though much better, made also little or no impression on the audience; but as he undertook the part at a very short notice, and has for a long time been unused to dramatic representation, we are warranted in anticipating better success from future exertions.

Madame Caradori's Elena, alone, yielded any indemnification for these disappointments. Although labouring under the effects of indisposition, such were this lady's zeal and exertions, that a great portion of the audience probably remained unaware of the circumstance. Instead of any apology, which would have been resorted to by many performers in a similar situation, her efforts seemed to be solely directed to a struggle against the admonitions of nature; reckless of any sacrifice, so the public were gratified. The triumph of this conflict manifested itself in the universal applause of the house, in which we involuntarily joined, not without mingled feelings of regret at the sacrifice to which we owed our delight. Of all the characters in which we have seen Madame Caradori, since the pleasing and lasting impression caused by her first appearance as Cherubino, that of Elena will, we are sure, remain the most vivid in our recollection. The part appeared to us so completely assimilated with her nature, that the "Lady of the Lake" and Madame C. will probably be ever after so identified in our conception, that we shall not be able to think of the heroine of the novel with out associating with it the image and personification given to it by Madame C. We shall ever recall to our memory the colouring of rural innocence and gentleness which the character gained at her hands; ever fancy we hear those pure silvery tones she uttered on leaving the boat, and on greeting the Knight of Snowdon. Her "Oh mattutini Albori" at this moment sounds in our ears.

But besides these strains, so fascinating by their sweet simplicity, the more elaborate songs of Madame C., in the progress of the piece, and particularly her successful exertions at the close of the Opera, called forth the unanimous approbation of the house. It was universally remarked that her voice had gained strength and volume, especially in the upper range of her natural scale, and there evidently was a marked approach towards that confidence which her abilities and rank as an artist ought to inspire.

The choruses in this Opera have always had to struggle against some intricate and really awkward contrivances of the composer. On the present occasion, the men acquitted themselves rather better than usual of some of these intricacies: but the

female chorus-singers, if any thing, were worse than ever before; out of time, out of tune, out of voice, sad work altogether, some of the discordant voices sounding little better than the shrill pipes of raw charity girls.

A new Opera, "Tebaldo e Isolina," by Morlacchi, is under rehearsal, and to be produced forthwith.

In the department of the Ballet, little progress has as yet been made. "La Cruche cassée" has been repeated every night without intermission; and a divertissement called "Le Temple de la Concorde," of indifferent plan, and with patchwork music of all sorts clubbed by Mr. Bochsa, has generally been performed between the acts of the Opera. The saltatorian establishment is pretty complete, as far as numbers go, and includes several individuals of good abilities; but absolute first-rate talent is not on the list as yet. A grand mythological ballet of action, "La Naissance de Venus," is in preparation, and will enable us to judge of Monsieur D'Egville's savoir faire, after his long absence from the direction of these matters.

The Musical Infant Sisters. Among the several recent instances of early manifestation of musical talent, the performance of two children of about 4 and 8 years of age, at Mr. Bullock's Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, has created considerable sensation in the musical world, for weeks past. On our entrance, we were not a little astonished to hear a difficult Pianoforte composition of Mr. Griffin's, very satisfactorily executed by the eldest sister; the youngest, absolutely a child, next played an air on the Harp, with a degree of physical strength quite inconceivable, and in a style of correctness, as to time and expression, which, without ocular demonstration, we should have thought unattainable at so tender an age; and both also executed some pieces for the Harp and Pianoforte conjointly. They are stated to have had no more than four months instruction; in fact, the progress of the elder sister, we are credibly informed, was very considerable, in a certain way, before she had any instruction at all, and was the cause of her being placed under the care of a master. Her father, who moves in a humble sphere and is not at all musical, happened to purchase an old Pianoforte among some other furniture. The instrument came home late at night, when the children had already been in bed some time; but the elder sister could not resist the impulse of the hidden germ of musical talent; she rose in her night-clothes, and did not quit the Piano until she had picked out the fac

simile of a tune she had heard. To this instrument, wretched as it was, she became so attached, that she would seldom leave it, and she soon was able to play, self-taught, any new air which street organists and other itinerant performers happened to bring to her cognizance.

