story high, to guard against earthquakes.

The last eruption of Etna took place on the 27th October, 1811, and continued, with intervals of relaxation, till near the middle of November. It was represented to us as having been surprisingly beautiful in appearance, though harmless in its effects. Five mouths opened all at once, just below the great crater, on the side facing Taormina, vomiting forth sulphureous flames, ashes, and red-hot stones, accompanied by the most terrific detonations, which shook violently the windows in Catania, and succeeded each other sometimes at the rate of thirty in a quarter of an hour.

Our travellers entered the "woody region," a vast girdle of ancient oaks and chesnuts, about six or seven miles in breadth, which embraces this extraordinary mountain, "beginning and terminating abruptly, and exhibiting the most romantic views which forest scenery on the most extensive scale can display.” The vast "grotto dei capri," brought Ulysses, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and his flocks, to their imagination. Here they dined, drank tea, and slept. Before the dawn of day (the second of their ascent) they arrived at what is called the desert region, which is scarcely a mile from the base of the

We arrived at the summit of the crater, breathless with fatigue and half suffocated with sulphureous vapour, about a quarter of an hour before the orb of day appeared: Aurora, indeed, had dissipated the darkness, and we were thus enabled to contemplate the wonders and magnificence of the scene. The vast hollow, or barathron of the crater, strongly arrested our attention. It is about two miles and a half in circuit, though it appears like a point when viewed from the Catanian plains; retaining the same dimensions which it had in the time of Pliny: it contains two principal spiracula, or vents, from whence, as from the mouths of enormous pieces of artillery, huge stones and rocks are precipitated several thousand feet into the air during the term of an erup

tion: we examined the largest of these and perceived that it had, as it were, three stages of descent: the first extended only a few hundred yards, where it was terminated by a shelf, or ridge of cinders; from thence the second stage had a more precipitous inclination towards a similar ridge; but the third was the perpendicular unfathomable abyss.

*

At length faint streaks of light shooting athwart the horizon, which became brighter and brighter, announced the approach of the great luminary of day: and when he sprang up in splendid majesty, supported, as it were, on a throne of golden clouds, that fine scriptural image of the giant rejoicing to run his course, flashed across my mind. As he ascended in the sky his rays glittered on the mountain tops, and Sicily became gradually visible, expanded like a map beneath our eyes. This effect is most extraordinary; nearly all the mountains of the island may be descried, with cities that surmount their summits; more than half the coast, with its bays and indentations, and the promontories of Pelorus and Pachynum, may be traced, as well as the course of rivers from their springs to the sea, sparkling like silver bands which encircle the valleys and the plains. We were unable to distinguish Malta, though I do not on this account doubt the relation of others who profess to have done so the Lipari isles were very much approximated to view by the refracting power of the atmosphere; as also was the Calabrian coast. The sides of Etna itself are covered with beautiful conical hills, from which ancient lavas have issued; their exhausted craters are now filled with verdant groves of the spreading chesnut, exhibiting the most sylvan scenes imaginable: on the plain below, these cones would be lofty mountains; here they appear but excrescences that serve to vary and to beautify the ground.

The ride to-day gratified us more than that of yesterday; for the air being quite transparent, the most charming prospects imaginable opened themselves to view through the deep glens and magnificent vistas of the woody region, comprehending mountains crested with cities-villages embosomed in rich foliage-vineyards pregnant with the purple grape-projecting capes and promontories with the glorious expanse of the dark-blue sea beyond. Viewing this resplendent picture one might be tempted almost to arraign the partiality of Providence in lavishing all his bounty on a particular district, did not a recurrence of the tremendous lava-course testify an awful intermixture of evil, and vindicate his dispensations.

After this interesting excursion our

author returned to Palermo, and soon set out from Sicily for Greece.

Here, and in Albania, it is our intention to follow him in our next number. The history of his residence at Ionina, the capital of Ali Pasha,—and his account of Parga, of the Suliotes, and their resistance to the tyrant, comprehend the most interesting narrative we have yet met

with, of the life, character, and government of that most extraordinary man, who, having triumphed by fraud or force, over all opposition, up to extreme old age, has probably by this time perished under the storm of Ottoman vengeance, which he has at length drawn on his head. The latest accounts left him without hope.

The provincial meetings we announced in our last, have taken place. That of the three choirs at Gloucester was as good, but not superior, to the general run of such performances. There is, unquestionably, sterling excellence in the selections which are usually resorted to; and the perfection to which certain singers have attained in certain songs, is, as unquestionably, not diminished by their eternal repetition. We have, however, long believed, that the hour of change was at hand, and that, to preserve attention, and ensure patronage and profit, conductors must extend their range, and depart a little from the long and justly deserved favour the country has shown to the compositions of her great musical champion -her

Giant Handel with his hundred hands.

