the variations of our weather during the late spring, were by no means favourable to his constitution. His complaint was a pulmonary affection of long standing. Monday, June 5th, had been appointed at Covent Garden Theatre, for the performance of his opera Der Freischutz, accompanied with all the original music, for his benefit, and under his superintendence, but his increasing indisposition caused a postponement, and his assistance is now no longer attainable. The symptoms of his disorder had not assumed any alarming appearance until the Friday preceding bis death, when he was compelled to keep his room. His spirits were however good; but although he entertained no sense of his immediate danger, he manifested an unusual solicitude to return to his family, and it was only by cherishing the idea, that his friends were able to preserve him from impatience, though they were fully convinced that his wishes could never be realized. On the night of Sunday, a friend and countryman remained with him till about 11 o'clock, and at that hour left him cheerful, and without any apprehensions. He was, however, found, about 7 on Monday morning, June 5th, dead in his bed, at the house of Sir George Smart, in Great Portland Street, where be had resided since his arrival from the continent. Von Weber was about 39 years of age, and is supposed to have been one of the greatest musicians that has existed since the days of Mozart. In the fate of these men, there seems to have been a strong resemblance. Both were taken off in the full maturity of life, just as their genius appears to have reached the zenith of perfection, and the death of each was accelerated by the intenseness of application. Von Weber having died in the Roman Catholic faith, their large chapel in Moorfields was fixed on for the place of his interment, and the previous performance of those splendid musical displays, with which the most distinguished artists and singers in London in tended to honour bis memory. For this funeral exhibition, great preparations were made; and although tickets of admission were fixed so high as one guinea, such was the excitement of the public mind, that a more than ordinary concourse of persons was expected. An application, however, being made to Dr. Poynder, the Catholic bishop, presiding over the London district, produced a reply which defeated all the arrangements of the musical party. His answer stated, that according to the existing rules of the Chapel, no more than twenty musical professors could be permitted to perform the solemn service for the dead, over the body, and that the seat-holders could not be displaced for the accommodation of the public. The committee, thus defeated, applied to the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, for the use of the cathedral, while the requiem was being performed; but here the application was alike unsuccessful. It was answered, that a requiem over the dead, being a Papal rite, could not be allowed in a Protestant Cathedral. In the mean while, their plans and calculations being thus deranged, on the evening of Saturday, the 17th, the Fairy Opera was performed, in Covent Garden Theatre, for the benefit of Von Weber's family, but the assemblage was by no means equal to expectation. The performance was well executed, but unfortunately it gave more satisfaction than it produced profit. During several days the arrangements for the funeral, through causes that have been mentioned, remained at a stand. The musicians were anxious to display their skill in honour of the deceased, and the public were equally solicitous to obtain the promised gratification. No place, however, could be procured suitable for all parties, until Wednesday, the 21st, when negotiations having been brought to a close, his remains were consigned to a vault beneath the Catholic chapel in Moorfields, accompanied with such rites and ceremonies as are customary on the interment of distinguished persons belonging to that communion, but without that musical parade which had originally been contemplated. The procession, consisting of a hearse drawn by six horses, accompanied by sixteen mourning coaches, and four private carriages, moved from Great Portland Street, where he died, to the chapel in Moorfields, which it reached about half-past ten o'clock in the morning. The carriages conveyed thither his most particular friends, and such performers as were to assist in the ceremony, among whom were many of the more distinguished characters of the present day. Prior to their arrival, the chapel was filled with seat-holders, and strangers, who had been attracted by this novel, but august spectacle. The company was estimated at above two thousand. The pulpit and altar were covered with black cloth, and the gallery in which the organ stands was crowded with vocal and instrumental performers. The corpse was introduced by a band, commencing with Mozart's Requiem, and the effect was both solemn and impressive. The other parts of the funeral rites, and the music, followed in regular succession; but we have no room for details, as the whole performance occupied about an hour and a half. In addition to the musicians and singers that bore a part in these obsequies, many others offered their services, but from the restrictions which we have already noticed, they were respectfully declined. The whole performance excited intense interest, and being conducted with solemn order, gave great satisfaction to the assembled multitude. Von Weber is universally allowed to have ranked, as a composer and a musician, among the first characters that Europe can produce, and it may be questioned if his equal can at present be found among the numerous inhabitants of our globe. It is said that an admirable cast of his features was taken immediately after his decease, from which a bust will soon be prepared by Mr. Kendrick. Through the kindness of a friend, we have been favoured with the following autograph of the deceased, of which we have furnished an engraving for the inspection of our readers, to whom this brief sketch is submitted. Charles Maria von Weber. On dressing Potatoes.