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IMPORTANCE OF NAMES.

was

EVERY body has heard of the ingenious method by which Mr. O'Diddle, the Irishman, was turned into Didelot in France; and the process by which Cicero was proved to be of the ancient Milesian family of the O'Cicers. By some such process, we presume, a very excellent public singer, whose English name Wiseman, was enabled to ravish the Italianized ears of the aristocracy in a tenfold degree by translating his name into Sapio. Nothing can be done in England without an I or an O, except in the remarkable instance of an illustrious personage, who, on being solicited to make Dr. O'Meara a bishop, declined, observing, 'I do not like O's.' In the same way Mr. Wolfe was instructed in the good policy of engaging public favour as Lupino, or Little Wolf. Mike Kelly wooed and won princesses in Italy, under the name of Michelli. Indeed, the original Harlequin was an Englishman metamorphosed into the endearing Italian diminutive of Harlequino, or little Harley. Even Betty Martin' sounds better as Beate Martine. And what would Kelly, the best of opera-singers, be, gentle reader, unless he had adopted his mother's name of Sue or Sukey Kelly for his surname, and thus carried every thing before him as Zuchelli? So Turner, the excellent sculptor, made a more decided hit as Turnerelli. Names are every thing. Juliet asks, What's in a name?' but Juliet was in the wrong. Juliet was a very young lady; and, besides, was in love; and therefore could not be supposed to have a very accurate idea of what she was talking about. We recommend Miss Paton, before her expected debut at the opera, to call herself Patonelli; Miss Ayton's sweet and impassioned notes all but failed, on account of the unmelodious stubbornness of her English designation.

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THE PROGRESS OF MUSIC.

WHEN fiddling Orpheus had his bread to get,
He clubb'd inventions with some Thracian workman;
They hammered out between them a spinnet,
Worth twenty of the harpsichords of Kirkman.

With this same stock in trade abroad he morrised,
And touched divinely some pathetic air;

He tried to soothe a lion in a forest,
And tickled an andante to a bear.

The beasts were all enamoured at his touches,
The frolic monkeys hung about his neck;
The elephants all jumped like scaramouches,
And swore he fingered faster than Dussek. *
Fired by the plaudits of each fawn and lion,"
And power of harmony in every quarter,
It came into the noddle of Amphion,
To try th' experiment on bricks and mortar.
Beyond the steps of Orpheus far he trode;
For, sticking in the ground his diapason,
Without a line, a trowel, or a hod,
He built as stout a wall as any mason.
(Now this in fact may not be strictly true,
Or, in plain English, a confounded lie;
But, faith, I heard it just as I told you,
And so you get it just as cheap as I.
It happened in the Golden Age-of course!
So future bards the matter may allege;
And if old story-tellers stole the horse,
Sure you and I may
look across the hedge).
But Music, doomed to sad depreciation,
In future ages felt a swift decline;
Sheer fiddling grew a dirty operation,
And Lions did not think it half so fine!
The pit and boxes of the woods grew thin,
Nor could it charm an Arab or a Corsair,
To see one stick a fiddle to his chin,
And rub a cat-gut with a skein of horse-hair!

*The famous German Violinist.

M. M.

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BELZONI, THE TRAVELLER.

A MEDALLION, of elaborate workmanship, has been executed at Padua, to the memory of the Egyptian traveller, Belzoni, who was a native of that city; and a public oration, in presence of the magistracy and chief inhabitants of the town, delivered in his praise.

The following notices of the early life of this singular and indefatigable man, are from the Annuaire Necrologique (a French periodical work), and are understood to be contributed by M. Depping :

