MUSICAL COPYRIGHTS.
AN appeal from the judgment of Lord ABINGER to that of the public lies before us, in the form of a pamphlet issued by BoosEY and Co.* The facts are these. AUBER composes an opera called Lestocq, which he sells to a publisher at Paris, named TROUPENAS; and it is there printed and sold, in whole or in part. After this sale, the composer sells his opera again to D'ALMAINE and Co.; who claim the sole and exclusive right of ownership and property over this work in England—the right to print or to suppress, to alter, to mutilate, or to prohibit even the publication of what they .decline to publish themselves. BoosEY and Co. publish, not the opera, nor any song, chorus, or piece from it, but a set of Qua- drilles manufactured out of it, by a person of the name of MUSARD, who earns a living by this sort of work. D'ALMAINE and Co. contending that their purchase gives them not only the undivided possession of the opera, but of every composition of which it can be made the basis, even down to the manufacture of a dance-tune, apply for an injunction to restrain BoosEY from publishing these Quadrilles, and obtain it ; even though it appears that no similar publication by the plaintiffs had appeared.
If this be the law, it unquestionably places our music publishers and purchasers in a novel position. It has always been understood that an author was free to make his election to whom and in what country he chose to dispose of his work, but that he could not sell the same composition to a different purchaser in every European
• A Few Facts, and Observations thereon, connected with the Copyright in Foreign Operas.
capital ; that a work brought out at Paris was purchaseable by the native of any other country, for the purpose of publication, in what- ever way he thought fit. If not, we are at the mercy of whoever may be the English purchaser as to what and how he chooses to publish or to suppress of the original work. With regard to Leeloeq—which happens to be a very !resit' affair—this is of no consequence : but take the case of Der Frieselautz, and suppose it to have been purchased with this pretended exclusive right of pos- session by some publisher or manager. The first thing he does, is to tear it to pieces—to cut out this song in that scene, to inter- polate, mangle, and mutilate, as he may think fit. We are stating no imaginary case, for such was the first English version of this opera; and if this newly-discovered law had then been in existence or in force, by no possibility could we have possessed a .copy of the genuine work. The question demands deliberate inquiry and revision; as indeed does the whole subject of musical copyright.
A WALK THROUGH LONDON STREETS.
THE sight-seeing season is not yet at its height, though the town is full. Visiters, however, may be interested in noting the changes that have taken place since last year in the architectural features of our great Babylon. Leaving, therefore, the exhibitions till a riper occa- sion, let. us take a glance at the street improvements of the Metro- polis. In the City, street reform is progressing : and the new London Bridge is the focus of improvement. On the Southwark side, the
now spacious entrance to the Borough is further enriched by the re- building of St. Thomas's Hospital, on a grand scale. This massive pile of classic architecture, on one hand, and the picturesque Gothic church of St. Saviour's, with the Ladye ('lapel, on the other, in themselves fine objects, will be the more striking by contrast. The North wing of the new Hospital is completed ; and it abuts on the line of the Greenwich Railroad, which enters the !high Street at this point; the lust of its gigantic strides bringing it almost to the Bridge foot. The works were to have been so far completed that the holyday folks at Easter might have been whisked to the fair and back over chimney- stacks and tree-tops : as it is, they must this year be content with such a taste of railroad speed as they get of the swings and roundabouts at Greenwich. In two or three years more, also, the Tunnel under the Thames at Rotherhithe will be completed, Government having at last advanced the requisite funds. Mr. BRUNET. is constructing a new shield—more wondrous than that of any one of Homer's heroes— which is to protect a host of men from