Year: 1876

4 perfectly satisfactory definition of
singing, at once accurate and full, would
not perhaps be easy to give. To utter
musical sounds is not neeeesa-ily to sing
unless, indeed, chanting and declaim-
ing be identical with singing. What,
moreover, is musical sound, and how
does it differ from other forms of noise
The modern eDic poet, while preserving
absolute silence, "sings " of arms, oflove,
and of many other things. Sometimes,
it is true, he calls upon the heavenly
muse" to sing for him but in neither
case is any singing, as we ordinarily un-
der; tand the word, performed. Scream
ing, again, is not singing, though it would
be TO the interest of many of our opeTatic
vocalists to maintain the contrary. Per
haps it would be less difficult to explain
what singing is not than to say with pre-
cision what it is. But however that may
be, it is difficult to admit, with the bail
lie of the central police court at Glasgow,
that to sing is to commit a breach of the
peace. In the case Of supposed vOcaliza-
tion submitted to the magistrate in ques-
tion, that there were, it is true, aggra-
waiting circumstances. The accused stood
charged not only with having sung but
with having sung Willie brewed apeck
o naut" 1t was further brought against
him that he had been aided and abetted
in the commission of the ofense by a
couple of friends, to whose voices he lad
wilfully and maliciously joined his own,
while the head and form of his offending
lay in the alleged fact that he had per-
petrated this outrage on the Sabbath


The incriminated person was one Jacob
King, pursuing the peaceful profession
or trade OF herbalist. Had the informa-
tion in respect to Willie and his
maui i" been given, whether vocally or
not, on week day, Jacob might, per-
haps, without much impropriety, have
maintained that brewing was a process
in which hops played a certain part ;
that hops were herbs and that in con-
sidering the general question of brewing
he was occupying himself with matters
pertaining to his legitimate occupation.
To have argued thus, however, would !,
under the circumstances, have been to
add darker hue to such a guilt as might
otherwise have been proved against him.
He would have stood seIf-convicted of
having devoted himself to business
affairs on Sabbath, which would in Itself
have been a scandal.


In the face of overpowering evidence
! it is safer, no doubt, for defendant not
to deny the facts The most that can
be done in so difficult a position is to
give new complexion to them, or other
wise to explain them away. This was
the line adopted by Jacob King, the
herbalist. True it was that he sang
true also, he freely admitted, that ht
sang with his friends in chorus, or al
least in a trio; while it would have beer
vain to pretend that the said singing
had not been done on Sabbath day. Ht
stoutly denied, however, the statement
sworn to by his enemies and accusers
that he had sung Willie blewed a peel
o. maui" or any other ungodly ditty
What his foes had mistaken for, or a
least had wrongly, declared to be, vii
lie brewed peck o. maui" was in fact
said Jacob, one of Moody and Sankey'
hymns If this assertion on the part Q
the defendant could have been proved
it is more than probable that b


would have got off without fine or repr


mand. He might indeed have retire


fortified by the assurance that he left th


court without. a stain on his character;


and there would have been no goo
reason why he should not have carrie
! with him still more valuable compl


ment from the bench-for mans cha
acter after all may be stainless and "
! not brilliant. As a rule in privai
: society it is held, in accordance wit