"John Baptist Belzoni was the son of a poor barber at Padua, and was born in the year 1778. When a boy, he worked at his father's trade, but had always a desire to see the world, and at 13 years of age left his home, taking his brother Anthony with him, and made his way in the direction of Rome as far as the Appenines. Arrived at this point, and being almost in a state of destitution, the alarms of Anthony, who sat upon a rock, and refused to proceed farther, compelled the young travellers to return. Three years after, however, having enlisted a new companion, he started a second time, and then reached Rome in earnest.— What Belzoni did at Rome is uncertain. It has been said that he applied himself to the study of hydraulics, but we should doubt whether he ever received any regular instructions in that science. In the end, however, being fertile in resources, he took up the trade of a Monk for want of any better means of livelihood, and remained in that condition until the period of the revolution. Having laid aside the cowl, Belzoni then returned to Padua; but, finding little prospect there, in the year 1800 he proceeded to Holland, proposing to teach the Dutch in the science of hydraulics. Apparently, however, there was some miscalculation in this arrangement; the Dutch turned out to know considerably more of hydraulics than their Italian master; and at the end of twelve months the traveller again appeared in Italy, from whence he proceeded to England in the year 1803. By this time his colossal figure began to develope itself, and his personal strength was in proportion to his exterior appearance. He married a young English woman, and being still something at a loss for a profession, he determined to profit

by the curiosity which his personal powers excited, and to exhibit from town to town through Great Britain his hydraulic experiments and feats of muscular strength. It was a curious spectacle to see this colossus coming forward on the stage, carrying sometimes as many as twenty men placed in different ways upon his body.

"This resource, however, did not last long. The people got tired, and Belzoni was obliged to seek his fortune elsewhere. In 1812, he went with his wife to Portugal, and offered his services to the manager of the great theatre of San Carlos in Lisbon. The Portuguese speculation did well for a time, for a pantomime, called Sampson, was brought out, and Belzoni attracted immense audiences in the principal character; but at length the people here got tired too, and Belzoni went to Malta, where he offered his services as a professor of hydraulics to Ismael Gibraltar, agent of the Pacha of Egypt. Belzoni's exhibitions as a posture-master terminated at this period; but though he was engaged by the Pacha of Egypt, his first essay as a professor of hydraulics was rather unfortunate. He had been presented to the Viceroy, who employed him to construct a machine to water the gardens of Sautra, a villa which he possessed on the banks of the Nile. The work was performed, and, according to Belzoni's account, successfully; but the event was unfortunate, and had nearly proved tragical. The Viceroy took it into his head to put fifteen men, besides Belzoni's Irish servant, upon the machine when it was in motion. The result was, that an accident occurred. The men were thrown from the machine. Belzoni's servant had his thigh broken, and, but for the exertion of his master's great personal strength, would have been entirely destroyed. The superstitious temper of the Turks led them to regard this event as ominous; and--that which, perhaps, went as far in finally knocking up the projectthe Pacha discovered that it cost him more to water his garden with the new machine than it had done by the old system with the bullocks.

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Fortunately for Belzoni, he fell at this time into the hands of the Consul, Mr. Salt, who, perceiving his capacities, employed him in those works by the per

formance of which he afterwards acquired so much reputation. His physical powers fitted him admirably for the execution of the new duties intrusted to him. Dressed in the Turkish garb, he ruled the Egyptian peasants with the gravity of a Cadi or an Aga; and it is said that he did not scruple to administer personal correction for any failures of duty of which they might be guilty. In his temper and manners, however, he was in general mild and unassuming; and M. Depping describes his peaceable demeanour as rather curiously contrasted with his Herculean figure and appearance. 'One day,' says M. Depping, relating his first interview with the eastern traveller, in the autumn of the year 1821, I saw a man of extraordinary stature enter my house. He was built like a Hercules, and his head touched the top of the door as he came in. His shoulders were broad, and his hair thick and bushy; but his countenance was mild, and there was nothing fierce or alarming in his demeanour. He carried a book under his arm, and was followed by the publisher Galignani, from which circumstance I guessed that he was an author, though certainly I had never before seen one of such dimensions. If the Patagonians wrote, probably his fellow might be discovered among them. This Hercules, however, explained to me, with great mildness and simplicity, the object of his visit, which was, to get a translation made of his Egyptian travels, which had just appeared in English. At the time, Í knew very little of the man even by report; but I appreciated his character as soon as I looked over his work; and I was still more astonished when I became acquainted with the details of his early life, and found the individual who had begun by walking upon stilts and playing the mountebank for bread, concluding by opening the pyramids of Egypt, and digging out from under a mountain of sand the gigantic temple of Ipsamboul.""

LORD NORBURY.

I

WHEN his Lordship was told that Mr. Spring Rice was to be sent out to Calcutta, as Secretary to Lord W. Bentinck, he observed-"Send Rice to India! 'tis as bad as sending coals to Newcastle."

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