this kind is the representation of a tree, with birds upon it, described by Gerbert, (De Cantu et Musica Sacra, vol. ii. plate xxviii.) The Chronicle of Albericus adds to the singing of the birds before Constantine, "the roaring of enormous gilded artificial lions," (See Gerbert, vol. ii. p. 151.) That such birds can be made, is certain, from Maillardet's beautiful little artificial bird, which started up out of a gold snuff-box, fluttered its wings, and sang with a pipe so clear and loud, as to fill a large room. In later times, the term Organ, in a musical sense, came to signify only the instrument now known under that name. Before the tenth century, Organs were common in England. St. Dunstan gave one to the abbey of Malmesbury in the reign of Edgar. Elfeg, bishop of Winchester, obtained one for his cathedral in 951, which was the largest then known. This is alluded to by Mason the poet :

"Twelve pair of bellows, ranged in stated row,
Are join'd above, and fourteen more below.
Those the full force of seventy men require,
Who ceaseless toil, and plenteously perspire:
Each aiding each, till all the wind be prest
In the close confines of th' incumbent chest,
On which four hundred pipes in order rise,
To bellow forth that blast the chest supplies."

PIANO-FORTES.

About three centuries back, there were in use two kinds of instruments with key-boards, namely, the Clavitherium, of a square shape, having strings of cat-gut, which were vibrated by bits of hard leather, operated on by the inner end of the key; and the Clavecin, resembling the grand piano, having strings vibrated by plectrums of quill or hard leather. These instruments continued in use till Marius, in 1716, presented to the Academy of Sciences at Paris a Clavecin, whose strings were vibrated with hammers, instead of plectrums. Two years after, Christoforo, at Florence, introduced some further improvements. In 1772, Sebastian Erard made the first Piano in France; and in the following year Stodart patented in London a combination of the harpsichord and grand piano. In 1786, Gieb took out a patent for what is called the grasshopper action, which is still used for square pianos, in the dampers of which improvements were patented in 1794 and 1798, by Southwell. In 1809, Thom and Allen patented compensation metallic tubes, which were adopted by Stodart in the grand piano. Broadwood, Collard, Kirkman, Stewart, and Wornum, have contributed to the improvement of this instrument.

ITALIAN OPERA.

To the close of the 16th, and the beginning of the 17th centuries, the invention of the recitative, or recited music, which gave to the lyric drama a peculiar language and construction, is ascribed.

Mr. Burgh, in his Anecdotes of Music, gives the following account of the origin of this species of composition:-" Persons of taste and letters in Tuscany, being dissatisfied with every former attempt at perfecting dramatic poetry and exhibitions, determined to unite the best Lyric Poet with the best Musician of their time. Three Florentine noblemen, therefore, Giovanni Bardi, Count of Vernio, Petro Strozzi, and Jacobi Corsi, all enlightened lovers of the fine arts, selected Ottavio Rinuccini and Jacobo Peri, their countrymen, to write and set to music the drama of Dafne, which was performed in the house of Signior Corsi, in 1597, with great applause; and this seems the true era, whence we may date the Opera, or Drama, wholly set to music, and in which the dialogue was neither sung in measure, nor declaimed without music, but recited in simple musical notes, which amounted not to singing, and yet was different from the usual mode of speaking." After this successful experiment, Rinuccini wrote Eurydice and Ariana, two other similar dramas.

In the same year, Emilio del Cavaliere composed the music to an opera called Ariadne, at Rome; and the friends of this composer, and of Peri, respectively lay claim to the honour of the invention of recitative for each of these artistes. The Eurydice of Peri was, however, the first piece of the kind performed in public; its representation taking place at the theatre, Florence, in 1600, on the occasion of the marriage of Henry IV. of France with Mary de Medicis; and Pietro del Velle, a Roman knight, an amateur musician, who, in 1640, published an able historical disquisition on the science, expressly says, the first dramatic action ever represented at Rome, was performed at the Carnival of 1606, on his cart, or movable stage; when five voices, or five instruments, the exact number an ambulent cart would contain, were employed. Thus, it seems the first secular drama in modern Rome, like the first tragedy in ancient Greece, was exhibited in a cart!

The Italian Opera has undoubtedly given a great impulse to English dramatic music. The first of this species of composition which was performed in England, was Arsinoe, in 1705. An English version, set to music by Thomas Clayton, one of the royal band, in the reign of William and Mary, was then presented.

The translation was bad, and the music execrable; yet this drama was performed twenty-four times in the first, and eleven in the second year.

* Of course, the secular drama is here meant.

THE TROUBADOURS.

"When the cloth was ta'en away,
Minstrels straight began to play,
And while Harps and Viols join,
Raptured Bards, in strains divine,
Loud the trembling arches rung
With the noble deeds we sung."

In the eleventh century, the Troubadours made their appear ance in Provence. They were the founders of modern versification; frequently singing their own songs to the melody of their own harps; and when they were not able to do the latter, minstrels accompanied them, who recited the lays the Troubadour composed. Though in every country wherever there is a language, there is poetry, and wherever there is poetry, there is music; and in our own in particular, singing to the harp appears to have been early and successfully cultivated, yet the melodies were purely traditional; and the most ancient melodies extant, that have been set to a modern language, are those which are preserved in the Vatican Library, to the songs of the Troubadours, written in the ancient dialect of Provence. In the 12th, 13th, and part of the 14th centuries, the minstrels, bards, or jongleurs, the descendants of the Troubadours, occupied a conspicuous station in society. In our own country there were king's minstrels and queen's minstrels, who enjoyed a high degree of favour and protection.

