sary to transcribe these works. In the mean time we must use what we have to the best advantage, and as much as it is possible in the sense which the composers intended. And what was that? The principal historical fact which Mr. Ellis seems to have established is that all over Europe, for two centuries, down to 1816 at earliest in Vienna, later in the rest of Germany and in France, and down to 1828 in England (taking the Philharmonic Concerts as the standard), the sound assigned to the tuning A did not vary above one-sixth of a tone above or below the value of Handel's own fork, now in the possession of the Rev. G. T. Driffield, rector of Bow, and that hence this well-known fork represents the mean pitch of Europe for all classical music. What is that pitch? It is five-eighths of a tone below the pitch of the great concert organs at the Crystal Palace, the Albert Hall, and Alexandra Palace. When during a hot June or July day at the Crystal Palace on a Handel Commemoration the temperature, and hence the pitch of the organ, is driven up, Handel's music has to be sung three-quarters of a tone at least, sometimes a whole tone, higher than he imagined when he wrote it. The strain thus laid on the sopranos and tenors, especially in the choruses, is out of all reason, and the music, deprived of its proper fulness and richness, loses greatly in effect. Of course such a practice can only be excused on the ground of ignorance, and that is a plea which can no longer be raised after the proofs which have been adduced.

minor third. We have however no need to have recourse to such devices. The French commission on pitch in 1858 has given a satisfactory answer to the question. It has settled a value for A nearly half-way between the old and the new, but, as is just, rather nearer to the old, and has fixed this pitch by a beautiful standard fork properly preserved in the Musée du Conservatoire at Paris, the only real standard of pitch in the world. This diapason normal is exactly twoeighths of a tone above Handel's fork, and about three-eighths of a tone below the Crystal Palace organ at mean temperatures, that is, below our highest concert pitch. An important resolution was passed at Dresden in 1862 by eminent conductors (quoted by Mr. Ellis), saying that such "a lowering of pitch to the new Paris standard appears equally desirable and satisfactory for singers and for orchestra; that quality of tone would gain, the brilliancy of the band would not be lost, and the power of the singers would not be so severely taxed or strained."

The rise in pitch since 1816 has been the result of a series of accidents. Nothing approaching to scientific or musical thought appears in it. The most that can now be done is to recognize its existence by adopting the French compromise. And, by the way, this is by no means French except in name, for in 1828 Sir George Smart, then conductor of the Philharmonic, adopted what was practically. the same pitch in England, and the greater number of so-called Philharmonic forks sold down to thirty years ago gave the C But what is to be done? Much music, of the later French pitch. It has left its considerably less in quantity, and per- impress, too, on numerous organs which haps in quality, if we except Mendels- during this period were tuned to "Smart's sohn's, has been written to a much higher pitch," as it was then called. It is in pitch. Thus the celebrated Gewandhaus fact a long-tried English pitch, displaced Concerts at Leipzig, representing Men- only by accidental circumstances during delssohn's pitch, were a whole semitone Costa's conductorship of the Philharmonsharper than Handel's fork, as is shown ic. In France its use is universal, in by Mr. Ellis. Are we to destroy the new Germany it was generally accepted, music for the sake of the old, as we now though a fresh rise is there perceptible, destroy the old for the sake of the new? in Madrid it has lately been adopted, and Or are we to have two sets of instruments even in Belgium, the only country in two organs at the Crystal Palace and Europe which approaches the English Albert Hall, or at least two sets of stops heights of pitch, a recent commission rein the same case? Of course such ideas ported in its favor for both concerts and are wild, though not so wild as they look, military bands. Finally, the enormous for Dresden has two sets of instruments, inconvenience felt by singers accustomed and old churches (as the cathedral at to this pitch, when coming over for a Lübeck and the Franciscan Convent at London season or special concerts (as at Vienna) have two organs in different the recent Wagner festival, according to pitches, nay, one German organ certainly Wagner's own statement), have induced had stops in two pitches differing by a the Covent Garden Opera to revert to it

again this season, so that musicians will have an excellent opportunity of judging of its effect.

A strong argument usually brought against a change of pitch is the difficulty of getting new brass and wood instruments. The French pitch has now lasted long enough for good instruments to be made in it, and it is in fact more easy, out of London, to obtain instruments in that pitch than in any other. But considering that it was used in. England and in France for about twenty years prior to 1850, and that the bands accommodated themselves to the gradual change then, there seems no reason why they should not do so now. Organs present a difficulty, but no mercy should be shown to them. Organs sharpen so much by temperature in a concert room crowded or lighted up, or in summer, that it is really inhuman to build organs that even at mean temperatures strain the voice of a singer of Handel to follow. They are essentially solo instruments. French pitch is the highest admissible pitch for organs which have to lead voices, and those which are sharper should be flattened forthwith. Church organs are even now usually constructed but a trifle sharper than French pitch. As for pianos, it is well known that the concert grand pianos improve in richness

and quality of tone by being brought down to French pitch. It is a mere matter of stringing and tuning, not of construction.

