certs, and the constant one in the orchestra of the theatre, for which he composed many songs, written by the late ingenious pastoral poet Cunningham, who was an actor in Bates's company at that period. At one of the concerts, he was importuned by the late eminent professors, Fischer and Borghi, to fill a vacant seat in the orchestra of the Italian Opera House, which gratifying offer was most readily accepted, and that great musical general, Giardini, placed him in the rank of the second violins; but the following season the late excellent leader, Mr. Cramer, removed him to the principal viola, at which post he remained eighteen years, in the course of which time he produced upwards of twenty operas for Colman's and for Covent-garden Theatre: of the latter he became the Musical Director, and was also appointed one of the Musicians in Ordinary to his Majesty. His engagements comprised Bach and Abel's concerts, the Professional Concerts, the Ladies' Friday concert, the grand Sunday concerts, and the Wednesday concert of Ancient Music; from the latter of which he withdrew, as the necessary attendance at the Monday's rehearsal interfered with his Theatrical duty; but Lord Sandwich, who was the influential friend of Mr. Harris and Joah Bates, commanded his return to a duty which he always performed with profitable pleasure, and at last relinquished with mortifying regret. Shield had the good fortune, about this time, to travel from London to Taplow with the greatest of instrumental composers, Haydn; and considered that he gained more important informa tion by four days' communion with that founder of a style which has given fame to so many imitators, than ever he did by the best directed studies in any four years of any part of his life. In the summer of 1791 he accompanied his extraordinary countryman Ritson, to Paris; from which city he proceeded to

Italy with several agreeable foreigners, who like himself, were anxious to prove their taste by being auditors and spectators of operatical performances in Turin, Milan, Bologna, Piacenza, Parma, Lodi, Modena, Florence, Sienna, and Rome. There he remained stationary until he became familiar with the object of his journey; after which he returned with the courier to Turin, and thence returned in 1792, to resume his situations in London.

Soon after this period he published his wellknown" Introduction to Harmony." At the death of Sir William Parsons, in 1817, His Majesty appointed him Master of his Musicians in Ordinary.

His dramatic compositions were very numerous, and eminently successful, among which were Rosina, The Poor Soldier, The Farmer, The Flitch of Bacon, Hartford Bridge, The Woodman, The Travellers in Switzerland, Robin Hood, Abroad and at Home, Fountainbleau, Lock and Key, Netley Abbey, Two Faces under a Hood, &c. He also composed excellent songs, particularly The Thorn, O bring me Wine, The Wolf, By the deep Nine, The Post Captain, Old Towler, Tom Moody, The Prince and Old England, and a most erudite Treatise on Harmony.

To the merits of Shield as a composer, the following testimony appeared some years ago in "The Quarterly Musical Review."" Late as he appeared, he struck out for himself a style of writing, pure, chaste, and original. His great prominent characteristic, however, is simplicity. No composer has ever woven so few notes into such sweet and impressive melodies, while the construction of the bass and harmony is alike natural, easy, and unaffected. We cannot open one of his Operas without being instantly captivated with this quality of his music. In such delightful little entertainments as Marian and Rosina, his airs breathe all the freshness,

and purity, and beauty of rural life, though the more ornamented and difficult parts are carried far beyond the common style of bravura. Shield appears to have been singularly fortunate in the great compass and agility of the female singers for whom he wrote his airs of execution. In Marian there is an hautboy song of amazing extent and much complication. In most of his works where he introduces bravuras, we find passages combining the difficulties of execution, in a manner which, if not absolutely new, lays considerable claims to novelty, and full of the same ingenious cast of expression that is discernible throughout all the parts of his style. Perhaps no writer is so remarkable for songs containing so much that is strictly national. After Purcell, we consider Shield to be the finest and most perfect example of really English writers. Ballads, in all the different modes of sentiment and description, abound in his Operas. Sea and hunting songs, the rural ditty, the convivial song and glee, the sweet sentimental ballad, are so frequent, that indeed, with the occasional interposition of songs of execution, they may be said to make up the customary and continual alterations from air to air. It will strike the observer as singular, that the later composers for the stage should have made so little use of the minor key. Shield has applied it in a most beautiful manner. In the course of our study and analysis of his compositions, we have been led from time to time to regret the incessant appetite for novelty in the public, which calls for such continual change of food, and that can lure as from this fair mountain.' but too often to batten on a moor.' Yet, nevertheless, the taste of our own age bears us out in the belief, that as much of Mr. Shield's music will descend to posterity, carrying with it the intrinsic marks of English genius, as of any other writer since the days of Arne."

