as mine, and, I dare say, yours, being the public good and truth. Mr. Ricardo expresses himself thus: The value of wealth varies essentially; for value does not depend on abundance (of things necessary or agreeable), but on the difficulty or facility of producing them. The manufacturing labour of a million of persons will always produce the same value, but will not always produce the same wealth. By means of more perfect machines, greater practice, a better division of labour; by the opening of new markets admitting of more advantageous exchanges, a million of persons may produce twice or thrice the quantity of necessary or agreeable articles which they could have produced in a different situation of society; and nevertheless they will add nothing to the sum of values."* This argument, founded on facts which are not contested, appears to agree perfectly with the sense which you support. The question is, how these facts confirm, instead of weakening, the doctrine of values; the doctrine which teaches that wealth is composed of the value of the things we possess, restricting this word value, to such value as is acknowledged and exchangeable. What, in short, is value, but that quality susceptible of appreciation, of more and less, which exists in the things we possess. It is the quality which enables us to obtain things of which we stand in need, in exchange for things which we have. The more we can thus obtain of the articles we want, the greater is the value of those which we have. Thus when I want to exchange a horse which I possess for corn, for which I have occasion, that is to say, when it suits me to sell my horse for the purpose of buying corn, if my horse be worth six hundred francs, I shall obtain double the value in corn which I should get if my horse were worth only three hundred francs: I shall have twice as many bushels of corn; and this portion of my wealth will be twice as great. And, as the same reasoning will apply, generally, to all I possess, it follows that the value of the things which we possess is the measure of our wealth. No one can reasonably deny this consequence. Nor can you deny, Mr. Ricardo may say, that the more agreeable and necessary things people have to consume, the * Principles of Political Economy, by Mr Ricardo. 2d edition, chap. 2. richer they are, whatever may be the value of those articles. Agreed; but surely to have the power of acquiring things to consume, is the same as to have the things themselves. To posSCSs greater wealth, is to be able to purchase a greater quantity of useful things, a greater quantity of utility, understanding by this expression all that we find necessary or agreeable. Now this proposition is not at all opposed to so much as is true in the definition of wealth given by you and Mr. Ricardo. You say that wealth consists in the quantity of necessary or agreeable things which one possesses; but as the signification of these words, quantity of necessary or agreeable things, is vague and arbitrary, and cannot be admitted into a good definition, I fix their meaning by the idea of their exchangeable value. Then the limitation of the idea of utility is, to be equal to some other utility which other people may consent to give in exchange for that which you possess. Hence results equation; one value may be compared with another by the help of a third: a sack of corn is an article of wealth equal to a piece of stuff, when each is exchangeable for an equal number of crown-pieces. Here we find a basis for comparisons; a method of measuring an augmentation or diminution; in a word, the foundations of a science. Without this, political economy has no existence; by this consideration alone, it has been drawn forth from the region of reveries; and this quality is so essential that you acknowledge its importance even against your will; nor is there one of your arguments in which it is not expressed or understood. Otherwise you would have caused science to retrograde, instead of enriching it with additional truths. The definitions given by you and Mr. Ricardo are deficient, not only in precision, but in extent: they do not comprehend the whole of what constitutes our wealth. Is our wealth confined to material objects necessary or agreeable to us? What, then, are our talents? Are they not productive funds from which we derive revenues, some greater and some less, just as we obtain more or less rent for a rood of good land or a rood of furze. I know able artists who have no income but what they derive from their talents, yet who are in opulence. According to you, they would be no richer than sign-post daubers. You cannot posssbly deny that whatever has an exchangeable value is a part of our wealth, which is essentially composed of the productive funds we possess. These funds are either lands, capitals, or personal faculties. Some of these funds are alienable and not consumable, as lands; others are alienable and consumable, as capitals; and others inalienable and yet consumable, as talents, which perish with their possessor. These funds produce the revenues by which society is supported; and (what may appear paradoxical, although perfectly true,) all these revenues are immaterial, being all derived from an immaterial quality, namely, utility. The different utilities obtained from our productive funds are compared with each other by means of their respective value, which it is unnecessary for me to distinguish as value in exchange, because, in political economy, I acknowledge no other value than that which is exchangeable. As to the difficulty raised by Mr. Ricardo, where he says, that by improved methods of working, a million of people may produce twice or thrice the quantity of wealth, without producing more value, this difficulty ceases to exist when we consider production as we ought to consider it, an