the incursions of Father Thames. Then the delighted holyday. makers may walk under the water and glide through the air to Greenwich. On the City side of the Bridge, opposite Fishmongers' Hall, a noble range of buildings is erected ; the end fronting the River consisting of a splendid tavern ycleped " The Adelaide," which, besides a terrace for the guests, has a cas'-iron pier below for steam-boats to land their passengers. From lmee, in an oblique direction a new street is opened leading into Cornhill at the Mansionhouse. Though not yet a thoroughfare for carriages, it is open to the foot-passengers; who may form an idea of the general design by the houses already erected. These may vie with any in Regent Street in architectural pretensions; some of them being decorated with lofty Corinthian columns and pilasters. Thus, an entrance once narrow and squalid, will now con- vey to the foreigners who enter by this road a favourable impression of the architectural magnificence, as well as the wealth and extent, of London. The want of a direct line of street in continuation of the Bridge-road, opening a long and spacious vista through the heart of the City, must always be felt nevertheless. The stranger on the Bridge will think he is entering a cut dc sac. Both the symmetry and space of the new street from Cornhill are impaired by the convex projection —rese:nbling the outline of an a'dermanic corporation—of Sstrru and PAYNE'S new bank, close to the Mansionhouse, which also obstructs the view of the latter edifice from the new street. To remedy this blunder—the fruits of favouritism—it is now proposed to pull down that comely new building the Globe Fire Office, at the opposite corner- . an expensive and bungling way, though the only one, of removing a de- fect that might easily have been avoided. The widening of Prince's Street, opposite, is the first step, we suppose, to opening a good wide thoroughfare to Islington, so much wanted. It already throws open to view the west side of the Bank ; which, if we could but knock off those fantastic excrescences that deform the entablature, would be beautiful. Sir JOHN SOANE'S fancy always runs to seed; he does not know when to stop. The plan for a street from this point to the Southwark Bridge is still in palm We hope its line of frontage will bring into more public view the chaste and elegant building of the Mercers' S'ehool, on College Hill. The new building for the Atlas Assurance Company, in Cheupside, opposite Quern Street (the pre- sent road to the Iron Bridge), is a very handsome stone structure, having two stories of equal height above the ground floor ; the windows being ornamented with pediments supported by Corinthian columns. It makes the wretched front of Guildhall look more mean and tasteless than ever. Crossing the end of St. Martin's-le-Grand, and looking at the Post-office—perhaps the boldest design of Sir ROBERT SAIIRKE- we can't help wishing that St. Paul's might be thrown open to view from this point, as was talked of. In proceeding along Newgate Street, a new white brick house in the old English style, with stone mullioned windows, attracts the eye to the opening which shows the stately Gothic hall and picturesque school-house of Christ's [hospital. Through the iron palisades, supported by square pillars with quaint effigies carved on them, the passenger both sees and hears the noisy throng of petti- coated and muffin-capped boys, as merry as if ringworm was unknown. One cannot help exclaiming at the worse than folly of adhering to the letter of the charter in the articles of dress and food—by which the disease has been perpetuated in the school—while the spirit of the bequest is violated, and the very end and aim of the charity perverted, to the in- jury of poor widows and orphans. If it be market-day in Smithfield, the stranger will have experience of this nuisance ; which the Corpo- ration are so pertinaciously striving to perpetuate by opposing the first step to its remota', the licensim g the new and commodious 'lodes market at Islington. In toiling up Holborn Hill, wisetber in a vi hide or on foot, one wonders when this inem.venience will be removed ; and
how long it will before the smirch of its pi ovement %rill trample down the pestiferous allies of Saffron Hill, and open an avenue from Faring.
