nothing without "the advice and consent" of a Minister, at present; and though, like the Commons, she can dismiss a Ministry, yet, no more than they, can she control it; and when, after dismissing it, she is forced to receive it back, it can do what it pleases, against her will and judgment. At present therefore it is not an undue power of the Crown which we are engaged in lessening, but an undue power of Bureaucracy, or rather, of Cliquism-the jugglery of Outs with Ins, which gambles away the interests of the na

tion.

But- -so vast is this British empire-the Lower House, in which rests, and must rest the ultimate patronage to office (because with it rests the sole power over the purse), cannot efficiently perform its high multifarious duties, unless it is delivered from the enor mous oppression of work which is not its own. The most crying grievance here is that of Private Bills, on which we need now say little, because in our 9th number (Jan. 1854) we dwelt at large on this subject, under "Constitutional Reform." Moreover, in a recent number of the "Edinburgh Review," is a most vigorous, decisive, and unanswerable onslaught against this pernicious enormity; in a tone which, from the Government organ, is very remarkable, and indicates that the time is really come for the extinction of the abuse. It is only requisite to press, that we must beware lest this be turned into a new effort for Central Boards devoted to special functions; as a Board of Railways, a Board of Telegraphs, a Board of Harbors, a Board of Docks, a Board to protect Sailors, a Board of Health, a Board of Education, &c. For this result one paragraph in the "Edinburgh Review" strives a paragraph so out of harmony with the article, that one may think it to have been foisted in by the editor against the writer's will. Central Boards are a devouring plague. The number of them needed is infinite, unless Parliament is still to have a mass of miscellaneous local business; in fact, for every extension of practical science a new Board will be wanted, and will never be appointed until twenty years too late, if indeed the system were good. Many of the decisive objections urged by the "Edinburgh Review" against Private Bills in Parliament, apply to every Central Board. If a railway is wanted from Cork to Kerry, how absurd it is to bring witnesses up to London to argue the case before a Committee of Parliament! True but it is equally absurd to bring them

up to London before a Central Railway Board. Besides, such Boards will constantly clash with one another; nor can they ever have the same interest or knowledge in a local affair as the locality itself. The only rightful, and the only constitutional mode of delivering Parliament from the incubus of Private Bills and local Bills, is to resusci tate Local Legislation-whether by simply falling back on the old principles of England, and working by the Common Law (which Mr. J. Toulmin Smith alleges to be feasible, as soon as certain injurious Acts of Parlia ment are repealed) ;-or whether by a real construction of provincial legislation on a greater scale, analogues to the States of the Union-we do not now discuss. The question is a highly-important one, and we ventured some thoughts concerning it in the article already referred to; but the great principle of real local legislatures, which are able to deal with the highest moral and industrial interests, equally with petty police and care of the streets--legislatures which are certain never to be overruled by Parlia ment without the gravest necessity-this principle is more important than any of the details.

In this connection, we think a passage from a recent tract of the Anti-Centralization Union very pertinent.-(Balaclava at Home, p. 5.)

"The Constitution' requires, and formerly the practice was, that in every place continual and habitual Inquiries shall be held as to all those matters which concern the common welfare, and with which the only business of the State is, to take care that they are rightly fulfilled in every part. Thus wrong was promptly discovered, and the remedy applied. No man could escape his responsibility, and each Unity was held to its and in habitual orderly use in every parish and duty. And thus the means were ever present, in every county, &c. The Bastard Counterfeit [of the Constitution] has it as a part of its plan, that all this course of Inquiry shall be carefully smothered and avoided. Where responsibility rests-from whom or to whom-in any matter, no man can tell. Not a local matter can arise, but the Poor-Law Board interferes here, the Board of Health there, the Privy Council in this place, and the Board of Trade in that, . till nothing flourishes but Functionarism. Any utterance in an organic shape is absolutely stopped: thus Cliquism succeeds in going on its way unchecked."