exchange in which a man gives the productive services of his labour, his land, and his capital, to obtain their produce. By means of these productive services it is, that we acquire all the produce which exists in the world; and thence, by the bye, arises the value of produce, which, when people have acquired it by a burthensome process, they cannot afford to part with for nothing. Now since our first wealth is the productive funds which we possess, since our first revenues are the productive services which emanate from those funds, the greater the quantity of useful things which we obtain in the exchange called production, the greater is our wealth or the value of our productive services. And, at the same time, as obtaining a greater quantity of those useful articles, and obtaining them cheaper, are synonymous expressions, the greater the abundance and cheapness of articles, the richer are those who produce. I say those who produce, in general, because competition obliges them to give their productions for what they have cost: so that if those who produce corn and stuffs should contrive to produce, by means of the same productive services, a double quantity of corn or stuffs, all other producers would be able to buy a double quantity of corn or stuffs with the same quantity of productive services, or with the produce derived from them, which is the same thing. Such is the well-connected doctrine without which, I will confidently declare, it is impossible to explain the greatest difficulties in political economy; and particularly how it can happen that a nation may become richer when its productions are diminished in value, although wealth is value. You now see that I am not afraid to reduce my pretended paradoxes to their most simple expression. I strip them entirely bare, and leave them to your candour and that of Mr. Ricardo, and to the good sense of the public. But I reserve to myself the right of explaining them if they shall be misunderstood, and of defending them with perseverance from every unfair attack. OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF MUSIC IN LONDON. M. SPOHR, the celebrated violin performer, whose visit to London last spring excited such extraordinary interest, has, since his return to Germany, published a brief account of the present state of music in the British metropolis: the following extracts from which will, no doubt, be deemed acceptable by our musical readers “In England the winter season commences at the beginning of March, namely, at the period when it is drawing to a close in other countries; and the English nobility spend the finest months of the year in town, when, on the Continent, all persons of rank retire to their country residences. This cir BY LOUIS SPOHR. cumstance, which is occasioned by the late meeting of parliament, is so far favourable to travelling musical professors, that during the three summer months, when concerts are not thought of on the Continent, they may employ their talents advantageously in London; on the other hand, however, it is by no means agreeable for a public performer to appear, in the summer season, in a crowded concert-room lighted with gas, where the overpowering effect of the heat prevents even those who are accustomed to it from doing full justice to their talents. "The concerts of the Philharmonic Society take the lead of all musical per formances in London. A classical selection of music, the most careful rehearsals, and an orchestra composed of the first performers in London, give the Philharmonic concerts a superiority over all others. The two first-mentioned advantages may indeed be possessed by other institutions; but an union of all the most able performers on stringed instruments is only to be found in the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society; for one of their rules strictly requires that each member and professor shall take a part in the concerted pieces, when it is not his turn to lead, or to play a solo. Formerly these concerts could boast of possessing, at the same time, Viotti, Salomon, Cramer, Baillot, Weichsel, Vaccari, Spagnoletti, Mori, and other distinguished virtuosi of the first rank, who sustained the violin parts, while other concerts could with difficulty obtain one of the above professors to act as leader. Considering the importance of the violin and bass* in an orchestra, it will readily be acknowledged that no concerts in the world possess so excellent a collection of performers on stringed instruments. Unfortunately the wind-instruments are not equally distinguished, as the performers, for want of suitable subjects, have not such good scope for the display of their ability: my countryman Griesbach, the oboe-player, is undoubtedly entitled to the first rank. The company who attend the Philharmonic concerts are no less select than the orchestra; for the directors, as far as lies in their power, receive, as subscribers, only such persons as evince real taste and respect for art, and who go to a concert solely for the love of music. Out of 750 subscribers, there are not, probably, 100 who visit these excellent concerts merely for fashion's sake. It will, therefore, readily be supposed that the performances are listened to with silence and attention from beginning to end. It is worthy of remark, that the audience manifest a great taste for symphonies and overtures, and (when particularly well performed) these compositions always elicit stronger marks of approbation than solosit not unfrequently happens that a beautiful symphonymovement, even though it should be a long adagio, is rapturously encored. I was the more gratified by this di Among the violoncellists I shall mention only Lindley, and among the bass-performers, Diagonetti. rection of public taste, as I have observed that in Germany the relish for lofty and scientific