you will continue with it; so do not let it be idle like many bright ideas for want of scope to develop itself. I shall be on the look out for the music you promise to publish in 'Brett's Notation'" etc. "
Harmonica
Musical Taste. Under this heading a letter appeared in Brett's St. Leonards Gazette, as follows:-
"Dear Sir,
-Metaphysicians tell us that the law of variety is the grandest secret in Nature as regards things material; but who could fathom the multifarious phases, the fine touches and different hues which reign in things purely idealio? Whoever has yet satisfactorily explained the causes of variety as exists in taste, for instance? And, to be more specific, as well as to make the most of the little space that you may kindly allot me. I will at once tell you that I would treat in these brief remarks, on the taste for music. I hear people continually say that England has arrived at a high standard in music - that the taste of the English is becoming more and more refined; yet, in flat contradiction to this, what do I notice? In the public thoroughfares 'Punch and Judies' are the most popular, whilst in second-class concert rooms the low burlesqe(sic) is flourishing. 'Ah! but stop a bit you say, they are chiefly frequented by the lower and uneducated classes; raise your prejudiced vision, and look at our Music-Hall concerts! Well, I do look at them, and I tell you that it your Music Hall which caused me to write this letter.
A fortnight ago I had the pleasure to listen to the exquisite music of the Orpheus Glee Union. It is sufficient for me to say that the performance was beautiful - that it was sold elevating - that its influence must be lasting to many feeling hearts. Does it not reverberate on our inmost self and stir all that is noble, all that is good, all that is God-like in us? Does it not lift us above the destiny of mortals and permit us to breathe and atmophere(sic) of purity, happiness and innocence, so intense and so real that when we awake out of the somnambulic influence, and the aolian strains have ceased, we still carry some of its recollections with us, and resolve henceforth to live brighter and better beings? But alas! how few there were to share those feelings! The room was only half filled, chiefly by the respectable population. Yet, a few days afterwards a traveling harlequin arrived, who told the people in flaming handbills that he would treat them with as much nonsense for one shilling as they could reasonably expect; that he would reverse the order of things, turning the sublime into the ridiculous, and vice versa. And who was there to be amused? Was it the mechanics? No! Representatives of the upper ten thousand crowded the Hall. And listen, oh ye Gods! Paul Howard carried the palm over the Orpheus Union. - Now the question arises "What is to be done to elevate the taste of the masses? Surely it should be to cultivate music among them. I hail, with pleasure and with hope the efforts which are now being made in that direction. All honour to the Rev. Mr. Cur-
