440 
day for two months, and obtaining much 
particular as well as general instruction, he 
returned to England. 
On his arrival, he renewed his engage- 
ment at Covent Garden Theatre. However, 
another misunderstanding soon took place 
‘between him and the manager, and he again 
resigned. Not long afterwards, he published 
his well-known “ Introduction to Har- 
mony.’’ At the death of Sir William Par- 
sons, his present’ Majesty, with whom 
Shield was always a great favourite, most 
graciously appointed him, without solicita- 
tion, Master of his Musicians in Ordi- 
nary. - 
Mr. Shield, as a composer, was pure, 
‘chaste, and original. His prominent cha- 
acteristic was simplicity. Perhaps no com - 
poser ever wove so few notes into melodies 
so Sweet and impressive; while the con- 
struction of the bass and harmony is at once 
graceful, easy, and unaffected. In Rosina, 
Marian, &c. his airs breathe all the fresh- 
ness and purity, and beauty of rural life ; 
though the more ornamented and difficult 
parts are carried far beyond the common 
style of bravura. His songs are strictly na-~ 
tional. After Purcell, Shield constitutes the 
finest example of really English composers. 
It was to his compositions that the late 
Charles Bannister, Charles Incledon, Irish 
Johnstone, and Mrs. Billington, were chiefly 
indebted for their celebrity as English bal- 
lad singers. Of his dramatic pieces, the fol- 
lowing is, we believe; a complete list :-— 
The Flitch of Bacon; Rosina;° Lord 
Mayor’s Day; The Poor Soldier; Robin 
Hood; Friar Bacon ;-Fontainbleau ; Omai; 
‘The Choleric Father; The Magic Cavern ; 
The Noble Peasant ; Sprigs of Laurel ; 
Travellers in Switzerland; The Midnight 
Wanderer; Netley Abbey; the Highland 
Reel ; the Farmer; Love in a Camp; The 
Crusade; The Woodman; Marian; The 
Picture of Paris; The Enchanted Castle : 
The Czar; Oscar and Malvina; Hartford 
Bridge; Arrived at Portsmouth ; Lock and 
Key ; Abroad and at Home, and the Italian 
Villagers. 
Mr. Shield has‘also published an Intro- 
duction to Harmony; A Cento; Six Can- 
zonets ; Two sets of Trios for a violin, tenor, 
and violencello, &c. Amongst his simple 
pieces, always in great estimation, we find : 
—Shakspeare’s Loadstars: The Thorn ; The 
Bird of the Rose ; O bring me Wine; The 
Wolf; The Heaving of the Lead; The 
Post Captain; Old Towler; The Stream- 
let; The Ploughboy ; Let Fame sound her 
Trumpet; The Pretty Little Heart; How 
shall we Mortals ; Village Maids ; Ah, well- 
a-day my Poor Heart; the Battle Song; 
T’ve traversed Judah’s Barren Land; ’Tis 
no harm to know it, ye know; Heigho; 
Tom Moody; Poor Barbara; the Literary 
Fund Glee ; Down the Bourne and Through 
the Mead; the Prince and Cld England for 
ever; Our Laws, Constitution, and King, 
and Oxfordshire Nancy bewitched. The 
last of these is said to have been composed 
Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 
[Aprin, 
at the request of Garrick, long after he had 
retired from the stage. 
Mr. Shield was devotedly attached to his 
wife, and, while she was living, to his 
mother. It has been said of him, that he 
never broke his word, or lost a friend. He 
died at his residence, in Berners-street, on 
the 25th of January; and his remains were 
interred in Westminster Abbey, on the 4th 
of February. The funeral procession com- 
prised nearly all our great musical per- 
formers, vocal and instrumental. The King 
has been pleased to appoint Mr. Kramer, 
the master of his Majesty’s private band, to 
succeed him as Master of the band of the 
King’s musicians. 
JOHN CHRISTIAN CURWEN; ESQ., M. P. 
The late Mr. Curwen, one of the repre- 
sentatives in Parliament of the county of 
Cumberland, was brother to Edward Chris- 
tian, Esq., the well known editor of Black- 
stone’s Commentaries, Chief Justice of the 
Isle of Ely, &c. He was a member of the 
the ancient and very respectable family of 
M’ Christen, of the Isle of Man, “ who,” 
says Lysons, ‘ for several generations were 
deemsters, or judges of that island. They 
appear first to have written their name Chris- 
tian, about the year 1600. Ewan Christian, 
Esq., the first of the family who settled at 
Unerigg, (or Ewanrigg) died in 1719.” 
Mr. Curwen was born in July 1756. At 
the age of about twenty he (then Mr. Chris- 
tian) married Miss Taubman, of the Isle of 
Man, by whom he had issue, the present 
John Christian, Esq., now one of the deem- 
sters of that island. On the death of his 
first wife, he married his cousin, Miss Cur- 
wen, only daughter of the late Henry Cur- 
wen, Esq., of Workington Hall, and last of 
the family of that name. In 1790, there- 
fore, Mr. C. added Curwen to his name of 
Christian, by the King’s sign manual. By 
his second marriage he had three sons, — 
Henry, William, and John, and two daugh- 
ters, all of whom are living, with the excep- 
tion of William. Mrs. Curwen died in 
1820. 
Mr. Curwen was first returned, as a Mem- 
ber of Parliament, for Carlisle, after a warm — 
contest, in which he was supported by the 
Norfolk interest. He was seven times re- 
chosen for the same city. He had been 
constantly opposed by the Lonsdale interest ; 
and it was not until 1796 that he triumphed 
completely over it. He sat in two, if not 
three Parliaments for the county of Cumber- 
land. He was, both from connection and 
principle, a steady opposition member. He 
took an active part in the debates on the 
property tax, and on the game and corn 
laws; and made some attempts to reform 
the poor laws. As an electioneering orator, 
he was perhaps unrivalled ; he spoke to the 
passions and feelings, and rarely failed in~ 
making all the impression he desired. As 
a politician, he was shewy, but superficial. — 
His parliamentary speeches, though deli- 
vered with flu~ncy, and in a-com’ °nding 