music, and especially for the symphony, that noblest species of instrumental composition, is gradually declining. It is indeed possible to travel through the whole of Germany, (Leipzig, and one or two other cities perhaps excepted) without having an opportunity of hearing a grand symphony performed and listened to with satisfaction. This is the more lamentable, when it is considered that the symphony has been created and brought to perfection by German composers, and that no other nation has produced any thing in this branch of composition at all comparable to the master-pieces of Mozart, Haydn, &c. The music performed by the Philharmonic Society is, as I have before observed, of the most choice description; and it seldom happens that any inferior compositions find their way to these concerts. Unfortunately, however, this observation applies only to the instrumental music and the concerted vocal pieces. The selection of the songs is now consigned to the singers, to obviate the inconvenience which occasionally arose when the songs allotted to them did not suit their powers. Even at these concerts, therefore, it frequently happens that the noblest master-pieces of ancient and modern times are succeeded by a song composed on the model of the newest fashion, by which the sublime effect of the preceding music is obliterated. One of the rules laid down at the foundation of the Society, ordained, that a symphony, either by Haydn or Mozart, shall be performed at every concert; and all concertos are prohibited, with the exception of Mozart's for the pianoforte. As, however, most modern concertos are not objectionable on the score of incorrect composition, this rule is by no means rigidly adhered to; at least, every foreign professor, on his first visit to London, is permitted to choose a concerto for his debut. In each of the Philharmonic concerts there are usually performed two whole symphonies, two overtures, one concerto, one quartett or quintett, two songs, and two or three vocal concerted pieces, amounting, altogether, to ten or twelve different compositions. The concerts, including a pause of fifteen or twenty minutes, last from eight to twelve o'clock. It is certainly too much to expect that an audience should listen to music for four hours, almost without interruption; and that the attention is sooner exhausted by listening to composition and execution of a superior kind, cannot be doubted. However, as it is usual for all concerts and dramatic representations in London to continue till twelve o'clock, it would be difficult to alter the custom. Of the execution of the music, I can only speak in terms of unqualified praise. The overtures and symphonies are performed by the orchestra of the Philharmonic (consisting of sixty-six individuals) in a style which leaves nothing to be wished. This particularly excited my astonishment, for, considering the way in which orchestras are led in England, it must be extremely difficult to carry the whole through correctly. According to old custom (for the English are always loth to relinquish an old custom, even when they know of a better), the person presiding at the piano-forte accompanies from the score, and takes no part in the direction of the orchestra. On the contrary, the first violin, who may be properly called the leader, has merely the part of the first violin placed before him, and therefore it is impossible that he can either observe the introduction of the wind-instruments, or see that the whole be accurately performed. He does not even mark the time with his bow-a precaution which seems indispensably necessary in an orchestra arranged on so unconnected a plan-but merely executes his part as the rest of the performers do. It is not, therefore, surprising that failures should occasionally arise, particularly in forte passages-a circumstance which can never happen when the time is marked visibly, but not audibly. Of this fact I have had ample opportunities of convincing myself in all the concerts I have led. A new symphony, which I composed in London, was performed at the Philharmonic concerts in a style of accuracy which left me nothing to wish for. As a German, I observed, with pride, the superiority in music which my own country now enjoys over every other :the programmes of the Philharmonic concerts seldom contain any names except those of German composers; occasionally an Italian name appears, but seldom an English one, which are limited to the performance of old music, and from which not only the productions of living composers are excluded, but also the works of those masters, even though deceased, who belong to the modern school, such as Haydn, Mozart, &c. Handel fills almost the whole programme; and I must aeknowledge, that at the Concerts of Ancient Music, I first learned duly to appreciate the dignified simplicity of that master's works. Handel's airs, in particular, when sung as I have heard them at the Ancient Concerts, and accompanied on the organ in a style which may be counted a traditional inheri tance of the English, can certainly well dispense with the incongruity of modern additions and ornaments. The London singers, who are much practised in the execution of Handel's compositions, are doubtless indebted to that circumstance for one advantage, in which the Italian and German singers of the present day are strikingly deficient ; namely, firm, pure intonation, and a clear, distinct shake; an ornament which is indispensably necessary in the performance of Handel's music. The overtures and concertos by the old masters, performed at the Ancient Concerts, are far inferior to the vocal music, and afford convincing proofs that instrumental science has been brought to perfection only by the German composers of modern times; while, on the other hand, it is obvious that vocal composition is rather