It is true, that, as new generations rise, a fresh race of auditors spring up, in whose minds it is desirable to fix the principles of sound taste, and of a style of English singing which has been traditionally handed down to us from its founders, through a direct line of eminent performers, whose practice can scarcely be said to have declined as it has descended. These principles, and this manner of singing, convey the purest, most magnificent, most sublime traits both of composition and of execution-of the genuine great style that the world has known or acknowledged. But having been heard incessantly at the London Oratorios in the spring, and at the country Oratorios in the autumn -at every church, and chapel, and concert, public and private-amongst amateurs and amongst professorsin truth, it must be said, attention VOL. II.

begins to turn coldly from the unvarying sameness of "the Messiah," and from the " Grand Selections from Sampson and Judas Maccabæus ;”the fact being, that the works of Handel are known to the English public through but a few of his masterpieces.-Independently of this sameness, the progress of manners, as we have before remarked, has rendered the good people of England, not less good, perhaps, but certainly a "less thinking people"-less deeply contemplative, and more "fantastical" in the poetical sense of the word. In their musical tastes they afford one exception, at least, to the assertion of our lively dramatic critic in the last Number of THE LONDON,-that the progress of things "is never from grave to gay." In music, at least, they incline to take the livelier turn:-bear witness to the truth of our assertion, the Oratorios during Lent enlivened by Signor Ambrogetti-witness for us Handel and King Jeptha elbowed, and shouted out of place, and thrust into the shade too, by Gneco and the Italian composer giving his directions to the assembled train of musicians, -or eclipsed by the description of a battle with the Turks, in Italian.— The children of this age certainly prefer light, and voluptuous, and especially amatory sensations, to the awful and sublime impressions of that which is departed, and to which they also must depart--witness the triumph of Anacreon Moore's resistless enthralment of the senses, over the beautiful, the intellectual, the refined, but chaster and comparatively cold ballads of a former, and almost forgotten day.

The conductors of the Great Festival at Birmingham, if not the first to 2 U

apprehend and to note these symptoms, have been the first to address them in practice. In the feast they have just afforded to the musical world, they have studied novelty as well as excellence; and seldom has public spirit been more usefully, more worthily, more intensely excited.Benevolence, in one of its clearest and purest forms, has been most extensively aided; science has been promoted; general taste advanced; art supported, amateurs from all parts of the kingdom, as well as the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood, amused, delighted, and instructed. The place itself, too, has been benefited by the instrumentality of performances, which protract the pleasure beyond the mere hour of enjoyment, and dismiss individuals to their homes with fresh incitements to cultivate an elegant and a refined pursuit, which in its private exercise is amongst the "best of our delights," whether regarded as the immediate solace of leisure, or as the softener of manners. We would hold up the example of Birmingham to the other large towns of the kingdom, particularly where the neighbouring residence of families of distinction facilitate the application of the beneficial principle we wish to point out to observation. This principle is the attainment of all the objects we have just recapitulated, by means of well digested efforts, systematically pursued, to awaken the attention, and enlist the spirit of a country in a public cause.

That the plan at Birmingham is well laid and well digested will be known most especially by the energy and consistency with which Music is at all times cultivated and encouraged by the inhabitants of Birmingham. Amongst the establishments of the town is an "Oratorio Choral Society," whose funds (we are told) are annually and liberally aided by the directors of the Hospital, to which they reciprocate support. Thus a well trained band of chorus-singers is constantly ready, and maintaining a steady progress toward the highest state of perfection. When, therefore, the whole structure is to be used, there is only the easy addition of the ornamental parts.

London is the mart where these are

stored, and the Birmingham recipe to secure universal excellence appears. to be to include every thing, and every body, that has the reputation of excellence, in every department, from Mr. Greatorex down to the boys of the King's Chapel.

But such arrangements must be supported by an adequate spirit of patronage, and by the entire enlist ment of all the surrounding affluence in the cause! True. And at Birmingham they have found out the secret of doing so. Their end is public and laudable; their means such as pamper opulence and condition. They make it a matter of pride and praise, to be found among those who patronize, or in any way promote, or even are present at, such a festival.

Thus the foundation is laid in the prejudices and passions, as well as in the virtue, of the human heart; and wise legislators are they who turn the selfish, as well as the social, dispositions of mankind to the purposes of good! How readily assistance and support are to be obtained; nay, as we should say, commanded, nothing can more clearly show than the advertisement of thanks from the committee. They thank the President (the Earl of Dartmouth,) and the Vice-President, --the Nobility and Gentry, who honour the festival with their presence,-the Countesses of Dartmouth, Galloway, and Clonmell, and the ladies who collected the donations at church,—the preacher for his discourse, the canon for his chaunting, the Rev. John Webbe, for his poetry to Haydn's Seasons,-Mr. Greatorex, for his mu sic,-the performers for their service,

Mr. Munden and the Oratorio Cho ral Society, for their attention,-the constables and police officers, for the maintenance of order,--all who undertook offices, for the performance of their several duties,--Mr. Tomkinson, for his piano-forte,-Mr. Bunn, for preparing the theatre, the Philoso phical Society, for their lamps,-Mr. Greensall, for his awning,—and the principal vocalists, for their donations. This is indeed to manifest a universal interest in the cause. We make the enumeration as a memorandum of instruction to the directors of public charities. One more fact is alone necessary to show the results of this mighty preparation, and it is in