The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-08 00:00:00

Icomptilzery clauses of the Bill may be limited to children of
eight years of age, and under. Surely it is not too much to
ask for the time of children, for the purpose of being taught,
-n to this early period. . Morality and policy unite in the de-
-1 .-._ -”,od of six years, moreover, steadily devoted to
ril MI A p......
‘'whilii ti
which infant powersrs are capable,
the classes of learning v. ~. might perchance
would lay a foundation of Sorne extent, anu .
receive additions, in future years, of incstimr.ble valf!.w. The
course of instruction should include reading; writing, English
grammar, and arithmetic. It might be called ~!:, elemen-
tary Division, and it ought to be the minimum of instruC!ion,
which every child in Great Britain should receive.
The course of education recommended would be applicable
to those children only whose parents are unable to give up a
longer portion of their time. There are others, however, to
whom a system of education would be required, from eight to
fourteen years of age. TOsuch might be added, in connexion
with the branches above pointed out, the higher divisions of
arithmetic, with geography, Latin, and some of the modern
iang,Tl-Vg.
The-who!C course of education on this plan would comprise
the following studies :---.
Reading, Writing, English Graintnar,l f
y For children from 2 to 8
and Arithmetic ears old.
Arithmetic in all its higher branches,
For children from 8 to It
Geography, Latin, French, Ger- years old.
man and Italian
No plan can by any possibility be offered as a substitute for
Sunday Schools. They are i ncomparably the best means of
instruction for a populous and manufacturing country, which
human purpose, warmed by benevolence, ever yet carried into
execution. Without loss- of working time, children are well
taught what is of most importance. They learn to read the
Bible, they learn to write, and in conection with these advan-
tages they are brought under the means of religious instruc-
tion. Manners and morals are attended to by unpaid and be-
nevolent teachers, who watch over them with well-directed
solicitude. _ _ _

13y the statement above it appears. that taking the whole of
the children educated iii Nottingham in round numbers at
9,000, it gives a number equal 1,3 the proportion of all the
children in the town from six to fourteen yeiZs old. It appears,
therefore, that all the children are educated. Ot this numbe.",
tr)wevor, 3 000 are week-day scholars, wid 6,000 BELONG TO
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

This fact ought to be recorded in letters of gold. Nothing
in the history of nations ever presented so noble an example of
wisdom and virtue. Besides Infant Schools, and those on
charitable foundations, two-thirds of the children of Great
Britain, it may be stated, arc trained to religious duties, and
taught useful learning by unpaid teachers and benevolent con-
tributors !

In the present state of society, it is probable that a greater
degree of practical information is enjoyed than belongs to any
other country. The schoolmaster has long been abroad. The
vast circulation of the public journals prove how ardent is the
spirit of inquiry, and how abundant are the means applied to
its gratification. The benevolent and patriotic exertions of
Lord Brougham are equally beyond praise and gratitude.
When it is considered, however, how large a portion of our
children, from G to 14, are so well taught in Sunday schools ,
and how many Infant Schools and charitable endowments are
capable of being made far more efficient. than at present, it
would in my view, be utterly useless to adopt any legislative
measure with a view to National Education, unless that mea-
sure (as in other States) were made stringent and obligatory.
I am, Sir, your's,
RD. HOPPER.
Papplewick, near Nottingham, Feb. 3, 1838.

SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY.

EXETER HALL.