-When these useful roots are boiled for the purpose of feeding swine, or other animals, they should be put into bags or sacks, leaving room for them to swell, and when sufficiently boiled the sacks should be taken out and left to drain, for the water becomes so strongly impregnated by the poisonous properties of the root, as to be highly detrimental to animals in general. This will account for the disappointment of those persons who feed their pigs with potatoes mashed with the water in which they have been boiled. When prepared agreeably to the above direction, potatoes become a most beneficial food for pigs, but they are by far less nutritious in the raw state, for the poisonous qualities not being drawn out by boiling, it counteracts the benefit of the farinaceous qualities of the root.-Phillips on the Potato. Literary Notices. Just Published. Memoirs of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, of Kettering. By J. W. Morris. A new and improved edition. 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It will contain a large collection of interesting articles, in prose and verse, from the pens of the most popular authors of the age, and be embellished with appropriate engravings of in. teresting subjects, executed by the first artists. In quarto. Waistell's Designs for Agricultural Buildings, including Labourers' Cottages, Farmhouses, and Out-buildings, conveniently arranged around Fold-yards, and adapted to Farms of vari ous sizes and descriptions. By Joseph Jopling, Architect, Price to Subscribers 30s. LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY H. FISHER, SON, AND CO. THE Emperial Magazine; OR, COMPENDIUM OF RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. AUG.] 66 THE TORCH OF LITERATURE ILLUMINATES THE PATHS OF WISDOM." MEMOIR OF THE REV. SAMUEL WARREN, LL.D. (With a Portrait.) [1826. ferat!-How much more delightful and We feel gratified in being able to afford our readers an illustration of the preceding remarks, in the following brief but interesting memorial of the gentleman whose portrait accompanies our present number. It will be profitable to mark, amidst the vicissitudes of such a life, the vigilance and beneficence of divine Providence in controlling every event, and rendering it subservient to the ends of infinite wisdom: at the same time that it affords an illustration of the success which may be expected to attend the prompt and persevering improvement of ordinary advantages, and of those minute, and apparently inconsiderable circumstances, on which, very frequently, depend those events most influential upon the character and welfare of families and individuals. THE retrospect of a journey which has not been prosecuted without encountering and overcoming numerous difficulties and discouragements, is always interesting and instructive. Who can estimate the feelings which swell within the bosom of the enterprising traveller, when his weary feet are at last planted on the snow-crowned summit of Mont Blanc; while he looks down on the innumerable crags and chasms which obstructed his tortuous ascent? The eye of the sailor kindles with joyful enthusiasm, when he sees his storm - rocked vessel careering safely into harbour, in defiance of the billowy turbulence without; he exults when he recalls to mind the shoals, quicksands, and sunken rocks, which he has avoided by his skill, valour, and perseverance. Who envies not the reflections of the veteran soldier, on listening to the spirit-stirring melody of unconquerable battalions, and the reverberating thunder of the distant cannonade?-when he beholds afar off the death-cloud hovering over hostile thousands, and remembers the time when it enshroud ed himself? when he sees unfurled the red standard of warfare, which had often waved over his head, and fanned ten thousand eager spirits into a flame, from which was lit the inex-lously inculcated moral discipline, tinguishable torch of victory? And who sympathizes not in the delight of the pale scholar, when he has emerged in triumph from the dim and laborious labyrinths of study; when his mind's eye, through the long vista of departed years, glances on the scene, where the midnight lamp flickered over his thought-worn features, as he sat entombed amid the dusky archives of literature and philosophy? It appears to have been the intenWho does not exclaim, when the fair tion of his father, Captain Samuel garland of classic renown is bound Warren, (who owned and commanded around his brow, Palmam qui meruit | a vessel trading to the Mediterranean) 92.-VOL. VIII. SAMUEL WARREN was born at Yarmouth, in Norfolk, in the year 1781; and was the sole surviving son of parents, who, though not affluent, were pious and respectable. The advantages of academic culture which he enjoyed in early life, were limited; but religious restraints, and sedu operated more beneficially in the formation of his character, than might have been expected from the influence of a costlier and more systematic education. Under the parental roof, he received a strong bias in favour of religion; as well as a taste for that species of reading, which, though perhaps not the most ornamental, was most salutary in its results. 2 x |