acquisitions, the plundered provinces of subject, important as it is, has engaged the attention of few of our public men. It is uninviting to the ardent politician, because it is so complex and wide; to the ambitious man, because the public has always been supine about it. On the other hand, it gives much scope to the seekers of a bad popularity, to men who are, or legislate for, land speculators; so that he who enters into it merely from the love of duty is fain to encounter much labor, not a little reproach, and to accept these for almost his sole reward. Mr. Vinton deliberately adopted this latter part, and made himself master of all that could enable him successfully to play it-the history of the public domain, and of the policy which has governed its disposal; its management as a great branch of the national revenue; its relation to other high questions-the progress of our population, the enlargement of internal commerce, and the connection of all these subjects with the social development of that vast central region, destined probably in the end to control the fortunes of this Republic. It is not going too far to say that, but for his able and vigilant resistance of every new scheme for the purpose-but especially of that which calls itself "graduation and reduction" laws would have been passed, near twenty years ago, which would long since have resulted in the extinction of that source of public income, have flung open the whole of these wide territories as the scene of a general scramble for plunder; have corrupted still more our Government; and have brought about the almost equal evil of wild, and wide, and long-continued land-speculations, almost the greatest curse that can visit a country. All this would have been the more deplorable, as Mr. Vinton has repeatedly shown that no innovation, no inroad upon the wise old policy of our original land system, has ever hastened the population of the new territories, or benefited our own poor; but only enriched the specula-piness which private life must ever yield tor, or served to support the demagogue, by affording a subject for rabble-delusion. The country, we know, but little conceives the wisdom of this good old land system, or the value of the public property which it protects. Intrinsically, that property is worth, by the best computation, one thousand millions of dollars; and in this estimate we do not include our new If Mr. Vinton's labors were thus so much more usefully than ambitiously bestowed where the public service most needed an able man's help, we may be sure that he devoted himself much to that obscurer work of legislation which silently shapes it in the committee-room, and embodies, out of details, conclusions. Accordingly, his diligence, conscientiousness, power of systematizing, have ever made him highly efficient, as he was active, in all that important part of the Congressional duties. It was his known excellence in this line which assigned to him the difficult post which he holds in the present House of Representatives, that of Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. In 1837, as we have already seen, he withdrew from Congress, with the purpose of never again taking any active part in public affairs. For six years, with perfect contentment, he gave himself to the hap to a temper so amiable and modest. In 1843, he was again drawn reluctantly back into the public counsels. The rival pretensions of several highly respectable candidates in his district seemed to admit no concord but in the compromise upon one to whom all were willing to give place; and Mr. Vinton was, against his known wishes, nominated by a Whig Convention of the constituency. He was elected; and has since then continued in Congress, under a strong sense of duty, down to the present time; when, once more, he has, to the great regret of all that know his faithful and excellent public service, announced his intention of retiring, after his present term. We have written thus far for such as are neither children nor without memory; and shall not, therefore, as if our readers knew nothing of events almost yesterday's, recite Mr. Vinton's part in the occurrences since his return to Congress in 1843. It has been, however, active and important, such as the abilities of the man, his faithfulness to his duties, and the Congressional deference for him which these have created, were sure to make it. We might mention his various efforts in the House, as, for instance, his speech on the 2d of Feb., 1844, against the strange Congressional nullification of its own Act, in admitting to its seats members returned by general ticket, not election from separate districts, (see Appendix to the Congressional Globe for that session, p. 312;) or that on the admission of Iowa and Florida into the Union, in which, among other topics, he discussed the question of the cohesive power of our confederacy, and especially the great central influence of the Western States towards that end, (11th of July, 1845;) or the series of his speeches on the several bills for breaking down the system of the public domain, (bills usually | taking the popular pretence of " graduating and reducing the price of the public lands,") in which he always stood easily the master of the subject and the debate; or his share in the discussions of the "River and Harbor Bill;" or, as chairman of the "Ways and Means," that on the 16,000,000 loan, and other financial measures. We might the better speak of his exertions during this period, because we have personally witnessed them, seen the value of his labors in all that with which he mixed himself, and learned to know his virtues and his worth as a public man, than whom, in the present day, we have known none of greater integrity, of more useful parts, of more solid judgment, of sincerer love for the public good everywhere, or more exempt from the political vices of the day, a want of moderation, of probity as to