Yet, in some of the satires of the times, we find them abused under the names of chantier, fableeir, jangleeirs, and menestre; whilst their art is called janglerie, and they are said to be AntiChrist perverting the age by their merry jangles. Piers Ploughman, an ancient satirist, also accuses the minstrels of debauching the minds of the people, and of being tutors of idleness and the devil's discourse; and that they did imbibe some of the general licentiousness which, at the era of the Conquest, and for some time before, and some time after, overspread all England, is not unlikely. But for several reigns they were favoured by the noble and the fair, and protected by royal authority. In their baronial mansions, on all occasions of high and solemn feasts, the observances of chivalry and the charms of music were united.

In the reign of Henry III. we find one Henry de Auranches, a Frenchman, dignified with the title of Master Henry, the versifier: which appellation, Mr. Warton observes, perhaps implies a character different from the royal minstrel, or joculator. In 1249, and in 1251, we find orders on the treasurer to pay this Master Henry one hundred shillings, probably a year's stipend ; and in the same reign, forty shillings and a pipe of wine were given to Richard, the king's harper, and a pipe of wine to Beatrice, his wife. In time, a gross degeneracy appears to have characterised the once-famed order of minstrels: the sounder

part of society pursued them with prohibitions and invectives, till they were at last driven from the more respectable walks of life to the lower orders. Their irregularities became the more rude and offensive, till their order expired amid the general contempt of an improving nation.-Turner's History of England, vol. i. p. 432.

The history of the Troubadours and the Provençal Poets has formed the subjects of many valuable publications of late years. In France, M. Raynouard has published not only a selection of their best writings under the title of Choix des Poesies des Troubadours, but also a Glossary of the Language in which they are written. M. Fauriel has also published in three vols. 8vo, Histoire de la Poesie Provençale. While in Germany, an accomplished M. Dier has given to the world both an Essay on their Poetry, and a volume on the lives and writings of the most distinguished Troubadours. Of the German Troubadours, or Minnesingers, the late Mr. Edgar Taylor published an interesting account in his Lays of the Minnesingers; and in 1838, Professor von der Hagen of Berlin, published a collection of their writings under the title of Deutsche Liederdichter des 12, 13, and 14 Jahrhunderts.

COMMERCE, USE OF MONEY, COINS, BANKING SYSTEM, INTERNAL NAVIGATION, &c.

ORIGIN OF COMMERCE, AND USE OF MONEY.

The few wants of men in the first state of society, were supplied by barter in its rudest form. In barter the rational consideration is, what is wanted by the one, and what can be spared by the other. But savages are not always so clear-sighted. A savage who wants a knife will give for it any thing that is less useful to him at the time, without considering his future wants. But mankind improve by degrees, attending to what is wanted on the one side, and to what can be spared on the other.

Barter, in its original form, proved miserably deficient when men and their wants multiplied. That sort of commerce could not be carried on at a distance; and even among neighbours it does not always happen, that the one can spare what the other wants; it was necessary, therefore, that some commodity should be found in general estimation, that would be gladly accepted in exchange for every other, and which should be neither bulky, expensive in keeping, nor consumable by time. Gold and Silver

are metals that possess these properties in an eminent degree; and are also divisible into small parts, convenient to be given for goods of small value.

Gold and silver, when first introduced into commerce, were bartered like other commodities, by bulk merely; but shortly, instead of being given loosely by bulk, every portion was weighed in scales, but weight was no security against mixing base metals with gold and silver. To prevent that fraud pieces of gold and silver are impressed with a public stamp, vouching both the purity and the quantity; and such pieces are called Coin.

This was an improvement in commerce, and at first probably deemed complete. It was not foreseen, that these metals wear by much handling in the course of circulation, and consequently, that in time the public stamp is reduced to be a voucher of the purity only, not of the quantity. This embarrassment was remedied by the use of paper-money; and paper money is attended with another advantage, that of preventing the loss of much gold and silver by wearing.

When gold or silver, in bullion, was exchanged with other commodities, such commerce passed under the common name of barter, or permutation: when current coin was exchanged, such commerce was termed the buying and selling; and the money exchanged was termed the price of goods.

The Phoenicians were the earliest people who are recorded to have devoted themselves to commerce. It seems they performed long voyages, and established colonies in remote countries, like the moderns. The Greeks and Romans were not insensible of the value of commerce, and they pursued it at different periods with eagerness and success. The Venetians, from the year 900 to 1500, enjoyed a monopoly of the produce of the East, and thereby became a wealthy and powerful people. The Genoese proved their rivals; but certain free towns of Germany, called Hanse Towns, afterwards disputed with the Italians the palm of commerce. The Portuguese, on discovering a new route to India, by the Cape of Good Hope, became for a time a considerable commercial people; but the Dutch drove them from their India possessions, and for a century carried on half the trade of the world. The English, however, have taken the lead of all other nations; and by means of their invincible fleets, their free constitution, their domestic agriculture and manufactures, and their valuable colonies in every sea, they have nearly engrossed the commerce of the world to themselves.

Money as a medium of commerce is first mentioned in Genesis xxiii., when Abraham purchased a field as a sepulchre for Sarah, A.M. 2139. Money, which is sometimes said to have been first made at Argos, 894 years B.C., increased eighteen times in value from 1290 to 1789, and twelve times its value from 1530 to 1789. Silver has increased thirty times its value since the