In many quarters one meets the attempt to "improve" the recent break-down of our administration into an argument for despotic centralization, veiled under admiration for

the success of French management. In reImgard to warlike affairs, the argument is plausible to thoughtless persons; because undoubtedly, in the conduct of a war, centralized power is essential; but to show the fallacy of the argument, it suffices to remark, that the American Union has betrayed no lack of central energy in warlike matters. In fact, the more Parliament can be divested of private bills and local legislation, the more will the Cabinet also be freed from this extraneous duty. At present, such questions as a London Cab Act, or Intramural Burials, or the tariff of a local railway, are liable to distract a prime minister in the midst of a war; or else, to avoid this, a stop is put to domestic improvement. In short, we think that all Reformers will do well to inscribe on their flag, that Reform must take the direction of America, not of France. How little could be effected for liberty by Universal Suffrage and Republicanism, under a central ized system, was exhibited in France from 1848 to 1851, too clearly to be mistaken or explained away.

America, (it will be seen from above,) we have no objection; but we appeal to France, as showing how delusive it will be, where Functionarism and Centralization rule.

The suggestions which we have made above may be conveniently summed up in their aspect toward "Queen, Lords, and Commons." They propose to give to the Queen a really free choice of servants; to give to the Lords a control over the foreign proceedings of the cabinet; and to give to the Commons a control over the appointments to the peerage, as well as to all nominations to office. All three branches will hereby gain in efficiency and in honor. The Cabinet will be made responsible in fact as it is in theory; that is to say, it will be responsible while it exists as a Cabinet, which is the only real responsibility. Its power to do mischief, by neglect, incompetency, or sinister interest, will be enormously lessened; but its power to do good will be increased; for it will be delivered from the incubus of many greedy claimants whom it cannot now resist, and, by carrying on its work under clearer publicity, or under the severe inspection of a standing committee, it will receive higher confidence from the nation.

England at present suffers in part under the same disease as paralyzed France in 1848, viz. that so very few persons are sufficiently known to command confidence in high office. The main reforms here proposed are not This is because our counties and municipali- untried or theoretic, They are no mere à ties are not, as they ought to be, normal priori speculation, but a living part of the schools for the Parliament. In America, great American system. We know it is imthere are thirty-one centres of legislation and possible to exhaust this subject in a single of political life; and in the best-ordered Free article; its very fruitfulness forbids. We States, the towns are quite as active in the are confident that it is a germ of the richest judgment and transacting of great moral in- promise; and, if it obtain attention from the terests, locally, as the State Legislatures. public, further inquiry will be made, whether They are schools in which statesmen are not any of those evils result in America, which a only trained, but become known. They mind trained to look at everything through healthily occupy local ambition, and teach in English prejudices will predict. As the every quarter what are the rights of freemen Ministers of despotic Courts urge, that no and what their limits of course always one will take the trouble of becoming Minisexcept where the cursed Slavery comes in. ter, if he needs to carry his measures in a A very little insight as to the working of Parliament, so it will perhaps be objected, things in America will show how much more "Men of education and rank will not accept important are these local institutions than office on the condition of being really conthe mere universal suffrage for Congressional trolled by Parliament;" or, Will you not and Presidential elections. A large change bring government to a deadlock ?” in the latter might be made without at all"How, ever, could a great measure, like a impairing true and republican freedom or Reform Bill, be carried?" It is here suffienergy; but to tamper with the local free- cient to reply, that the experience of America dom would be damaging or fatal. English proves all such practical difficulties to be Radicals, for the last quarter of a century, purely imaginary. In spite of having legishave done immense mischief to real freedom latures elected by universal suffrage, they and good government in England, by the have an abundant supply of eminently able enormously overstrained importance they men anxious to sit in the President's cabinet. have attached to what is absurdly called If these are repelled from it, it is not by "the franchise." To Universal Suffrage, the need of acting with the standing comwhen a nation has its other institutions like mittees of Congress, but by the difficulty of VOL. XXXV.-NO. II.

