The National Register.
London, England, 1819-04-19 00:00:00

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[PRICE VII

music, it appears to us the very worst and the very longest
we ever beheld. We de not doubt that man ladies and
gentlemen thick it very wooderfol to see little masters
sod misses of five tir six years old scribbling double sharps
and flats upon a huge black board, but to those who are
at all acquainted with what is going on, the process
rather calculated to provoke a smile than to create any
astonishment. Upon what principles the young gentle/nes
and ladies (our future Handels and Minarts) have arrived
at what small degree of knowledge they possess, we are
tumble to discover, bait that they are ignorant of the first
rudiments of music as a science, we have no hesitation in
affirming. It has been well remarked, that "an attempt
to teach the theory or the practice of music indiscrimi.
nately to children ; whether they may happen to be
clever or stupid, whether they possess musical taste or
none at all, is, to say the very least of it, a process by no
means conneeted with good sense or reason. In by ire
the greater number of cases, the little animals have their
feeble brains loaded with a number of technical terms,
and stirred info hopeless caufusion by rules and principles,
which they neither understand in their abstract 'maniocs,
nor iu their relation to the general system of musical com-
position."
We have thought it our duty thus freely to give onr ori-
nion of Mr. Logier's pretensions, because we know that
few, very few indeed, are at all competent to form a
correct one. It is right, when a stranger confidently
talks of " the attempts of interested individuals to mislead
the public," when he thus wantonly endeavones to impute
unworthy motives to those who are now engaged in teach-
! ing movie, to sift his own qualifications, and see I.ow fair
he is competent to what lie undertakes. That children
may be taught music scientifically and practically by Mr.
L6gier's system we admit, lint that they can he taught to
play so well as by the mode of instruction now in nse is
this city and its neighbourhood, we utterly deny; and we
' feel confident that every well educated and respect-
able master would be able to intraprreeter and
sooners knowledge of music as a sciettliu could be
given by Mr. Logier's system within tsanie period.
They 5....5t lay their account, here, as else re, to suffer
some temporary loss by Logieriaidsm—the sliktitude gre
eager followers of novelty; but the delusion will pass
away, sod their own exertions and their uwu merits will
in future be more justly Rom related.

ANECDOTE OF SIOZART.—His charity was asked
one day, in the streets of Vienna, by a person who
had known better days ; and as the great musician
knew better how to heap up silver sounds than sil-
ver coin, he felt his pocket fur the poor fellow in
vain. Uneasy at his want of money at this parti-
cular moment, a benevolent thought suddenly struck
him, and he asked the man to wait while he went
into a tavern, where. calling for pen and ink, he
sat down and composed a minuet on the spot ; then
folding up the paper, he returned, and givinglt to
his petitioner, told him to carry it to a music*pub-
lisher in the city, who would give him something
when he saw the contents. He did so, and received
five double ducats. The circumstance deserves to
be recorded, and the minuet itself is worthy of the
occasion. It exhibits a singular mixture of science
(which Mozart perhaps took a just pride in•exhibit-
ing at such a sudden call), with that exquisite na-
tural beauty which is so appareut throughout his
works. It teaches us this practical lesson—that
there arc few, if any, who want the power of cluing
good in some way or other, if they are possessed of
the desire.

Anecdote of a Picture.-.-A valuable picture sass a
• French paper) was recently purchased by a bailie at
the sale of a few articles of hide value, in the village of
Verttur, near Paris. The picture, put up at a low mice,
rose rapidly to 3t francs, and the brokers, who only un-
derstood how to 'hake their market of old funtitore„
were at a loss to judge whether they ought to abandon
it or bid higher. At that moment a matt, who was
known to he a§tulge, offcred ton francs. 'Elvis sum re-
newed the confidence alike bidders, and it was knocked
down to the bailiff for '2.5 loins. The picture, the subject
of which is " Venus a Ike Bath," is ack 'kard to he
the work of N. Poussin, and the cimunisiseurs have since
purchased it, according to report, fur i'.:0100 francs.
Sin,:u.inr. 1.4(1.—M0 lovers of natural history may
find amusement in the following article :—MIr. Gray, of
Tower-street. Chichester, has at this time en his 1)04.
session a ban k and pigeon, both of which for some
• months past, have been wether in a small garden.
1111 l domiciliary treatment, their natural asuipailtiesare
(mite obliterated, and tile pigeon is completely maswr of
his contortion, which he never fails to evince, if 41 any
time the latter encroach on his detoesne.