead of labouring to embellish their air by all sorts of light and fanciful decorations, they were to bring a little more heart to their composition, and make it a pathetic melody. If the head be afterwards made to take part in the work, let science do her best for that pathetic melody by harmonizing it and arranging its parts in the best style of simple counterpoint.

Having set forth some of the errors that prevail in recent compositions and collections of psalms, and the sources and principles from which rules may be derived for their correction, it remains that a few words should be added concerning the antiquity and authority of those ancient psalm tunes which have been so long in use. Although the Church and Crown refused to appoint any sort or course of metrical psalmody, there were many individuals of the Church, and those of the highest dignity, who, hoping to abstract it from the evil purposes to which it had been made subservient, and the various abuses which prevailed, were favourably disposed to its adoption. Archbishop Parker* countenanced it; he made a metrical version of the psalms himself, and employed Tallis to compose eight tunes to which his version might be sung: the style of this music is precisely the same with that of the old psalm tunes; it is syllabic, isochronal, and for the most part in the minor key; it is very finely harmonized, but the counterpoint is merely note for note. These are referred to, in proof of the Archbishop's opinion upon the proper style of such music; they are in strict conformity with the principles developed in the extracts already given, and exemplify the rule laid down by Archbishop Parker in the preface to his version, which directs "a distinct and audible mode of congregational singing."

To what has been said upon the subject of the old psalms and their style of music, I will add a few words concerning what I may call their authority. Though there can be found no appointment for their use, and no other sanction for it than what the proviso† in the Act of

Archbishop Parker finished his version 1557; it was printed shortly after by Day, but "suppressed," says Mr. Wharton, "because he saw the practice of singing psalms had been abused to the purposes of fanaticism, and adopted by the Puritans in contradiction to the national worship." (Wharton's History of Poetry, vol. iii. p. 183; Strype's Life of Parker, p. 508.) Anthony Wood's error, about one Keeper being author of this version, is accounted for by Mr. Wharton. Though the Archbishop may have suppressed his version, he continued favourable to psalmody. See the account of his acts as Visitor of Merton College, A.D. 1562, in Strype's Life, p. 161; and Fuller's Church History, book ix. p. 71. The Archbishop's version is found Bib. Bod. b. i. Linc. 5. Strype says he never saw it.

+ The proviso in the Act of Uniformity, 1548 (“ that it shall be lawful for all men, as well as in churches, chapels, oratories, or other places, to use openly any psalm or prayer taken out of the Bible, at any due time, not letting or omitting