don Street. The other nuisance in Ha. line of road. St. Giles's, has yet to be abated ; and we pray for an urchitectutal crusade to this " Holy Land," as it is called in cant please. The Pantheon, with its hall of sculpture, its picture galleries, its splendid chapel-like bazaar, with its painted arabesque pillars, and gay crowds, and its beautiful conservatory, will afford the stranger u most agreeable lounge. If time and the %remaker permit, the visiter may make the circuit of the Regent's Park ; for as yet the slice of green- sward and gravel walk which has been vonebsaled to the piddle is not thrown open. The narrow strip of plantation. adjoieiug the footpath on the North side, has however been given a shred of list off the piece of broad cloth. The commencement of the BirseiegInna Railroad is not fur off; and a sight of the stupendmis operatjons of excavating the tunnel from Chalk Farm to Kilburn, will repay the curious. The close-grained clay, which is dug up from a depth of seventy or eighty feet, is that known to geologists as the Lomita, clay. Tiny fossil shells are found in it ; and some hunps are half-petrified. It is supposed to have been the bed of the sea in antediluvian times so that steam carriages will soon pass over the very ground where the first amphibious monsters of creation may have crawled into existence! Leaving the Zoological Gardens. — visit to u bleb, and to the Colosseum, no casual visiter will omit.—amid passim: by the new and hand:.
some villa recently erected near that of Loge! I I usrmino. and the pictu-
resque Archery lodge ( which one can scarcely enjoy the sight of for think- ing of time malappropriation of what ought to be • the People's Park "), we enter the town again. The visiter will not fail to I k the improve- ment that is visible in all leading theronglifiaes in shop founts. In Bond Street, there are two or three frolits of really (lassie design, ornamented with columns and beaatifully carved stone-work. In Piccadilly. opposite Burlington House. there are some hew buildings., of stately proportions. The centre house is of red prick, with stone dressings, producing a mud, finer contiaq of coloors than the yellow bricks of those on either side, whose upper windows are not re- lieved by stone-work. It may be oljected to the carved stone-work of the centre house, that the ornaments ( its the Elizsbethan style) are somewhat too fantastic in their yn intncss, ;Ind have an antiquated though picturesque look. The scroll labels over the shop fronts, however, are very tasteful. The two new houses in Pall Mull, near MonsuND'S old banking-house, are of still liner proportions, and in it more chaste and elegant style. They are of white brie k—far prefer- able in effect to the yellow, though we reefer the warm red to either— with stone dressings. The stone-fronted houses opposite that beauti- ful structure the Oriental CIA, would have had a very palace-like look, had there been two windows where there are three. As it is, time elevation looks unsubstantial, with its lung narrow snips of alternate stone and glass. Pilasters might the defect. But any decided character in street-buildings—even the tioedry finery of the gin temples—is welcome as a Mkt to the dingy monotomy of the work- house or barrack-looking rows of houses, destitute of ornament or pro- jection to cast a shadow, or give a finish to the perforations of the doors and windows. The Carlton Club promises to be a noble building, when completed ; for the design is beautiful, aud its proportions are grand. The West wing of the job Picture-gallery at :haring-Cross- of which we have had too frequent occasion to speak—is rising rapidly; but the centre, with its dome and portico, on which the architect rests his reputation, is not yet commenced. The stranger will be curious to see the gap made by the fire of the old Parliament Houses: the temporary chambers offer nothing exte- riorly worth looking at. The new houses are, it seems, to be erected on the old site. The ruins of St. Stephen's Chapel, now a mere shell, yet remain, though tottering to their fall. It has absurdly been proposed to restore, or rather to rebuild it, as it first appeared. Those who would see it in its original shape, la-fore it was transformed into a House of Commons, may be gratified by paying Mr. Corrtscuitat, the architect, a visit, over Waterloo Bridge. There, in a room gayly fitted up as a reliquarium of the architectural and monumental decora- tions and furniture of the Elizabethan age, is a model of the beautiful Gothic chapel. It is not perfectly accurate, we believe, either in dimensions or details, but conveys a good general idea of the original structure. Before crossing the Bridge, however, the visiter may take a peep, from the end of Wellington Street, at the handsome new theatre that has succeeded the old Lyceum, or English Opera-house, with its lofty Corinthian portico. The crooked unfinished thorough- fare in which it stands, is the new street of which so much has been said : it has the merit of a convenience certainly, but it will not be very ornamental. Leaving the companion of our imaginary perambu- lation at the door of the Spectator Office in Wellington Street, the cicerone makes his bow, and vanishes through the aperture of the editor's letter-box.
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