Till towards the Reformation these, indeed, and the general style of ecclesiastical intonation, by the priest, was, as to music, cold, formal, and unaffecting; but when the effect of the sublime union of melodies and harmony began to be felt, cathedral-choirs became, indeed, most interesting adjuncts to devotional worship; and who, but the most ignorant, and inveterate, and bigoted Puritan can deny that our church-music is devotional and sublime? Who can listen to the strains of Tallis, Gibbons, Blow and his school, Purcell, Croft, Boyce, and Kent, without feeling the heart purified from earth and lifted up to heaven? What were the feelings of Milton on this subject, in his earlier and happier days, before polemical warfare had soured his spirit, before pride and hatred had established their dominion over a soul originally so noble? He loved

"To hear the pealing organ blow
"To the full-voic'd quire below,
"In service high, and anthems clear,
"As might with sweetness thro' mine ear,
" Dissolve me into ecstacies,

" And bring all heaven before mine eyes."

As to chanting the psalms, this, also, has been called a relic of Popery! What! Was the inspired writer of the Psalms "a Papist ?” The Psalms in the Bible were sung or chanted originally, not read, and they, almost all, have come down to us as addressed to the "Pre

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centor, or chief musician.”

Have you, my Lord, never read some of the short preambles to these divine compositions, preserved to this day as our guides, respecting the singing them? True, the holy harmonies to which they were sung have not come down to us, but we know that some were sung to an instrument of " ten strings," and we know that instruments of ten strings embrace concords, the basis of all harmony in music, which are called eighths, thirds, fifths, and an instrument of ten strings must have the third above.

Can all the Puritans who rail, or ever railed, against all the interesting and innocent auxiliaries to devotion, persuade you out of your own understanding and fair feelings? I beseech you again, my Lord, for the sake of that sole art associated with the purer enjoyments of heaven, turn your ear and heart from such "suggestions" of such heartless counsellors.

We have no wish to decry parish congrega

tional singing: far, very far, from it. We are sensible of the powerful effect of blended simultaneous voices, even when the metrical psalms are sung to such indifferent words, and yet, even the simplest strains have a more powerful effect on the ear when harmonious chords are perceptible through the full harmony; and such strains often have the effect of the truest sublimity. But is, therefore, more cultivated music to be rejected in its proper place? In England there are now ten thousand country parishes, and in them the anthem is generally as ridiculous as metrical psalms and hymns in a cathedral quoir.

But to say that such more cultivated music is, therefore, not devotional-to deprecate such sublime harmonies as are peculiar to English cathedrals, and which in general are so impressively and so beautifully performed,

"When thro' the long-drawn aisles, and fretted vanes,
"The pealing anthem swells the note of praise,"

argues such prejudice, that we could not believe its existence among those who had any genuine Christian feelings, or cultivated understandings.

Prynne raved against the " barking" treble,

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and "growling" tenor, and howling" bass, in the different parts of a fine cathedral anthem; but your Lordship particularizes as objectionable even "a duet" for boys. My Lord, have you ever heard Kent's most exquisite duet

"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and hide not thyself from my "petition. Then I said, O that I had wings like a dove," &c.?

If you have, and retain the same opinion, I can only say that you, my Lord, and they who "suggested" the objection, must be "deaf "as the dead" to the purest devotional music.

Oh! my Lord, if infidels and robbers seize the ancient episcopal and chapter lands, let those who profess any religion and probity, leave us, if not our lands, at least our beautiful " songs of Sion" in our heaviness-those exalted, and unique, and pathetic strains, which are peculiar to our cathedrals.

Let the galleries of the ten thousand parishes resound the Psalms "set forth in metre," or whatever godly hymns the parochial minister might select, but never may the chant, the responses, the anthem, sung as they are, be banished from those venerable seats of piety to which they are so well adapted, and to which the purest spirit of piety could not object, unless it objects to the practise of which the inspired author of the Psalms and the ancient Church affored the first examples.

If you had ever heard, in Westminster Abbey, that sublime passage from the funeral anthem of our Purcell, "Thou knowest, Lord, "the secrets of our hearts," I should have imagined all the ravings of heartless Puritanism against anthems would have been as idle wind.

Yes, my Lord, I could wish, most earnestly, that you might, once only if ever you have been moved by sweet sounds-hear those children, over whom I am appointed guardian, in our cathedral-guardian to take care that the estate left for their maintenance be so employed -oh! I could wish you might hear their voice, and see them, when the chant is finished, each with his Bible on his knees, following the reading of the lessons with the deepest attention -and sure I am, my Lord, you would think the service less " cold and formal" than you deem it at present; and, as for " pompous " ceremonials," let your Lordship compare the simplicity of our worship with those gaudy rites and ceremonies imposed by the Popish ritual!

After this, look again at those poor boys,