profit of the diligent reader, is that of laying our

friends under contribution, as cor- respondents, when they sojourn in foreign lands. There are few countries to which we have not been occasionally indebted in this way for interesting intelligence— sometimes indeed (as in the Instances of Paris, Brussels, Bruges, Lisbon) at the very moment of an immense crisis.

One of our latest parting injunctions was laid upon the writer of the following-letter,—

a musical enthusiast, who, following out the impulses of a genius of no mean order, went forth to invigorate and enrich his mind by daily familiarity with the best per- formances, guided by the greatest living masters of the art, in the laud of music. Mr. TUNELY (tbr such is our friend's travelling name) has an eye for observation as well as an ear for harmony : moreover, he has a turn for gossip; and, though Ito disclaims literary pretensions, he po:sesses the great essential of being able to

i

convey his meaning n an easy and natural manner. To Mr. TUNELY, -then, we have given a roving commission to report what he sees and hears, from time to i time, n the various places of his pilgrimage : thus his letters will be miscellaneous. though the main subject will be Foreign Music. Ile begs to be allowed the licence of a pun now and then : to this we have no great objection—especially while he uses his privilege with the modest discretion which marks the solitary indulgence in that figure of rhetoric in the present paper.] FRANKFORT ON THE MAINE, 7th October 1533.

SINCE my arrival at Frankfort, about ten days ago, what with knock- ing about here and there, seeing every thing that was to be seen, and more than was worth seeing, I have only now been able to secure a mo- ment for the fulfilment of my promise. And now that my pen is ready for work, I am at a loss from what point to commence. I k.now not whether you will, at this time of day, care to be worried with a descrip-- .tion of the Rhine; as I presume you have read all possible accounts of its attractions, from LEIGH'S sober Guide-book to the exaggerations of tourists predetermined to enthusiasm. Being a mountain-bird myself, the towering hills, the lofty peaks—nay even "the castled crag of Drachenfels " and Ehrenbreitstem—did not drive me crazy with admi- ration; yet I believe they could not have been seen to greater advantage ; as, for a considerable time each morning, the mists were floating along the yanks or curling off the mountain-tops, thus imparting a sort of mys- terious grandeur to the ruined towers which they successively enveloped and rose above. But I enjoyed the scene nevertheless, with sober yet exquisite delight; and not less because they reminded me of similar scenes in my own bright land ; many of which, I do assert, fully equal, and some greatly excel, all the boasted beauty and magnificence of the much-sung Rhine. The prodigious river itself is without doubt the noblest feature in the landscape : its dark rolling waters, its majestic breadth, and its arrowy course, with the ,wildly romantic situations of the villages which stud its banks—all combine to keep the mind in a state of excitation ; while, on the other band, the vines, even With the varied hues of autumn, unbroken -by any other vegetation save a dwarf tree here and there, that would be much better rooted up, become first

tiresome, and then intolerably irksome. It was lucky for me that the company and the weather were both so favourable, otherwise I might have in the latter part of my journey become a prey to ennui: And we bad Royalty on board,—no less than the Princess of SAKE-COBURG, sister to the Dutchess of KENT and the Belgian King ; whom I shall not describe further than by saying, that if she were to go to a fancy ball, she need only wear the dress and the look of a lady to effect a per- fect disguise. The other scion of Royalty was a son of the King of WiiRTEMBERG, incog. And a fine young man he was too. He assumed no airs, although he did stoop to address me : but this was by reason of his great height, which was nearer seven than six feet. My present abode is in the Hotel ; and should I find it comfortable, I shall reside here during winter The frequenters of this hotel are, generally, more select than muneic us. Princes and dukes are constantly going and coming, and barons are as rife as berries. We are to be honoured to-morrow with the presence of his Grace of CUMBERLAND, family and suite : is he bidding a long adieu to weeping England ? I cannot say that there is much to be seen in Frankfort ; but we al- ways have the opera, which, though on a small scale, is of first-rate ex- cellence. The interior of the theatre-is smaller than that of the Hay- market, and not particularly well fitted up : however, this is a secondary consideration, and ought not to affect one's relish for the musical enter- tainment. The orchestra consists of forty-two-performers ; and cer-

tainly, as far as my experience goes, it has no superior. For its preci- sion its expression, its power—for every thing requisite in such a band it leaves one nothing to wish for. I cannot speak in such unqualified terms of the vocal department. Though the chorus is admirable, the

principal singers do not rise to the first rank, most of them scarcely to the second : yet they are good of their kind ; and if they do not often charm, they never offend, unless it be when one more adventurous than prudent inflicts upon us an unmeaning bravura. For this vulgarism, however, there was no opportunity in MOZART'S Figaro, which was the opera I first heard here. Having only heard three operas since I came,