A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM

SHIELD.

BY JOHN TAYLOR.

SHIELD, all thy friends will on thy memory dwell,
For all who knew thy merits loved thee well;
And, searching thro' thy life, full well they know
A host of friends were thine, and not one foe.
Tho' pure thy taste, and tho' thy genius bright,
Yet Science led thee with her guiding light;
Nor were thy sweetest and thy noblest strains
Attain'd without due toil and studious pains.
The magic charm of music fix'd thy mind,
Yet was still to various arts inclined;
Painting and sculpture gain'd thy fervid praise,
And thou enraptured heard the poet's lays.
Thy plaintive notes disclos'd thy tender heart,
And with thy lyre could lofty sounds impart.
So mild thy temper it could none offend,
But insult offer'd to thyself or friend
Would make at once thy manly spirit rise,
Glow in thy heart, and glisten in thy eyes.
To honor others thou wert always prone,
And to promote their fame would slight thy own.
Deep was thy knowledge of frail human kind,
Who found in thee a sympathizing mind.
True humour mark'd thee in her social hour,
And wit had o'er thee a resistless pow'r.
Kind as a husband, a protector dear,

To those who kindred claim'd, remote or near;
To sum up all thy worth, we found in thee
What Man in every state should strive to be.
Gentleman's Magazine

25.-1828.-DUKE OF WELLINGTON APPOINTED PRIME MINISTER.

Son of proud sires, whose patriot blood
Sent to thy heart its purest flood!

Son of the isle where souls of fire

The natives' glowing breast inspire!

What land, what language may not raise

Its tribute to thy deathless praise?
Where India's burning day-stars shed
Their fervors o'er the fainting head;

Climes where the wondrous bower-tree weaves
Its shadowy wilderness of leaves;

Where purple peak, and mountain brow,
Warm with Elysian colouring glow,
And sparkling cliff's pavilioned height
Seem diamonded with fairy light;
Where wake's the war's discordant yell,
With deafening song and tambour knell,
And armed tower and curtained tent
Nod on the castled elephant;

And silken bands in barbarous pride
Troop by the turbaned Rajah's side;
Where Spain, amid her orange bowers,
Wasted her wild romantic hours,
And bid chivalric wars and loves
Sound from Granada's high alcoves;
Where, when the twilight-shadows steal
O'er thy grey turrets, old Seville!
Beneath their shade full gaily met,
With light rubec and castanet,
The graceful youth and glowing maid
The glad fandango's call obeyed,
"Till, clutched in Gallia's vulture grasp,
She burst indignant from the clasp;
Wake, like the strong man from his sleep,
Waved her bright brand's resistless sweep,
Shook her fair locks of freedom wide,
Summoned the faithful to her side,
Roused her sunk voice to patriot strain,
And called on Albion o'er the main !
On either clime, when woke the sun,
His light has on thy glory shone!
Whene'er he saw thy flag unfurled
It floated o'er a rescued world!

Yet, oh! when Glory's trumpet-tone
Swells the full blast with thee alone,-
When round contending monarchs crowd,
To grace thy name with trophies proud,-
When kneeling Europe's soul acclaim
Is breathed to her deliverer's name,
Scorn not thine own harp's humble tone,
Son of the Green Isle-WELLINGTON !

Maturin

The following characteristic anecdote of the noble Duke, may not be inappropriately introduced on this day:-During the campaign of the allied troops in Paris, a French citizen, who was returning from the country through the Champs Elysées,