The parents thus felt anxious to procure a master, and it was by mere accident that Mr. Toulmin, a musical professor, heard of the young prodigy, and was induced to undertake her instruction. The Phrenologists of London, with whom no head begins to be safe, no sooner heard of what was going on, than they craved permission to look for bumps. But what was the delight of the astonished parents, when the great arbiter of cerebral protuberances feelingly assured them, that however decidedly the organ of music pronounced itself in the cranium of their elder offspring, the tangible evidence of the like instinct was infinitely more surprising in the case of the younger, who had hitherto shown no particular predilec

FINE

British Institution. We have long been without subject-matter for the article with which we are accustomed to supply our readers, under the above head; and now that it is furnished to us, it falls sadly short of what our wishes at least, if not our hopes, had led us to look for. The British Institution has just opened, with its annual collection of the works of English artists; and the first observation it excites is, that with very few exceptions indeed, all the noticeable pictures have been seen before. The principal of these are, Mr. Etty's first attempt in the great historical class, which appeared in the last Royal Academy exhibition; and Mr. Hilton's Christ Crowned with Thorns, which appeared in the same exhibition. Though both of these works include very considerable merit, and are upon the whole, striking and poetical productions, we do not at all wonder at their not having found purchasers, in the present state of the public taste and fashion, in regard to such matters. The mere title of Mr. Etty's was enough to retard its popularity. "The Combat; woman pleading for the vanquished."-In a picture six feet high, and thirteen feet wide, people now-a-days, look for something more than mere merit. They must have something specific and tangible, about which they can talk, and round which they can collect associations and images drawn from other things. And this they are not able to do in relation to any thing so

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tion for music. Encouraged by such oracular admonition, the parents lost no time in adding the little Miss to Mr. Toulmin's lessons; a few weeks proved the truth of the phrenological prediction. She not only made rapid progress on the Piano, but learnt the Harp at the same time.

The above is the account which we have collected on the subject of these two phenomena of musical precocity. We have every reason to believe in its correctness, and we can only repeat, that we never left an exhibition with greater astonishment and gratification. We ought to add, that, in the case of the elder sister at least, the display is not the mere result of mechanical training for the purpose of exhibition. The child is fully conversant in all that regards the elementary branch of musical science, gives the most surprising proofs of an excellent musical ear, and is able to play at sight with considerable readiness and effect.

ARTS.

vague and general as a representation of three figures, engaged in a particular action, which, as far as the spectator can perceive, begins, continues, and will end, in their individual selves alone. The mistake of Mr. Etty in this picture, then, is, that he has employed the great historical style upon a subject which belongs to neither true history, nor fictitious. With regard to Mr. Hilton's picture, its subject is not liable to the same objections; but it is liable to one still more effective, namely, that sacred subjects are out of fashion, so far as modern artists are concerned; and they will never be in fashion again, till they become the object of that church patronage which first made them so, and which in so doing may be almost said to have created all the truly great historical painters that the world has known in mo. dern times: since it engendered at once that peremptory call for great works without which they never would have been. produced, and that enthusiasm in the worker without which they never could. Among the other pictures which have been already seen, is Mr. G. Hayter's Trial of Lord Russell-undoubtedly the very best he has yet produced, in colouring and general effect, as well as in individual expression. It has a fault, however, which is observable in almost every modern work we remember that has included many heads; namely, that several of them seem to have been copied from the same original.