I feel myself scarcely competent to speak in other than general terms of the different singers. Meanwhile, I may mention' that Madame FISCHER- A GHTEN appears to me most talented, although she has always a second part. In Figaro, she enacted Cherubim) ; and sang the songs of the part remarkably well. Mademoiselle LAMPMANN, whose figure, much more than her voice, qualifies her for prima donna, is frequently defective in intonation ; and Mademoiselle Gan, a young debutante, with a rich-toned organ, is too fond at present of ark d'agilitti to suc- ceed well in those of expression. Her "Dove sono " was a failure. Of the male singers, the only one I have yet heard that has really a fine voice, is Mr. SCHMEZER : it is a tenor, not unlike DONZELLI'S, but neither so great in compass nor so splendid in volume. The orchestra, under the able guidance of Mr. GUHR, executed the accompaniments with charming effect—neither so loud as to usurp the province of the singer, nor yet so attenuated as to mar the colouring of the composition. The Trio—the glorious Trio in C—was a fine illustration of this. The unrivalled Finale to the First Act (the envy and despair of composers), the Sestett or Finale to the second, and the Finale to the Opera, were prodigiously effective. Thus Ihave had a most favourable foretaste of my winter's provision in matters musical.

We have been grievously tantalized by the behaviour of Madame PIRSCFIER (who was last season in London) : she was announced to appear in Fidclio ; in the course of the day on which she was to perform, the opera was changed, without any explanation, to Ote//o, in which Madame PIRSCHER had no part. The cause of it was one in which she bad decidedly the advantage in point of principle—that, namely, of not having had aid/ rehearsal. The performers, with the exception of four who attended as a quartett accompaniment, were absent ; and this so offended the lady, that she declared her resolution not to appear. Again was the opera announced, and again the same scene occurred. Had Madame PIRSCHER been a stranger to the theatre here, she would have been quite justified in asserting and insisting upon her rights ; but since each party is acquainted with the other, and thoroughly with the opera in question, I think she might have yielded without compromis- ing one tittle of her dignity. Owing to these two quarrels, I have had the pleasure of hearing Otello and Le P, faux Clercs, or Der Zweikampf. The former—heavy intrinsically—lost nothing of its weight through the ineffective performance of Mademoiselle GNED ; who cannot act at all. Mr. SCHMEZER, as Otello was excellent. Poor HEROLD'S last opera wish not to criticize : he is beyond the reach of praise and censure, and "De mortuis nil nisi bonum." Why it is so popular in Paris, can only be accounted for by the death of its author after the sixth repre- sentation; up to which time it was dragging a precarious existence. Its intrinsic merits appear to me to consist in a Duett in the first and a a Trio in the second acts.

Yesterday, I went to the opening of a Lutheran church. The inte- rior is a regular spheroid, and is the handsomest I have seen. There is a severe simplicity in its architectural details, which contrasts favour- ably with the more elaborate decorations of the Roman Catholic tem-

ples. The pillars which support the e are of scagliola marble, as are also the elegant pulpit and front of the gallery. The organ is in perfect accordance with the rest of the architecture. The body of the church is, according to custom, appropriated to females ; and truly it presented a beautiful sight. Some would liken the scene, bonnets in- cluded, to a large milliner's shop ; but I, more poetical, would call it a tulip-bed, or rather (for the colours were not so gaudy), a bed of car- nations. Not thinking, at the moment, of the Lutheran custom of separating the sexes, I planted myself in the very centre of the par- terre; when, being uncountenanced by the proximity of my -oivn sex, and the centre of attraction to the wondering damsels, in any but an agreeable way, I seized the first opportunity of retreating under the gallery, where my compeers were ranged like a fence around the graceful and lovely flowers. The organ, grand in dimensions, is not less so in tone : but its powers were not ably developed. The singing was in the same style as that of the Charity Children at St. Paul's—all in unison ; but, of course, a Very fainta echo of that matchless performance. Nothing can be finer than the noble simplicity, nor more sublime than the effect.

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I had the satisfaction the other day of seeing that wonderful piece of sculpture the " Ariadne," by DANNEKER of Stuttgart. The symmetry of the figure—the exquisite grace of its attitudes—and, above all, its almost breathing expression, as if it were about to rise from the panther's back—appear to me the perfection of art, the triumph of genius.

I should now draw to a close, but an absurd incident you must allow me to add. Last night, about bed-time, I heard the most horrible curses, from an English throat, in the same corridor in which is my room : they were continued for some considerable time, and intermingled with a plentiful discharge of the word schwine (similar in meaning to. the French cochon): I thought that two gentlemen had quarrelled, and was tempted to look out; when, le ! it was an Englishman and a chambermaid, on whose German ear, luckily, all his swearing, save the- epithet above-mentioned, fell innocuous. Well, after all, he bad good grounds for his wrath, and his language, and his threats. The poor girl, judging, probably by its appearance, that his NIGHT-DRESS required washing, had in her simplicity removed it to the tub : and for this be took his God's name in vain, consigned the honest handmaid to eternal damnation, and actually threatened to—to—to--sleep out of the house! if she did not fetch back the night-dress ! ! ! No wonder John Bull gets laughed at and taken in, when such specimens of the bovine race are

allowed to go at large. T.