be reserved for those who have previously obtained a prize in the junior division.

"Candidates who obtain any prize in the junior division cannot compete again in that division, but may enter the senior division in the following year.

"Candidates who win a first class prize in the senior division, cannot compete again at all: but those who obtain a second class prize, may try for the higher prize in a subsequent year on fulfilment of the usual conditions.

"3 Candidates of both sexes in the junior division will be expected to read an easy narrative tolerably; to write a fair round hand; to spell simple words correctly from dictation; to answer questions on the Book of Genesis and the Gospel of St. Matthew; and to work sums in the first four rules of Arithmetic, simple and compound.

"The Boys in this division will also be examined in Crampton and Turner's Geographical Reading Book, the questions from which will be limited this year to the first 13 Lessons.

"The Girls will be expected to do plain sewing neatly, and must bring with them a piece of work already cut out and fixed.

"Each child in this division, who passes an examination entitling him or her to rank in the first class, will receive £1. As many of the rest as display fair attainments will be placed in the second class and rewarded with books. The names of the children in both classes, and in order of merit, as well as those of their schools and their teachers, will be published in the Annual Report of the Association.

"4. Candidates of both sexes in the senior division will be expected to read an easy narrative fluently and correctly; to write a good school hand: to answer questions on the Pentateuch, the four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles; to work sums in Practice, Proportion, and some of the higher rules of Arithmetic, and to parse an ordinary sentence.

"The Boys will also have one paper of questions on the outlines of English History and the Geography of the British Empire, and another on Dean Dawes's "Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life," the questions on which will be taken this year from the first 13 Lessons.

"The Girls will be examined in Tegetmeier's Manual of Domestic Economy (the first 12 chapters for this year), and in their ability to cut out and make a small pinafore, with a button and button-hole, the necessary materials for which must be brought with them.

"The best instructed boy and girl in this division (if deemed worthy) will each receive a prize of £3 and a handsomely printed card of merit. Every other candidate who passes a first-class examination will receive £2. and a similar card of merit. Such of the rest as acquit themselves satisfactorily will be placed in the second-class, and rewarded with books and plainer cards of merit. The names of both classes in order of merit, with their schools and teachers, will appear in the Annual Report of the Association.

"5. The candidates will be examined at Bristol, Stroud, Cheltenham, Charfield, and Gloucester on the 25th of June next.'

The Dean of Bristol gives two extra Prizes to the best Church of England scholars, and the Dean of Hereford two Prizes for the best Papers on Industrial Life.

The Examiners are the Rev. Aspinall Dudley, B.A., Chaplain to the County Gaol; S. Griffiths, Esq., of Redland Academy, Bristol; J. C. Symons, Esq., B.A.; and the Rev. W. Wheeler, of Stroud.

The Dulwich College govenors are stated to have before them, among other liberal measures for the improvement of the college, a recommendation from the managing committee that the Gallery of Pictures should be thrown open to the public four days in each week, free of charge, and on the two remaining days for 6d., tickets of admission to be no longer necessary. This recommendation requires only the sanction of the general board for its adoption.

THE TITHE COMMISSION.-The report of the Tithe Commissioners for the past year has just been printed by order of the House of Commons. Since the establishment of the commission 7070 agreements had been received by the commissioners, of which they had confirmed 6778, 290 having been superseded by awards, leaving actually in progress 2. The total number of notices issued for making awards was 7039, of which 2 were issued during the year 1857; 5632 drafts of compulsory awards had been received, of which 5431 had been confirmed, of which 6 had been received, and 10 confirmed during 1857. Thus it will appear, from the above statement, that the tithes have been commuted by confirmed agreement, or confirmed awards in 12,209 districts. In 398 of these districts the rent charges have been disposed of by redemption or merger, 1 of which was confirmed in 1857. The total number of apportionments received was 11,769, of which 11, 763 were confirmed, 171 having been reserved, and 167 confirmed during last year; 719 applications for the exchange of glebe lands, of which 666 were confirmed. Of these 41 applications were reserved and 41 confirmed in 1857. Thus, at the close of last year, the commissioners had confirmed 14,173 distinct mergers of tithe or rent charges.

