208 BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. 



deeds ? Let the grand principle be once acknowledged^ that every dis- 

 puted point can only be properly decided when the reasoning facul- 

 ties, holding the observing powers and the feelings in due subordina- 

 tion, use them as their servants ; that outbreaks of feeling, however 

 genuine, will, if allowed the supremacy, only, like the lightning's 

 flash, render more palpable the darkness which conceals from us the 

 face of truth. Let this be once acknowledged, and we may rest as- 

 sured that the sun will presently rise to guide us in our search, and 

 reveal to our view features glorious in their grandeur and their 

 simplicity, to behold which is our best reward after our greatest 

 difficulties, our greatest trials. 



It is stated that the main end of a musical festival is charity ; its 

 object to relieve the distresses, and alleviate the unavoidable misery 

 of our indigent fellow- creatures. Supposing the end to be good, 

 does this sanctify the means ? Decidedly not : yet this is the prin- 

 cipal plea on which the supporters of these performances have rested 

 their defence. Let us examine somewhat minutely into the nature 

 of the good work to forward which we are invited to join heart and 

 hand. Let us recollect that although we may intend to do good, 

 yet if the means we employ are productive of evil, intentions will 

 not exculpate us. If to will the good of others be a duty incum- 

 bent upon all men, it is clearly no less obligatory to discover and put 

 in practice the best means for accomplishing the desired end. If, 

 through mental indolence or self-esteem, we refuse to apply our rea- 

 son to so noble a purpose, the evil which we occasion will lie as 

 clearly at our doors as if we refused to stretch out an arm to save a 

 drowning fellow-creature. 



It may, perhaps, tend to set the present question in a more strik- 

 ing light if we put a hypothetical case. Suppose a nation were to 

 institute a festival for the purpose of attracting foreigners to sub- 

 scribe funds for the maintenance of the poor, the aged, and the sick : 

 in what terms would an enlightened stranger describe so extraordi- 

 nary a custom ? He would conclude, and justly, that there must be 

 something fundamentally wrong in the policy and institutions of that 

 state, and that such make-shifts must lead to a ten-fold aggravation 

 of the evil. The absurdity of one nation appealing to another is, in- 

 deed, palpable to the meanest understanding. Supposing England to 

 contribute £10,000. towards the maintenance of the French poor, 

 France would, for the moment, have the means of procuring in 

 greater abundance the necessaries of life ; and this circumstance 

 might, to a short-sighted French patriot, appear cause for congratu- 

 lation. The Frenchman would, in some measure, be excusable if, 