retrograding than advancing. The first professors in every department are engaged at these concerts, which are attended by numerous and brilliant auditories." Mr. Spohr makes the following observations on Logier's Institution, and Messrs. Erard's Harp Manufactory, both of which he visited while in London. "Mr. Logier (a German by birth, but who has resided for fifteen years in England) teaches the piano-forte, together with the principles of harmony, on a new plan, of which he is himself the inventor. The most remarkable feature of this new system is, that the " pupils, who frequently amount to thirty lessons at the same time. Mr. Logier or forty in number, all practise their has written three volumes of Studios, notes to each hand, and advancing tion ishall grounded on a simple theme, of five progressively to the most difficult combinations. While the beginners play merely the Thema the more advanced Next to the Philharmonic, the Concerts of Ancient Music most excited my interest. As far as my knowledge goes, these are the only concerts in the world ין pupils practise variations more or less difficult. It might be supposed that the confusion arising from this method would render it impossible for the master to detect the faults of his pupils'; but as all who practise the same lesson are ranged close to each other, the master, when near them, is capable of judging of their performance, without being disturbed by those who are playing other lessons. He occasionally orders one half, or all the scholars to stop,while he directs his attention to each individually. For beginners he employs his Chiroplast, by which the children, even in their earliest lessons, acquire a proper position of the hand and arm. It cannot be denied that this machine is admirably contrived for the object it is intended to fulfil; and it of course affords vast assistance to Mr. Logier in superintending a number of pupils at once. It might also be advantageously employed for learners in general; for though at the period of giving a lesson, the master has the opportunity of pointing out and correcting bad habits; yet children, when abandoned to themselves, are but too apt to contract awkward positions of the hand and arm in the practice of the piano-forte. As soon as the pupils are so far advanced as to know the notes and keys, the machine is removed first from one hand and then from the other, and they are next taught the proper motion of the thumbs, and to run up and down in the different keys: these runs are performed by the pupils all at once, and with the strictest accuracy as to time. When a certain class is advanced to a new lesson, and cannot all play it with equal rapidity, they strike only a few notes in each bar; the difficulty, however, it may readily be supposed, is soon overcome, and in a short time the new lesson is played with as much facility as the old one. "Another advantage of Mr. Logier's system is, that he instructs his pupils in the principles of harmony along with the first practical lessons on the pianoforte. How this is done I know not: it is a secret which, for the payment of 100 guineas, he communicates to those teachers who choose to adopt his plan. The result of Logier's system, as evinced by the progress of his pupils, is most astonishing, Children of from 7 to 10 years of age, who have been learning no longer than four months, solve the most difficult musical problems. I wrote down a triad on a tablet, and men tioned the key into which I wished it to be modulated, and one of the youngest girls, after a little reflection, noted down, first the figured basses and then the upper notes of the chords. I repeated this proposition in the most difficult ways possible, requiring that the scholars should modulate it into the remotest keys, where enharmonic changes were necessary, and in no instance did they commit a fault. If one pupil hesitated, a second wrote down the notes, and her figured bass was again corrected by a third, while, at the same time, they pointed out to their master the fundamental bass of all the chords. At last I wrote down a simple treble, just as it occurred to me by chance, and requested each of the scholars to write the three lower parts on their little tablets; observing that I would inscribe in my musical pocket-book, and carry home with me, as a memorial, that harmony which Mr. Logier and myself might pronounce to be the best. They all eagerly set to work, and in a few minutes the youngest girl, who had previously distinguished herself both in playing and in solving problems of harmony, brought me her tablet. In her haste, however, a faulty progression of octaves occurred between the bass and the middle parts. I had no sooner pointed out her error, than she coloured, took back her tablet, and with tears in her eyes made the necessary correction. As her harmony was now un-. questionably the best, I accordingly inserted it in my memorandum-book. The parts written by the other children, which were in four different keys, were more or less good, but all perfectly correct. They moreover played their examples off at first sight without hesitation. "It is to be regretted that Mr. Logier's system is not known in Germany; as it would enable our Dilettanti to unite a knowledge of the theory of music with their astonishing practical execution, and they would not then select as their favourite compositions those which are... most strikingly incorrect and deficient in harmony. The advantage which would thereby ensue to professors is obvious. "I shall, perhaps, render a service to the harp-players of Germany, by giving a brief notice of the newly-invented doublemovement harps, which are now generally introduced in London, and which, I believe, are scarcely known in Germany They differ from the ordinary pedal harps in this important particular, |