party objects, of a view to something more permanent than the contest for momentary power; of, in fine, what may be called a wise and right catholicity of every public aim. Ours has never been a pen of panegyrics; alas, it has found but few whom it could commend up to the measure of what should be a statesman's eulogy. And, as to this excellent man, whose withdrawal from public life is announced, perhaps, in all that we have said, "We come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him." E. W. J. TO SLEEP. KIND sombrous power, Oblivion's gentler child, Which is our night, thou hauntest earth and sea : And the lone mariner, steering by his star, Nods at the helm, and dreads thee, loving thee; Now eager industry, defrauding night, Dreams at his task, lapses and wakes again; Remembered, by your power, of nature's right, And thine, dear recompense of grief and pain! Where glide your dusky wings, the nations fall, Deep breathing, unharmed, until dawning call. MENDELSSOHN. FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, whose recent death is still a matter of regret, not only to those who enjoyed the peculiar happiness of his personal friendship, but to all who love the art of music, is regarded, in Europe, as one of the great universal geniuses of our time. Although only a few of his compositions are known here, it may still be presumed that a review of the labors of such a man will be found neither uninteresting nor uninstructive. It was perhaps not in his lifetime, not until now, that we can review the whole of his works collectively, regarding them rather as one chain of ideas that develops the progress and the entirety of his genius, than as so many separate compositions, that the world is capable of assigning to Mendelsshon his true rank as a musician; but, now that we have before us a complete panorama of his mind in the whole of its productions, we feel justified in the impression so long entertained, that his grade is with the highest, and that we must own in him the true associate of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. His claims to this eminence lie in the purely classical character of all his writing, by which is to be understood not merely cold correctness, but irresistible beauty in the highest style of musical expression; and in the striking originality that so obviously manifests itself in all his works as to give them an individuality which, it is not too much to say, is not to be found in the music of any of the great composers with whose names his is here classed, and which, devoid of mannerism, can hardly be attributed to the collected works of any other musician. This assertion is so strong, and includes so much, that it may require some explanation to justify it; and, as this individuality forms a most important characteristic of Mendelssohn's genius, it may not be superfluous to enter somewhat at length into its discussion. Let it then be first understood what is here meant by originality in music. A composer is by no means to be charged with a want of originality who may have written a phrase that is more or less like, or even identical with, some phrase that has been written by another. Of such accidental coincidences examples are innumerable in the works of the most esteemed masters; for instance, one of the forty-eight Preludes and Fugues of Bach, the chorus "And with his stripes" in the Messiah of Handel, the second movement of the Requiem of Mozart, and the Adagio in the Overture to Faust of Spohr, are all constructed on the same subject; the chorus "Happy we" in Handel's Acis and Galatea is a popular Welsh national air; the Page's song, "Voi che sapete," in Mozart's Figaro, is unmistakably like the Sicilian hymn "Adeste fideles;" the trio "Zitti, zitti," in Rossini's Barbiere, is note for note the same with the air "With joy th' impatient husbandman" in The Seasons of Haydn; and the introductory chorus, " Light as fairy foot," from Weber's Oberon, opens with the same melody, and the same, somewhat remarkable, harmony, with a principal passage in the first movement of the Pastoral Symphony of Beethoven: but for all this we surely condemn not Handel, Mozart, Weber, Spohr, Rossini, as plagiarists and imitators. Style may be said to consist rather in general characteristics than in particular ideas; in a composer's habits of thought, and the forms of construction and elaboration in which such thought is developed, than in any peculiar, perhaps exceptional, passage. It is the unlikeness of the style of an author to any archetype that constitutes his originality, and not the resemblance of any one or more of his phrases, however originally treated, to some phrase previously known, that constitutes his want of it. There may not exist a parallel passage in the works of two authors, and yet what is seen to constitute the style of both may be so similar as to deprive him who wrote second of a claim to originality, at least to such originality as will distinguish his music from all that preceded it. Thus | Handel, Gluck, the classical Italian writers, and that host of composers who, because Mozart has so entirely excelled them in their own manner, having little of excellence but this manner in their works, are now wholly or nearly forgotten. Beethoven-to proceed chronologically in the examination of musical greatness-so completely adopted the style of Mozart, that his compositions for the first third of his career may be mistaken for productions of this great original, and even what is regarded as peculiar in them is evidently the development of a portion of the style of this master, which was by himself least exercised; so that when we find examples of it in his own works, such as in the last movement of his great Pianoforte Sonata in C minor, we are forced to describe it by the expression Beethovenish. In what critics designate the second and third periods of the expansion of Beethoven's genius, there is a