COMMEMORATION OF HANDEL. 
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his desires, determined on the most black and horrible revenge. He 
secretly conveyed into her box many things belonging to him, marked 
with his name. He then exclaimed that he was robbed, called in a 
commissarie, (a ministerial officer of justice), and made his deposition. 
The girFs box was searched, the things discovered, and the uniiappy 
servant was imprisoned. She defended herself only by her tears ; 
she had no evidence to prove that she did not put the property into 
her box, and her only answer to the interrogations was, that she was 
innocent. The judges had. no suspicion of the depravity of the 
accuser, whose station was respectable, and they administered the law 
in all its rigour ; a rigour undoubtedly excessive, which ought to 
disappear from our code, to give place to a simple but certain penalty, 
which leaves fewer crimes unpunished. The innocent girl was con- 
demned to be hanged. The dreadful office was ineffectually performed, 
as it was the first attempt of the son of the old executioner. A 
surgeon had purchased the body for dissection, and it was conveyed 
to his house. On that evening, being about to open the head, he 
perceived a gentle warmth about the body. The dissecting knife fell 
from his hand, and he placed in his bed her whom he was about to 
dissect. His efforts to restore her to life w'ere effectual ; and at the 
same time he sent for a priest, on w'hose discretion and experience 
he could depend, in order to consult with him on this strange event, 
as well as to have him for a witness to his condtjct. The moment the un- 
fortunate girl opened her eyes, she believed herself in the other world : 
perceiving the figure of the priest, who had a marked and majestic 
countenance (for I know him, and it is from him that I have this fact,) 
she joined her hands trembling, and exclaimed— “ Eternal Fattier, 
you know my innocence — -have pity on me !” In this manner she con- 
tinued to invoke the ecclesiastic, believing, in her simplicity, that she 
beheld her God. They w'ere long in persuading her that she was not 
dead— so much had the idea of the punishment and of death possessed 
her imagination. Nothing could be more touching and more expres- 
sive than the cry of an innocent being, who thus approached towards 
him whom she regarded as her supreme Judge ; and, independently 
of her affecting beauty, this single spectacle was sufficient to create 
the most lively interest in the 'breast of an observing and sensible 
man. — -What a scene for a painter ! What a moral for a philosopher ! 
What a lesson for a legislator !” 
Commemoration of Handel, 
/ 
This was a musical exhibition instituted in 1784, a century after 
the death of Handel, the eminent musical master and composer. 
This exhibition was the grandest of the kind ever attempted in any 
nation. Of the rise and progress of the design, together with the 
manner in which the first celebration was executed, an accurate and 
authentic detail is given by Dr. Burney, in the fourth volume of his 
History of Music. 
“Few circumstances,’" says the Doctor, “will more astonish vete- 
ran musicians, than to be informed that there was but one 'general 
rehearsal for each day’s performance, an indisputable proof of the 
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