192 
vernment. When in parliament, his policy 
was, it seems, always to speak last in a 
debate, and so by perplexing the weaker, 
and tiring out the acuter judgments, he 
rarely failed of attaining his ends. But 
then, was there not a ¢errible ambition con- 
cealed under the public virtues of the pa- 
triotic Hampden? What was his motive 
for wishing to be governor to the prince >— 
To make him a root and branch reformer. 
Pym was originally a clerk in the Exche- 
quer, and was aiming at the chancellorship 
of that court, and laboured under the sus- 
picion of taking a heavy bribe from the 
French minister, and had well deserved the 
soubriquet of King Pym. The fact of the 
bribe is stated from recollection—the author 
cannot recal his authority—but nothing, 
of course, was to be omitted. 
Lord Say and Sele’s patriotism was 
melted by the mastership of the wards—a 
possession of which Cottington, like the 
beaver,. stript himself to save his own neck, 
and successfully. No patriot breathed a 
word against Cottington, after one of their 
own body got possession of the spoil. 
Haslerigg was the fierce exterminator of 
the bishops, because he was gorging on the 
fatness of three manors, and the fruitfulness 
of deaneries and chapel lands—and wanted 
more, &c. &e. 
A Ramble among the Musicians of Ger- 
many, by a Musical Professor; 1828.— 
Though no professors, and quite incapable 
of comprehending the prodigious learning of 
these pages—with which we have no doubt 
they will be deemed, even by the fondest 
amateurs, to be sadly overdone—we have 
glanced over the contents of this little vo- 
lume with singular and very unexpected 
pleasure. The author has an eye and an 
understanding, as well as an ear, for any 
thing that is sweet and pleasurable in paint- 
ing and society, as well as in music, and 
fancy and feeling as well as musical science. 
The impressions he conveys of the sense of 
enjoyment existing among the Germans— 
their simple habits, and musical propensities 
—are extremely agreeable ; attributed mainly 
by the author to early rising, and living in 
the open air, and above all, to cheap living 
and light taxation. The general gaiety and 
animal spirits contrast very curiously with 
our ignorant but inveterate notions of the 
phlegmatic among them; but this light- 
heartedness applies chiefly, we presume, to 
the south: nearer to the fogs of the Baltic 
will be found some justification of the com- 
mon conceptions. 
The main object of the tour is German 
music, which required, the author thinks, 
to be heard and appraised by English ears, 
to correct the perhaps erroneous notions 
which the magazines and journals of the 
country, written of course by natives, spread 
ignorantly among us. The admiration of 
German taste in the sciences has produced 
in some, he says, a ludicrous exaggeration 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[Aueusr, 
of respect towards people who have no claim 
to it—just as if we thought none but a Ger- 
man could be a musician, as we do certainly 
that none but Germans can be sugar-bakers 
and tailors. Music is, indeed, much more 
extensively cultivated in Germany than in 
England; and though no band may be 
found equal to that of the Philharmonic, 
fifty may be found but just inferior. In 
their singers and wind-instrument players 
(always excepting certain individuals), they 
are, in the author’s opinion, decidedly our 
superiors ; but, in their violin-school, they 
appear inferior both to England and France. 
—Then, again, music is the passion of the 
people, and it is every where cultivated by 
them more for love than money. In their 
theatres, too, nothing can exceed the pa- 
tience of the audience, or their complacency 
and docility. The desire to be instructed 
predominates ; and an exercise of their cri- 
tical powers is the last thing they think of— 
Germany is the very paradise of composers. 
The reader shall judge of the style in 
which the author speaks of the more cele- 
brated composers :— 
Weber was formerly director of the opera in 
Prague, but quitted the place on his marriage, to 
reside at Dresden. At the time of his employment 
at Prague, he had composed no work of importance, 
merely cantatas and songs, with full accompani- 
ments; and the good fortune of this musician is 
worthy of observation, as a circumstance, I believe, 
altogether unprecedented in the history of the art. 
That aman should live on to within a few years of 
forty in obscurity, not distinguished in Germany 
from a host of the same stamp,—that he sliould be 
as little endowed by nature as any composer that 
ever lived, with a store of melody such as the 
populace might troll about to gladden themselves ; 
yet by one work just suited to the cast of his 
genius, to leap at once into the most extraordinary 
favour throughout Europe, not only gaining credit 
for that he had done, but a certain passport for 
what he might do,—to be invited to foreign coun- 
tries—wreathed with laurels in concert-rooms— 
deafened with applause—and made a show of 
every where, is a wonderful concatenation of 
events in the life of a middle-aged gentleman. 
Beethoven was just dead when the writer- 
reached Vienna. Tne Germans have for 
this composer a very pretty appellation: they 
call him Tondichter (the poet of sounds), 
instead of the ordinary name, Tonkiinsiler 
(the scientific musician) :— ; 
How melanclioly was the fate of this composer— 
condemned young and ardent, at the age of 
twenty-eight, by an incurable deafness, to have 
his mind imprisoned for ever within itself—the 
world of sounds for ever shut to him—no rural 
flute, as he himself pathetically lamented, to dis- 
tarb in a country walk the sad monotony of his 
quiet. Though the poet is privileged to enjoy, if 
he please, the morning sun, or the fresh song of 
the birds without quitting his apartment, yet con-. 
fine him to his chamber thoughts, and he shall be 
as miserable as a lover compelled to live for ever 
on the idea of his mistress. This was the situation 
of Beethoven ; yet it must have been some alle~ 