striking breaking away from this style of his predecessors, and of his early self, which, were the present object an analysis of this composer's works, would afford matter for much discussion; as it is, however, it will be sufficient for the purpose to advance that it is by no means a single opinion, that the peculiarity which pervades his later works is rather the result of a wilful endeavor to be unlike others, which, with a less exalted mind, could but have produced a total failure, than the involuntary outpouring of an original invention. These great men, all individual in their greatness, and each unlike the others, as separate from all the world in their surpassing excellence, are each like all in their phrases and in their forms, both being gradually modified by the progress of the art, and even the fashion of their respective periods. After enlarging so much upon the want of originality, in a certain sense, of these great masters, it is necessary for the entire explanation of what is meant by the rare characteristic here attributed to Mendelssohn, to adduce some instances of musical composers that have also possessed it. Before all then must be mentioned Purcell, who, as being the first to break through the purely scholastic trammels of the an cient diatonic school to enter upon the ex haustless field of the beautiful that he open to the modern musician in the inex haustible resources of chromatic harmony, | general clearness, fluency and force that and as the first to apply musical sounds to associate it with all our ideas of what is the poetical expression of words, and to beautiful. This phraseology is rendered the delineation of the wildest of the pas- the more powerful and striking by the sions, is to be considered as the most truly support of harmonies which, though not original composer the world has known. unusual in themselves, are peculiar in their It must be granted, indeed, that his spec- rhythmical distribution and sometimes in ulations, as they must be esteemed, in the their progression and resolution. It is a previously unattempted combinations of favorite practice of Mendelssohn sometimes. chromatic harmony, are occasionally fail- to continue one note through a long sucures, producing effects equally harsh, un- cession of chords-sometimes to continue satisfactory, and inexplicable; and that his one chord through a long succession of expression sometimes degenerates into lu- what can only be described as passing dicrous word-painting: but with all the notes, but which are of such importance experience that has intervened, the same as entirely to influence the effect of the things are to be remarked in the most ap-harmony to select at random two striking proved writers that have succeeded him; examples, reference may be made to the and that his genius was not always at its opening of the ottet for string instruments, happiest power, detracts not from the in- and to a passage in the chorus "Ye finite honor that is due to him for the many Spotted Snakes," in the Midsummer Night's exquisite beauties he has left us, and for Dream. the incalculable services he rendered to the art by the new direction he gave to its cultivation. Let us lastly instance Weber, whose peculiarity of phraseology, singular application of certain harmonies, and novel conduct of his dramatic pieces, decidedly constitute a style-one that cannot be imitated, (since all who have attempted its adoption have fallen into the most vapid musical bathos,) and one that was in no respect anticipated. Most fascinating has proved this Weberish style, no less to the public than to the host of composers who have failed in the attempt to write in it; but, in spite of its irresistible charms, an investigation of all its peculiarities could lead only to the conclusion, that however teeming with originality, it is greatly wanting in what may purely be termed classicality. This long digression is important to the subject, insomuch as it goes to explain the application of a term which is meant to convey the chief idea of Mendelssohn's excellence, and as it may serve to illustrate the position that this composer takes in relation to those who have preceded him. It will be now to demonstrate, so far as the want of musical examples leaves it possible to do so, what are the peculiar claims to originality that Mendelssohn's music possesses. First, then, his phraseology is quite his own, but, while it is made up of such particular progressions as make it always recognizable as his, it has the A more general remark upon his harmonies will be perhaps more to the purpose, which is, that he produces a peculiarly novel effect by the frequent introduction of the combinations, or, more particularly, the progressions of Bach and his era, as the basis and accompaniment of his own original phraseology, or of less individual modern passages; and it is not only that he employs these ancient progressions, but, entering into the spirit of them, he extends its exercise beyond even what Bach himself with all his infinity of contrivance ever practised. More striking in itself, and far more important to the art, is his resolution of certain chromatic discords upon a principle occasionally hinted at in the middle and later works of Beethoven, but never carried to such an extent as it is by Mendelssohn in his earlier works; such for instance as the chord of the minor ninth on the tonic to the chord of the seventh on the dominant, with the progressions of the intervals of the seventh and ninth of the first chord to the third and fifth of the second, and many others which it would be here tedious to describe. There is the more merit in these innovations-discoveries they would be better named-on account of their being in direct violation of all pre-existing rules of harmony; and they evince the greatness of his genius as a philosopher no less than as a musician, by showing him capable of penetrating through the ob |