Abraham Taylor, the Musical Boy^ 
1812 .] 
Who could oppose such salutary and 
necessary regulations? — 
None but Corrupt or prejudiced 
Lawyers ! 
Who would support them with one 
voice}— 
The people of the United King¬ 
dom ! 
It follows, then, that we shall be ena¬ 
bled to ascertain, whether the Lawyers 
are already the masters or the servants of 
the public ? 
On such points there can, among the 
people, be but one opinion !—Does it 
not then behove the houses of parlia¬ 
ment, as the national guardians and re¬ 
formers, and as the palladium of jus¬ 
tice, to assert and enact some such rea¬ 
sonable laws? — Can the legislature be 
more usefully or laudably employed ? 
Are not its members themselves, who 
are not lawyers, the frequent victims of 
those abuses, which it appears may so 
easily be remedied ?—Do not the pre¬ 
sent grievances come home to every man’s 
business and bosom ? — Do we not all 
feel the force of the common maxim, 
that, if a tnan will go to law with you 
for your coat, you should, rather than 
go to laut, give him that and your zoaisi- 
coat, — aye, and even your shirt also? 
Is it consistent, however, with the do¬ 
mination of reason—with the triumph of 
intellect in a free country — w'ith the 
energies and good sense of the English 
people,that such Absurdities should exist 
and triumph, and such Oppressions be 
continued and endured ?—Rather ought 
not every constitutional Exertion to be 
made to get as completely rid of them 
as human passions will allow ? 
In one. word, notwithstanding some 
wise and virtuous exceptions, Law and 
Lawyers are now l)ecome, what the Ro¬ 
mish Church and the Monks were three 
centuries ago; and Priest-craft and Law'- 
craft have but changed places! Westand, 
therefore, in need of great legislatjve 
energies; or of some Henry the 
Eighth, or Martin Luther, to per¬ 
form, in regard to this profession, the 
mightv work of reformation and re¬ 
generation ! Common Sense, 
Dec. 13, 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
DO not know how it is possible to 
make a better use of a letter which I 
Momuly Mao- No, 221- 
have just received from a very worth/ 
man, than to send it to your Magazine. 
His object is evidently to rescue merit 
from neglect, and to lift obscure talents 
into that public notice which may be the 
means of rendering them beneficial to 
their possessor ; an object, that, I have no 
doubt, you will gladly facilitate.—I have 
not yet seen the boy, but he has been in 
Bristol this week, and has brought up his 
manuscript, the melody of which was 
highly approved of by an able composer, 
but the base (as might be expected) found 
deficient in some parts; and, next 
Wednesday, he is to return with it 
amended, when I shall have the pleasure 
to see him. This and other airs of his 
composing I have heard sung, and 
thought them not only good melodies, 
but that they evinced an uncommon de¬ 
gree of taste and feeling. I shall take 
him to hear Madame Oatulani, on Friday 
next, to see what elFect a first concert, 
and her powerful airs, will have on his 
musical feelings; and, afterwmrds, his 
talents will be put to their test. He will 
not be flattered, but fairly tried; and, if the 
general opinion is, that he has very su¬ 
perior abilities in this walk of genius, no 
pains w'ill be spared to give them their- 
fair expansion, and to place him where 
he may, before he is spoiled, be thorough¬ 
ly grounded in the science he has selected 
under the most discouraging circum¬ 
stances, 
G. Cumberland. 
Bristol, Dec. 8 , 1811 . 
SIR, 
Abraham Taylor of this place, (the 
musical boy, for whom you are pleased so 
kindly to interest yourself) is about 13 
years of age, and self-taught; his father is a 
baker, and theemploymentof the son—selling 
the calces and biscuits made by him ; he firsc 
introduced himself to my notice by composing 
a tune for our Sunday-school children, to sins: 
at church, with which we weremuch pleased^ 
it has a wild, sweet, simplicity, quite original, 
tliat mucVi surprised us; and induced me ten 
try him in a composition more varied and dif¬ 
ficult. I therefore wrote out Campbell’s Sol~ 
diers' Dreayn (not knowing at that time that 
it had ever been set to musk), and desired 
him, when he perfectly comprehended the 
author, to express the sense of the words, as 
well as he could, by musical sounds. He did 
so, and brought me the music, line by line, 
as he composed it ; when finished, I was 
much struck with the pathos, truth, and 
nature, it exhibited. On showing it to some 
musical friends, they auvised ms to get it en- 
4 B graved^ 