The most conspicuous among the new pictures in this Exhibition is one by Mr. Northcote, of Christ sinking beneath the weight of his Cross. It has the usual faults, as well as the merits, of this artist's style. Its colouring is cold and inefficient; but it has that unexaggerated air of good sense which his works almost always possess.-Undoubtedly, among the new works, that which exhibits most talent is Mr. Martin's Deluge: though it is perhaps still less satisfactory, with reference to its subject, than most of his previous ones. This, like most of those which Mr. Martin chooses, is a subject which is absolutely impracticable if attempted to be treated in its great and general character. It is only by means of individual objects exciting general associations, that it can possibly be brought home to the feelings of the spectator; and it is by this means that Poussin has produced so admirable a work from it. But Mr. Martin's genius will not consent to be bound in by petty trammels of this kind. He seems to think that great things cannot be achieved but by great attempts; that it is better to run the risk of failure in reaching at the moon, than succeed in plucking a flower. Unless indeed he fancies or feels that there is a species of genius which is nothing when it is not soaring on its wings, and that, like a certain fabled bird, it has no feet to walk on the common earth. His Deluge is unquestionably a production which includes great and singular merit; and as great faults as merits. In the first place it attempts to combine two things which are absolutely incompatible with each other; namely, extreme minuteness of detail with extreme grandeur of general effect. He has attempted this more in the present picture than in either of his preceding ones. The extreme minuteness of the myriads of figures and objects of various kinds, which he has introduced, surpasses any thing of the kind ever attempted by any master professing to paint great subjects on a great scale. Here are many groups, &c. that might be cut out and set in a finger-ring, and would even then require to be looked at with a magnifying glass. And all these combined produce no general effect whatever, in their place in the picture. We cannot but think, too, that these minutiæ are united with others to which they are perfectly contradictory. For example, a multitude of figures are depicted on a rock in the middle distance, so minute as to be absolutely invisible till you come close to the canvass; and yet the rock on which they are collected exhibits the various minutiæ of its formation. Passing

over other particulars in which we conceive the artist to have failed, we must point out what strikes us as being the greatest individual failure of all. He professes to represent the portentous conjunction of the sun, the moon, and a comet; and this he has done merely by depicting these three orbs, quietly situated at about right angles with each other, in the centre of the picture, and producing no one noticeable effect whatever! With respect to the general composition of the picture, it consists of two departments; the left exhibiting a world of tumultuous waters, which are executed with great power of hand, and are varied here and there by vestiges of the destruction they have just been working; and the right presenting the mountain-tops to which the devouring destruction has not yet reached, and the hosts of human and other living beings that have escaped to them. The hill tops keep ascending, in stages as it were, from the lower to the upper extremity of the picture; and on each compartment are collected myriads of beings, depicted, as we have hinted before, with a minuteness quite extraordinary, and which is rendered more so in appearance by the lurid darkness of all the surrounding objects of the sky-the rocks-the water-and even the light which is shed by the almost eclipsed orbs above. There is no contrast to this universal darkness, except a rush of white light which is proceeding from among the rocks on the right, and for which, by the by, there seems no very intelligible source. With respect to the human figures introduced in the foreground, and the interest connected with them, they are little different from Mr. Martin's usual standard for objects of this kind: that is to say, they are not calculated (and probably not intended) to divert the attention in any very powerful degree from the physical effects of the scene; in which latter, no doubt, the artist feels his main power to lie. Still there are two or three groups which have considerable merit;in particular that of the family round which the wolves are howling; and that other group which includes the open blasphemers of the Most High. Upon the whole, (for we have no space for further detail,) this work, though by no means equal to what might have been expected from the artist even on this almost impracticable subject, is still not unworthy of his name, which will assuredly stand in the very first rank among the painters of his age and country.