THE ENCLOSURE COMMISSION.-The annual report of the Enclosure Commission of their proceedings during the past year has just been issued. The total number of applications to the commissioner for enclosures since the passing of the act has been 767, of which 37 were made during the past year; 401 of these applications were confirmed, 86 were otherwise disposed of, and 280 are still in progress. The total applications for exchanges have been 1444, of which 272 were made during last year; 1124 exchanges were confirmed, 145 were otherwise disposed of, and 175 are still in progress. Fifty-six applications for partitions have been made, 7 of which were made during last year; 39 of the applications for partition were confirmed, 6 otherwise disposed of, and 11 still in progress. Fourteen applications have been made to the commissioners for the division of mixed land, none of them during last year; 12 of the applications were granted, 1 was otherwise disposed of, and 1 is still in progress. Sixteen applications have been made to the commissioners to define lost boundaries, 2 of them during last year; 11 such definitions were made, 3 applications otherwise disposed of, and 2 are still in progress. Eight applications were made to the commissioners to apply money received under the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts to railway acts, of which 1 was made last year. Of these, 7 applications were confirmed, and 1 remains still in progress. Four applications have been made to apportion fixed rents, during last year, of which 3 were confirmed by the commissioners, and 1 was otherwise disposed of. The total number of cases brought under the notice of the commissioners since the passing of the act was 2029, of which 322 were made last year. In conformity with such applications, the commissioners have confirmed the enclosure of 226,010 acres of land, and the enclosure of 262,418 acres more is at present in progress. The total number of acres to the enclosure of which the commissioners consented last year was 7994, of which 4210 acres were in one enclosure in the county of York. Four enclosures in the county of Oxford amounted to 354 acres; three in the county of Wilts, amounting to 885 acres ; two in the county of Sussex, amounting to 274 acres; five in Hereford of 373 acres, one in the county of Southampton of 481 acres; one in the county of Monmouth of 246 acrcs; one in Essex of 84 acres; one in Cornwall of 67 acres; one in Carmarthen of 61 acres; one in Northampton of 61 acres; one in Devon of 48 acres. The average expense as far as the commissioners are concerned, for each enclosure is 167. 12s. 2d.

REDUCED CHARGE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. Orders and Advertisements must be sent ONLY to ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, and Co., 25, Paternoster Row; the latter, from strangers, must be accompanied by a remittance, according to the following scale :-If under 40 words, 38. 6d.; for every additional ten words, 6d. ; a whole page, £2. 28. ; a half-page, or one column, £1. 58. Ten per cent. discount on all Advertisements inserted more than twice.

MUSIC.

LOVE for music appears inherent in all nations, but its various styles are significant of the characters of the people to whom it belongs: thus, the graceful and luxuriant Italian music is most descriptive of the refined excitable Italian. The beautiful but abstruse harmonies of Germany mark the deep and speculative Teutonic race. The light and tripping vaudeville of France represents our lively and animated neighbours. The simple and touching melodies of Ireland shew the warmth of affectionate feelings so peculiarly exhibited by the Irish peasant. The Highland pibroch and the Jacobite lament speak of the love of daring, and the ardour of loyalty, for which the land of Heather is famed in story-while the gem of England's melodies, "Home, sweet home," tells of the domestic happiness and comfort which no other land enjoys to the same extent as herself.

Viewed in this light, music acquires a double interest, and will well reward us for a little examination of its character and history.

Natural causes are sufficient to account for the origin of music, its elements are in everything around us; the singing of birds or the sighing of the wind; the cries of animals or the hum of insects; the boom of the waterfall or the roar of the waves, all convey to the ear the idea of music and of harmony. Nevertheless many a wild legend has been invented to account for its first introduction: thus the Chinese claim the invention of instrumental music and attribute it to the act of blowing the pith out of the bamboo. Diodorus Siculus declares that music was first cultivated in Egypt, and that the first musical sound that was heard came from the reeds of the Nile when blown into by the wind. Apollodorus gives us the following somewhat romantic fable on this subject. "The Nile having overflowed its banks at the periodical period for the rise of that wonderful river; on its subsidence to its usual level, several dead animals were left on the shores, and amongst the rest, a tortoise, the flesh of which being dried and wasted in the sun, nothing remained within the shell but nerves and cartilages, which being tightened and contracted by the heat became sonorous. Mercury walking along the banks of the river, happened to strike his foot against this shell, and was so pleased with the sound produced, that the idea of the lyre suggested itself to his imagination. The first instrument he constructed was in the form of a tortoise, and was strung with the sinews of dried animals."

How much of truth may be concealed in this legend we know not, but of the early proficiency of the Egyptians in music we have sufficient evidence. One of the proofs of this fact has still actual existence on the guglia rotta, or broken pillar now lying in the Campus Martius. This pillar or rather obelisk with nineteen others was said to have been originally erected by Sesostris, at Heliopolis, about four hundred years before the siege of Troy. From its VOL. XII. NO. 137, N.s.

2 B

original destination it was removed by Augustus to Rome, and was thrown down and broken during the sacking of the city in 1527. Hence its name of guglia rotta. Upon it may be seen carved the figure of a musical instrument of two strings and with a neck, much resembling the calascione still used in the kingdom of Naples. The form of this instrument is very significant of the advanced knowledge of the Egyptians, as by means of its neck it was capable with only two strings of producing a great number of notes. The strings if tuned fourths to each other would furnish that series of sounds called by the ancients Heptachord as B, C, D, E; E, F, G, A; or if tuned fifths would produce an octave, while the musical annals of all other nations fail of exhibiting a vestige of any contrivance for shortening the strings during performance by a neck or finger board, and Father Montfaucon observes that after examining five hundred lyres, harps and citharies he could not discover anything of a similar nature.