The large Hall was last night again filled to overflowing by the
members of the above enterprising Society and their friends.
The object of their assembling was to hear the Oratorio of the
" Fall of Jerusalem," composed by their leader, Mr. G. Perry,
performed by a band and chorus consisting, as the bills in-
formed us, of above five hundred musicians. The Oratorio
lied been previously heard at several meetings of the Society,
on a far less extensive scale than the present, and considerable
sturiosity had been excited upon the present occasion. It has
been :'sell observed by a professor of first rate eminence that
the itnmot-Lai Handel would " bear any weight you might
place upon him i'st and that his magnificent chorusses, so far
from becoming mere ."1'34,r, by an enormous increase of vocal
and instrumental materia , impressed the hearer with still more .
of conception of the composer,
exalted notions of the sublimit;
at every succeeding ordeal. It was doubted by many, whether
the efforts of Mr. Perry would beaS• the additional pon-
derosity included in a band and chorus -" or, the most
ex-
tensive tensive scale, consisting of above five hundred
s.
The words of the oratorio are selected from the pees s of Pro-
fessor Milmon, and, as may be inferred from the ni-Ths'e, the
main incident described is the destruction of the sacral city
by the Roman legions under Titus. It would be invidious;
our opinion, to draw any comparison between the present cona-
position and any of those which have preceded it. The
fairest mode of judging of Mr. Perry's certainly ambitious
production, will be taking it as we have heard it, purely by it-
self, and without reference to those splendid efforts which are
still looked up to, with a feeling almost amounting to reveren-
tial awe, by those most capable or appreciating their merits.
The Oratorio of Mr. Perry, then, as a whole, is a compo-
sition evincing an immensity of industry, much scientific
knowledge, very considerable skill in the management of in-
strumental accompaniment, and great judgment in availing
himself of the mass of vocal power included in a large body of
highly efficient choral singers. The drawbacks af,e that
much of the music reminds us forcibly of what we Jtave
repeatedly heard before, and that the pieces sr hick
stand prominently distinguished from the rest, as evi-s
deuce of superior talent, or of originality of idea, arc butt
of ;;;-2ited number. Still it is a subject of congratulation,
that we ha::'e an Englishman capable of successfully competing
with the foreigrilsrs who have recently monopolised this species
of composition ; gnu, above all, .that we have a Society in the
,
metropolis competent to cive effect to.the experiment, and that
so large a body of persons co..' be collected together, capable
of receiving that enjoyment whicii it is evident was experienced
by the numerous auditory of last nigh,:
The overture opened very charaeteri`tically with a few
simple notes of the horn, very effectively played by Mr. Platt,
and in the same movement Mr. Willman's clariosiet produced
a delightful effect ; the passage, however, or something very
like it, we thought we had heard more than once before, The
quick movement, afugue, was neither very original nor very
striking. The first Recitative, " Men of Jerusalem," was soli;
with great firmness and power of tone by Mr. J. 0. Atkins;
as Titus, a bass singer of merit. A second Recitative intro-
duced Mr. Sapio, as Simon ; we were not pleased with this
gentleman, either in this or his succeeding efforts. He appeared
to labour very much in the upper notes of his voice, and
his attempts at giving effect amounted very nearly to voci-
feration or bawling. The first chorus, " Oi Holy Simon,"
was rather tame, and was but coolly received. In the air,
" The Thunder follows not the Lightning's Flash," the com-
poses' seemed to have lost an opportunity, as in several other
parts of the composition, of producing a splendid effect. The
accompaniments were pretty, but too trickery, asid conveyed
no idea of " thunder," or swiftness, or " warlike execution,"
indicated by the words. Miss Birch, as Salone, sang very
beautifully and feelingly throughout ; her first air, " Weak,
erring mortals," a charming composition, was very delightfully
sung ; the instrumental arcompaniments were beautiful both
in conception and execution. In so long a piece as this, of
course, our limits will allow us to advert to but very few of the
compositions—we must, therefore, content ourselves with
merely adverting to such as appeared particularly prominent.
The chorus of Roman soldiers, " Ages yet unborn," al-
though in rather too plain and measured a style, was
very good. Miss Birch's song, " Fair are the Flowers,"
was prettily sung, and the accompaniments very pretty. An
attempt was made to encore it, but failed. The chorus of
Jews, " Lo ! a glorious triumph," was one of the best of the
oratorio, and was very finely sung, as far as correctness went,
but we should hare liked to have heard a little more energy
and animation. An air, by Miss Birch, " I feel it now," was
perhaps the most efficiels!. piece of the oratorio. When we
state that it had a spendid violoncello accompaniment, by
Lindley, superbly played, our residers will not be surprised to
hear that it was encored. " Lov'd Zion," a beautiful air, with
charming accompaniments, was chastet; and feelingly sung by
Mr. F. Robinson. In the concluding c horus of the First
Part, " Blow ye sacred priests," some ess-1/4-.cts with the
brass instruments, in the style of Neukomne. Were at-
tempted, but either from defect in execution, or sesZsle other
cause, we are bound to say they failed. In the Secoro Part
the recitative of Miss Birch, " The sound of mirth °has
ceased,", was sung with great feeling, but here agab
the composer seemed to have missed his opportunity
for producing something striking. The words "Ha
'tis the thunder of the living God ! It falls—lt crashes—
It comes down in fire I" were but feebly expressed. A fine
chorus of Jews, " On to the Temple," was but indifferently
sung. In fact, the music of the Second Part did not go near
so well, in any respect, as that of the First, and the orchestra,
towards the conclusion, had become deplorably out of tune.
The concluding chorus, " Lord of all po‘rer," was very ef-
fective, but much too long. The whole performance was over
before half-past ten o'clock, and the large auditory appeared to
be highly gratified, as we are bound to say we ourselves were,
notwithstanding those faults and deficiencies we have felt it our
duty to point out. We have only to add, that the band was
ably led by Mr. Perry himself, and the chorus conducted by
Mr. Surman ; and that the orchestra, in addition to members
of the Society, included in its ranks many professors of
eminence.

ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
LONDON.

The Monthly General Meeting of this Society was held on
Friday last, the 2d instant, J. R. Gower, Esq., F. G. S., in
the Chair. The attendunce, notwithstanding the severity of
the weather, was more numerous than on any former occasion.
A great number of ladies occupied the front seats.
The Report of the Council stated that Mr. Blyth bad been
appointed Assistant Secretary and Curator of the Museum;
the latter officer beint rendered necessary, by the munificent
loan of the lion. W. T. Fiennes.
Several donations were announced ; among them was a col-
lection of anatomical preparations, presented by Mr. Bartlett.
It was stated that the collection of living birds had sustained
very little injury from the severity of the winter, and that ar-
rangements had bee❑ made for procuring a great number of
rare and beautiful species in the course of the ensuing spring.
Thomas Bell, Esq., F. R. S., Professor of Geology, Hobert
Blagden fiale,;M. P., and Anthony White, Esq., were elected
members of the Society.
The Report having been approved, the Chairman called
upon Mr. Blyth to open the discussion of the subject of the
day—viz., " The Geographical distribution of .Birds."
Mr. BLYTII commenced a very elaborate and interesting dis-
course, by enumerating-Ist, 'A variety of groups and species,
which are confined to particular regions ; and, 2dly, Others,
and some of comparatively trivial value, which are diffused
over the greatest portion of the world. He illustrated the sub-
ject by adducing various phenomena oF geology and botany—
enumerated and explained some of the more interesting analo-
gous adaptations of different types of form geographically se-
parated—such, for instance, as the humming-bird of America,
and the nectar-feeders of India and its islands, Africa, and
Australia—took a rapid survey dale modern theories of zoolo-
gical provinces, particularly commenting on Dr. Richardson's
—and called attention to the following curious fact, which he
was not aware had been previously announced :—viz., that
those North American birds which have no genuine represen-
tative in Europe, and those European genera which have no
species proper to America, are,• almost without exception,
migratory, belonging to types of forms characteristic of those
regions where they pass the winter. Several very interesting
deductions were drawn from this fact. The leading charac-
ters of the ornithology of different regions were then dis-
cussed ; and generalising upon these characters, and the facts
already stated, Mr. Blyth indicated some of the laws which
might be supposed to regulate and circumscribe the dispersion
of particular species.
We greatly regret that the limits of our report render it
impossible for us to do justice to this highly interesting por-
tion of Mr. Blyth's observations. lie was heard throughout
with the greatest attention, and received considerable applause
at the termination of his discourse.

Mr. VIGORS followed, and having stated that he hoped this
highly interesting and important subject would be followed
into its subdivisions at some of the ensuing meetings of the
Society, proceeded to make a few remarks upon some of its
most striking points—such as the correspondency, or geo-
graphical representation of groups and species inhabiting dif-
ferent localities—the Ostrich, for instance, of the African
deserts—represented in Asia and its Islands by the Cassowary,
in Australia by the Emeu, in the Pampas of South America
by the Rhcea, and in Europe, as he conceived, by the Great
Bustard. It was his opinion, that every prominent group had
thus an analogue, or representative, in each of the principal
divisions of the world ; and that, in:every case, where,such re-
presentation were wanting, the deficiency was occasioned by
some sufficient and harmonious cause. As an example, the
Starlings were represented as inhabiting all parts of the world
except in Australia ; the explanation of which exception is, that
they seek much of their food on the backs of cattle, and in
Australia there are no indigenous ruminant quadrupeds. It
was thus that, in many other instances, the diffusion of aid-
mats is regulated by that of their prey—this, again, by that of
particular vegetable, which, in its turn, is dependent on the
soil. Before Mr. Vigors concluded, he expressed a hope that,
at the next meeting, there would be laid on the table a greater
number of specimens to illustrate the subject of discussion.
Mr. CHESTFR stated, that if the gentlemen who proposed
to favour the Society with any scientific observations at future
meetings, would apprize the Council of the specimens which
would be desirable for illustration, every possible exertion
should be used to obtain them.

" The Geographical Distribution of the Rasores, or Poultry
Birds," was announced as the subject for the next meeting-,
which was fixed for the 2d of March.

At a marriage which recently took Place in this
quarter,
consistin,g of six, singu-
larly
enough,al e
it r party
bore
the o*
n females,
fine
Spanish name of Isa-
bella. Such a concentration of belles under one roof has sel-
dom been witnessed, and we cannot but congratulate the
beaux who figured on this occasion at such an auspicious cir-
cumstance. Wick Paper.