Of the other works which make up this exhibition, we can only glance at a few of the most conspicuous in passing. No 32,

1826.

called in the Catalogue "Summer," is a portrait of a young female, by Geddes, very cleverly imitated, in its effect of light and shade, from the celebrated Chapeau de Paille.-44 and 56 are two charmingly fresh views of English scenery, by P. Nasmyth. They are as bright and beautiful as nature herself, and they are nо more so which is the great merit of this artist's landscapes. No. 51 is the Convalescent, by Mulready, which attracted some attention two or three years ago at Somerset House. The whole air and expression of the Convalescent himself, just come out from his sick bed to taste the fresh air, with his wife and little ones about him, form a perfect piece of natural truth and pathos; and the landscape around is sufficiently pleasing. But the other figures are very little to our taste. The quarreling children, in particular, are quite out of keeping with the whole air and object of the scene.-76 is a very pleasing and intellectual picture, by Leahy, of "Mary Stuart's farewell to France." It is handled with great freedom, and coloured with sweetness and taste. As far as we recollect, it is the most promising work we have seen of this promising artist.-102 is a scene on the Scheldt, by Stanfield. If it were by a nameless artist, we should speak of it as a work of great merit. But it does not satisfy our notions of what ought to proceed from the pencil of the finest stage scene painter we have ever had. Yet it would be difficult to find a single fault in it: and perhaps this is its only fault. What we mean to hint is, that Mr. Stanfield does not attempt enough in his pictures. He is sufficiently bold in attempting great and novel effects in his Scenes. Why is he not equally daring, where the

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credit of success (and we should hope the profit too) wonld be greater. And even if he were to fail, there are partial failures which are infinitely more honourable than complete successes.-129, called "Solitude," by Mr. Danby, does not answer to the promises given by this artist in his extraordinary picture at Somerset House last year. The light thrown over the upper portion of the scene by the setting sun, is much more natural than most observers, or rather non-observers, will pronounce it. But the whole scene is unsatisfactory and inefficient.-156, by G. Hayter, of a scene in the Cathedral of Rheims, during the coronation of Charles X., is one of those glaring attempts at mere effect, which are very well on a great scale, but should never be attempted on a small one, by an artist who respects his reputation. Scenes of this kind, in which there can be no exhibition either of natural objects, or of human passion, should either be painted with a view to a great and imposing general effect, in imitation of the original scene, or they should be made striking and curious by means of elaborate finish and detail. Whereas the one before us is merely an exposition, on a very small scale, of the art and mystery of scenepainting,-about which the less we (the public) are permitted to know, the better. -178 is one of Mr. Ward's admirable portraits of horses. We have seldom seen any thing more spirited and perfect in its way; and the same may be said of E. Landseer's "Deer Hound" and "Dead Game," 184. The dog is truly admirable. There are many other small pictures in this exhibition possessing considerable merit; but they are not sufficiently striking to call for particular notice.

Royal Society of Literature. In a paper read at this meeting, February 1st, the writer, Mr. Millingen, one of the royal associates, endeavours to set at rest, by means of several coins relating to Zancle in Sicily, a much-disputed question in chronology,-viz. at what precise era, and under what circumstances, that ancient city was taken, its inhabitants expelled, and its name changed to that of Messana. Respecting these events, the accounts left by ancient authors are various and contradictory. By Herodotus the capture of Zancle is attributed to a body of Samians and Milesians, invited over into Sicily by Anaxilaus, tyrant of Rhegium, after the naval battle before Miletus, in the third year of the 71st Olympiad. Thucydides, noticing the

same circumstances, adds, that the Samians were, not long afterwards, expelled by Anaxilaus; who peopled the city with a mixture of different nations, and changed its name to Messana, after the country of his ancestors, in Peloponnesus. Other writers, as Strabo and Pausanias, differ so widely from these, both as to the era and particulars of the events, that some moderns have imagined two different establishments of Samian colonies at Zancle, as well as two persons of the name of Anaxilaus, to be alluded to. Mr. Millingen is enabled to reconcile these contradictory statements by the historical evidence of the coins of Sicily. From them he shows that the Samians and Messenians were united in the expedition against Zancle, and that the change of name took place upon the expulsion of the original inhabitants, and not, as Thucydides asserts, when Anaxilaus subsequently made himself master of it, and expelled the Samians. The coins adduced are six in number. The first is a coin of Zancle, previous to the expulsion of the original inhabitants. No.2 bears the emblems of the Samians, with the name Messenion, showing that it was struck during the short space of time when the two nations possessed the city in common; and likewise proving that the name Messana, or Messene, was given to the city on its first capture, 494 years before our era. No. 3, a coin of Rhegium, in imitation of the preceding, shows the intimate alliance between the two cities, resulting from the assistance given by Anaxilaus to the Samians, in their enterprise against Zancle. The fifth and sixth are corresponding coins of Messana and Rhegium, struck by Anaxilaus, after the expulsion of the Samians from the former city, and the subjection of both nations to that tyrant. Mr. Millingen makes some just observations, in conclusion, on the importance of the present discussion, not merely as it regards chronology, but as (by assigning the coins of Zancle to their true era, which several learned men have mistaken) contributing to facilitate that great desideratum in modern literature, a history of the fine arts of Greece.