Melody, of course, preceded the introduction of harmony, the origin of which is thus given us by Nichomachus:-"Pythagoras," says that author, "heard some iron hammers striking on an anvil, and giving out sounds that made the most harmonious combinations with one another. One pair was, however, an exception to these musical tones, and he was hence led to inquire what were the peculiarities of the hammers which produced these different effects. This story has secured for him the renown of being the first who sought for the explanation of musical relations in the properties of matter."

Grecian music appears gradually to have assumed a most vociferous character; thus Lucian tells us, that in one of the Olympic Games of his day, a young flute player named Harmonides, on his first public appearance, began a solo with so violent a blast on purpose to surprise and elevate his audience, that he breathed his last breath into his flute and died upon the spot. When to this we add, that the trumpet players at these exhibitions expressed an excess of joy when they found their exertions had neither rent their cheeks nor burst their blood vessels, some idea may be formed of the noisy music of the period. Such as it was however, it was undoubtedly of a very expensive character, for we are told that Amabæus, a Grecian harper, was paid an Attic talent, or one hundred and ninety-three pounds fifteen shillings per day for his performance; and Ismenias, a celebrated Theban musician, purchased a flute at Corinth worth three talents, or five hundred and eighty one pounds five shillings. The state with which the musicians appeared is exemplified by Xenophon's remark, that if a bad flute player would pass for a good one, he must, like the "great flute players, expend large sums on rich furniture, and appear in public with a great retinue of servants."

In glancing at ancient music, we must not omit all notice of the Roman tyrant, Nero, whose efforts for the preservation and improvement of his voice throw a curious light on the practice of singers in ancient times. He was in the habit of lying on his back with a thin plate of lead on his stomach. He took frequent emetics and cathartics, and abstained from all kinds of fruits and such meats as were held prejudicial to singing. Apprehensive of injuring his voice, he at length desisted from haranguing the soldiery and senate, and after his return from Greece established an officer (Phonascus) to regulate his tones while speaking!

The use of sacred music seems to have been of very early date, being practised by the Egyptians, Israelites, and other nations: it was first intro

duced in an instrumental form into the Christian Church in the reign of Constantine the Great, while the practice of chanting the Psalms was brought into use by St. Ambrose 350 A. D. The chant adopted by him was of a very simple character, containing only four modes; but in 600 the method of chanting was improved by Gregory the Great, who doubled this number. It has been imagined that Gregory was rather a compiler than a composer of ecclesiastical chants, but all writers are unanimous in allowing that he collected musical fragments of such ancient Hymns and Psalms as the first fathers of the church had approved, and that he methodized and arranged them in the order which was long continued at Rome, and was soon adopted by the greater number of the Western Churches.

This pontiff established two colleges for singing, one near the Church of St. Peter, the other near that of St. John Lateran. His "Scola Cantorum" existed for three hundred years subsequent to his death, and in this building was carefully preserved the whip with which he used to threaten to scourge the boys, and the bed on which he lay when he came to hear them practice.

In England, music was introduced into the church service by St. Augustine. It was afterwards much improved by St. Dunstan, himself an eminent musician, and who is said to have first furnished the English churches and convents with the organ. This instrument was originally seen in France in 757, when the Emperor Constantine Copronymus Sixth sent one from Constantinople, as a present to King Pepin. For a long period, however, the possession of one of these instruments was a rare acquisition to any church, and it was not until the tenth century that it became frequently used in England, Italy, and Germany.

During the dark ages little advance was made in music, it having been always observed that there is a correspondence between the progress of music, and the cultivation of other arts and sciences; consequently in the middle ages, when the most fertile provinces of Europe were occupied by Goths, Huns, Vandals, &c. whose language was as harsh as their manners were savage, little improvement in the art is to be looked for. This night of ignorance first began to break in Italy, literature and refinement being encouraged more early in the courts of the Roman pontiffs than elsewhere. Music advanced hand in hand with her sister arts in Rome, and it was from this fact that we may trace the origin of the chief graces and elegance of modern music to Italy, their original birth place. It is indeed still to the church of this period that we must direct our attention, not only as patrons, but as professors of the musical science; for we find the example of Pope Gregory the Great followed in the tenth century by Gerbert Scholasticus, afterwards Pope Sylvester Second, who cultivated music most assiduously, regarding it as only second in rank among the liberal arts. Our countryman, William of Malmesbury, speaks with wonder of the perfection to which he had brought the organ by means of blowing it with warm water; and he was celebrated by the authors of the twelfth century as Gerbert the musician. This Pope paved the way for the labors of Guido Aretenus, to whom we are indebted for our modern system of notation: Guido was a chorister of the Benedictine Monastery of Arezzo, and he eventually succeeded in introducing his improvements not only into his own convent, but to Rome and other parts of Italy, and we reap the fruit of his labors to the present day.

The Church was not however to remain the sole supporter of music, for in the eleventh century we find a totally different style making its appear