Besides the importance of having a uniform pitch to the singer and the manufacturers of instruments, there is a theoretical advantage to the listener. With equal temperament when properly carried out, the relations of the intervals in different keys remain precisely the same, and the effect of change of key therefore is due to the change of pitch of the tonic and its related notes. When the ear is accustomed to one pitch it easily recognizes the key. When the pitch varies from time to time and place to place, the sense of key becomes deadened and lost, and even the most experienced ears become confused. Hence, both theoretically and practically uniformity of pitch is imperative. Practically an intermediate pitch between the old pitch of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and the new pitch of Mendelssohn, Costa, and Verdi, is the only one feasible to allow of both kinds of music being played by one organ or one band. And such a pitch is the French, the pitch of all French and most German modern music, the pitch in which the works of Wagner can alone be properly heard.

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TAPESTRY.It is difficult to fix the precise ufacture real tapestry. The art rapidly develperiod at which the manufacture of tapestry in oped in their country, both on account of the a loom began in European countries. Several excellent methods of dyeing employed by the documents, going back to the tenth and eleventh weavers, and also by reason of the abundance centuries, establish the fact that in certain con- and quality of the wool, which was sent to vents in France carpets made of wool, orna- them from England. France, so prosperous mented with flowers and animals, and even in the thirteenth century, soon followed the hangings representing religious subjects, as towns of the north in this branch of industry. well as portraits of kings or emperors, were These new manufactures became from that woven for the decoration of churches and time the rivals of the Sarrazinois tapestries, palaces, but no positive knowledge of the mode which were very inferior in workmanship, and of manufacture employed at that time has come many disputes arose, both in Flanders and in down to us. It is probable that these hang- Paris, between the representatives of the two ings were rather embroidered stuffs-like that industries. It appears that in Paris the depreserved in the mairie at Bayeux, which re-mand for Sarrazinois tapestries had even incords events in the conquest of England by the creased, and the workmen employed on them Normans, in 1066. than actual tapestries had formed a powerful corporation. In the made in a loom. This kind of fabric was inventories or accounts of that period which known in the Middle Ages by the name of have come down to us, the Sarrazinois tapes"Sarrazinois" carpets, and had, doubtless, tries are distinguished from high and low warp been brought from the East either by the Sara- tapestries. The former are designated emcens of Spain or at the close of the Crusades. broideries, the latter are generally called arras. It was towards the end of the twelfth century This distinction was kept up till the period of that the Flemish weavers began to make use the Renaissance. of high-warp and low-warp looms, and to man

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From The Contemporary Review. THE HISTORY OF RENT IN ENGLAND.

THE theory of rent has always been a matter of peculiar interest to English economists. Foreigners who write about political economy have frequently expressed their surprise at the copiousness with which the topic is debated in England, and have even thought that the attention which Englishmen give to the subject is akin to the eagerness with which everybody who pretends to social position is supposed to purchase a peerage. There is some reason for the astonishment. It is very rarely that the late Mr. Mill is intolerant of adverse opinion when he is dealing with economical subjects. But as he states that any man who attempts to tamper with bargains which the State has made is a knave, so he hints | not obscurely his conviction, that any one who rashly touches the ark of the deductive economists, the Ricardian theory of rent, is a fool.

the fundamental condition of civilization, as its success is the measure of all other industry. Whatever dwarfs it therefore, renders it insecure or especially risky, or in any way impedes its healthy progress, is a mischief in the excision of which all are interested, and for which no surgery can be too prompt. It is not indeed intended in the present article to enter into any economical or political controversy, to discuss the theory of rent, or to examine the consequences of primogeniture. These are topics of great, perhaps of enduring interest, though the latter is a mere conventional arrangement, the beginning of which is to be found in the importance of an expedient long since passed away,—the policy which William the Norman adopted towards his comrades of the Conquest.

The very rudest agriculture has always produced much more than is sufficient for the laborer and for those dependent on him. An agricultural people always The present appears to the writer to be therefore develops a leisure class, and as a peculiarly fit time to discuss, not the invariably renders that state of things theory, but the history of rent. With possible in which other laborers beside those who believe that political economy, the agriculturist can obtain the means of taken apart from facts, is always a barren, subsistence. The development of agriand very often a dangerous theory, noth- culture is, therefore, the first condition of ing which throws light on the process by civilization, and the primary or rather sole which farmer's rents have been devel- cause of that division of employments oped, will be without its value in the which all economists have recognized as economical interpretation of social prob- at once the great result and the principal lems. For it is quite certain that the factor of opulence. Undoubtedly the first present disturbance of the traditional re-recipients of rent treated the contributor lations between landowners and farmers with great indiscretion, for they oppressed will lead to permanent results, certainly him mightily, and even up to the period in the occupation, and not improbably which immediately preceded the French in the tenure of land. For the landed | Revolution, the peasant in France bore interest, however widely or however nar- nearly all the burdens of government as rowly it may be interpreted (whether it well as supplied the means for all the enis understood to refer to the three recip-joyments of the nobles. Thus Adam ients, landlord, farmer, and farm laborer, as Lord Beaconsfield has divided that interest, omitting somewhat oddly the Church, of which the present prime minister is understood to be as staunch a defender as Henry the Eighth was; or whether it merely refers to the territorial magnates, whom ungenerous critics say that Lord Beaconsfield was merely thinking of), must be always able to command the most active attention. Agriculture is

Smith was historically not far wrong when he alleged that ancient rents were in their nature a tax levied by the strong hand upon the defenceless agriculturist. Some of the most instructive illustrations of this kind of rents are to be gathered fron the records of the conquests effected b the Saxon Christians of the tenth cen tury in their struggle with the heather Slavs, and continued for several centu ries afterwards by the Teutonic knights,