On Wednesday the 15th ult. the first general meeting of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, held under and in pursuance of its charter of incorporation, took place at the Society's chambers in Parliament-street. At one o'clock, the Hon. G. Agar Ellis, one of the vice-presidents, was called to the chair, and briefly addressed the assembly. The Charter was now read by Mr. William Tooke; and the new code of bye-laws rendered necessary thereby, and which consisted chiefly of a remodelling of those by which the Society has been hitherto regulated, was read by Mr. Cattermole, the secretary. The principal alterations which we noticed, were, that subsequent to the 27th April next, the fee of admission should be five instead of three guineas, and the annual subscription three instead of two guineas. The bye-laws, &c. having been approved by the vote of the meeting, the officers, council, &c. for the ensuing year were balloted for, and the following elections among others made :

The Lord Bishop of Salisbury, President, in virtue of the charter.-ElectedVice Presidents. - His Grace the Duke of Newcastle; the Most Noble the Marquis of Lansdown; the Right Honourable the

Earl of Clarendon; the Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells; the Right Honourable Lord Bexley; the Right Honourable Charles Yorke; the Honourable George Agar Ellis; Sir James Mackintosh; the Venerable Archdeacon Nares; the Reverend George Richards, D.D.

The result of the ballot having been declared by the scrutators, thanks were voted to Mr. Tooke for his zeal in procuring the Charter, and his liberality in refusing to accept of any remuneration whatever for his professional services. On the motion of Mr. Archdeacon Nares, seconded by Dr. Richards, thanks were also voted to the chairman; and, after due acknowledgments, the meeting broke up.

Abuses of the College of Surgeons.-A general meeting of the Members of the College of Surgeons was held at the Freemasons' Tavern, on Saturday Feb. 18, for the purpose of taking into consideration some serious grievances of which the public, as well as individuals, have to complain in the administration of its affairs. Mr. Lawrence, in an elegant and luminous speech, pointed out numerous abuses, which were equally lamented by the mass of surgeons throughout this country, as well as by those settled in the Metropolis. He dwelt more especially on the manner in which the directors of the affairs of the College had executed the trust reposed in them, with respect to the magnificent Anatomical Museum, which was presented by the liberality of government for the promotion of medical science, but which in reality was next to useless. Several resolutions were agreed to, and a Committee was appointed to prepare an address to the crown, praying a revision of the charter of the College, or such assistance as the Parliament in their wisdom may think expedient.

Linnæan Society. A continuation of a systematic catalogue of the Australian Birds, in the collection of the Society, was read, Dec. 6, by N. A. Vigors, Esq., F. L. S., and T. Horsfield, M. D., F. L. S. The portion read at this meeting included a great part of the family Psittacidæ, sub-families, Plyctolophina and Palæcornia. The next meeting, the reading of the above catalogue was continued: also descriptions of some new species of birds, belonging to the genus Phytoloma Gmell, Indicator Vieill, and Cussorius Latham, by Mr. B. Leadbetter, F. L. S.

Simple method of exhibiting the Deflection of the Magnetic Needle by the Electric Current.-A striking method of exhibiting the deviation of the magnetic needle, whilst under the influence of the voltaic conducting wire, consists in em