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or,

This, however, could not last. Louis avows himself her lover; and Anne, besides her motives of personal predilection, could not do so much injustice to her country as to refuse his proposals. prove; Their love," says Miss Costello, "was on both sides as chivalrous, and dignified, and pure, as any to be found in the pages of those romances which at that time still gave the tone to society, and kept it free from the license and the weakness which the startling changes in the next reign of Francis I. created and encouraged."

From the Biographical Magazine.

MOZART.

PERHAPS to no one of the "dead kings of melody"-as Shelley finely designates the musical Titans whose works have contributed so largely to the enjoyment of the whole civilized world-is the art more indebted than to the subject of our memoir. Handel was undoubtedly more massive, Beethoven more profound and impassioned, Haydn and Mendelssohn more refined; but Mozart's precocity of genius, versatility of talent, and multitudinous achievements, render him unique among the greatest musical geniuses the world has ever known.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART was born January 27, 1756, at Salzburg. His father, Leopold, was the son of a bookbinder at Augsburg, whence he removed to Salzburg, where he studied jurisprudence at the university. Being a good musician, and an excellent violinist, he entered, on leaving the university, the family of Count Von Thurn, a canon of the cathedral, and afterwards, at his recommendation, the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg. Here he by degrees raised himself to the post of sub-director of the Archbishop's chapel; a situation which seems to have been anything but a lucrative one, as we find him, in his twenty-first year, publishing six violin trios which he had composed, and which he had engraved himself to save expense. That he was a man of some ambition and considerable

industry is evident from the fact of his having composed, before his eclipse by the superior talents of his son, no less than twelve oratorios, besides a multitude of pieces for the church, the theatre, &c. As soon as he found himself in possession of the means, he married one Anna Bertlina, and the young couple were so distinguished for beauty, that it was remarked in the city that so handsome a couple had never before been seen there. Seven children were born to them, all of whom died in their infancy, except a girl and a boy. The girl, Maria Anna, was some five years older than her brother, whose life we propose to sketch, and survived him many years.

With the increase of his family, poor Leopold Mozart was compelled to redouble his efforts as a teacher of the violin and clavier, the latter being a keyed instrument, which was the precursor of the pianoforte. His mode of tuition seems to have been very judicious, and his reputation was soon greatly increased by the publication, about the time of his boy's birth, of his Violinschule, a work highly esteemed by violinists. Himself an enthusiast in music, it was but natural that the father should be solicitous for the musical education of his children. His little daughter, Maria Anna, had no sooner reached the age of seven than she became her father's pupil, and made rapid progress. Little Wolfgang was at this period only three years old, but as he was constantly present at his sister's lessons, he soon manifested his interest in the music by striking thirds and other harmonious intervals. When a year older his father began to give him lessons also, and it is record. ed that even at this infantine age he could remember the solos in any concerts he attended. So much, indeed, had bis musical precocity now developed itself, that he could learn a short piece in half an hour, and play it neatly in true time, could unravel intuitively the mysteries of harmony, and even compose little pieces which his father wrote down for him. The book in which these productions were written was kept by his sister, as a precious memorial, to the end of her life. Mr. Holmes, in his fascinating "Life of Mozart,' presents us with several specimens of his composition in his fourth and sixth years.

The father, Leopold Mozart, whose shrewd business-like habits were strengthened, no doubt, by his slender means, seeing the indubitable evidences of singular musical talent in his children, decided to take them both to the Bavarian Court at Munich, for which place they set out in January, 1762.

As a child little Wolfgang was ardent and sensitive to an extraordinary degree; continually he would ask those about him whether they loved him, and if in jest they answered in the negative, his eyes would fill with tears.

His ardor was so great, that before he ap-father refused, on the ground that he had had plied himself to music he would be sometimes so absorbed by a game that he would forget even his meals. Of arithmetic he was so fond that the walls, the tables, and the floor were covered with his figures. But, although his fondness for arithmetic remained with him through life, yet music gradually gained the complete ascendency over him, and even the removal of his playthings from one room to another was often done by him to music.