to mention again the receipt of what had for a time been withheld of the Kinsky and Lobkowitz subscriptions. The omission of these facts in this and other letters, imparted to Ries an utterly false impression; and on their publication in 1838, to the public also. Hence the general belief that Beethoven was now in very straitened circumstances, and that Karl's widow and child had been left in abject poverty; the truth as to them being this: that the property left them produced an annual income, which with the widow's pension amounted at this time to above 1500 florins. From the day that Beethoven assumed the office of guardian and took possession of the child, he had a valid claim upon the mother for a part of the costs of maintaining him—a claim soon made good by legal process. If he afterward elected to suffer in his own finances rather than press his sister-in-law, this is no justification of the heedless statements in some of his letters now- -a truth to be held in mind. And now the letter to Ferdinand Ries:

Dear R!

Wednesday, November 22, Vienna, 1815.

I hasten to write you that I to-day sent the pianoforte arrangement of the Symphony in A by post to the house of Thomas Coutts and Co., as the Court is not here, couriers go not at all or seldom, and this besides is the safest way. The Symphony should appear toward the end of March, I will fix the day, it has occupied too much time for me to make the term shorter,-more time may be taken with the Trio and the Sonata for violin, and both will be in London in a few weeks-I urgently beg of you, dear Ries! to make this matter your concern and to see that I get the money; it will cost a great deal before everything gets there and I need it-I had to lose 600 fl. annually of my salary, at the time of the bank-notes it was nothing then came the notes of redemption and because of them I lost the 600 fl. with several years of vexation and entire loss of salary-now we have reached a point where the notes of redemption are worse than the bank-notes were before; I pay 1000 fl. for house-rent; figure to yourself of the misery caused by paper money. My poor unfortunate brother has just died; he had a bad wife, I may say he had consumption for several years, and to make life easier for him I gave what I may estimate at 10,000 fl. W. W. True, that is nothing for an Englishman, but very much for a poor German, or rather Austrian. The poor man had changed greatly in the last few years and I can say that I sincerely lament him, and I am now glad that I can now say to myself that I neglected nothing in respect of care for him. Tell Mr. Birchall to repay Mr. Salomon and you the cost of postage for your letters to me and mine to you; he may deduct it from the sum which he is to pay me, I want those who labor for me to suffer as little as possible.

Wellington's Victory at the Battle of Vittoria, this is also the title on the pianoforte arrangement, must have reached Th. Coutts and Co. long ago. Mr. Birchall need not pay the honorarium until he has re

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ceived all the works, make haste so that I may know the day when Mr. Birchall will publish the pianoforte arrangement. For to-day, no more except the warmest commendation of my affairs to you; I am always at your service in all respects. Farwell, Dear R!

On the same day he wrote to Birchall:

Vienna, November 22, 1815.

Enclosed you are receiving the pianoforte arrangement of the Symphony in A. The pianoforte arrangement of the Symph. Wellington's Victory at the Battle of Vittoria was dispatched 4 weeks ago by the business messenger, Hrn. Neumann, to Messrs. Coutts and Co., and therefore must long ago have been in your hands.

You will receive also the Trio and Sonata in a fortnight in exchange for which you will please pay to Messrs. Thomas Coutts and Co. the sum of 130 gold ducats. I beg of you to make haste with the publication of these musical compositions and to inform me of the day of publication of the Wellington Symphony, so that I may make my arrangements here accordingly. With great respect I remain,

Yours truly,

Ludwig van Beethoven, m. p.

The Trio and Sonata, however, were not forwarded until the 3d of the next February—a decidedly long "fortnight."

In those days £65 was no small sum for the mere right of republication in England of these pianoforte works and arrangements, and Ries richly merited these words of his old master: "And now my heartiest thanks, dear Ries, for all the kindness you have shown to me, and particularly for the corrections. Heaven bless you and make your progress even greater, in which I take a cordial interest.'

About the first of December, “a magisterial deputation solemnly delivered" into the hands of Beethoven a certificate conferring upon him the citizenship of Vienna in acknowledgment of his benevolent services in behalf of St. Mark's Hospital. Ries, writing on September 29th for Salomon, who had broken his right shoulder in a fall from his horse, informs Beethoven that at that date the three overtures purchased by Neate for the Philharmonic Society had not reached London. Beethoven, in December, repeats this to Neate, who was still in Vienna, adding, in substance, his readiness to make any desired written agreement about these things in England. Salomon's misfortune occurred in August; he lingered only until the 25th of November. No higher proof of his reputation in England can be given than the fact that the remains of this Bonn violinist rest near those of Handel in Westminster Abbey.

Schindler somewhere censures the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde for its long delay in making Beethoven an honorary

member. It did what was better. Hardly was it organized, when its directors turned their attention to him; and, in the second year of its legal existence, proposed to him through Zmeskall to compose an oratorio for its use. On the 22d of December, Count Appony reported: "that Hr. L. v. Beethoven, through Hrn. v. Zmeskall, had declared his readiness to deliver a large work to the society and that the Board of Management were awaiting his conditions." It was but the course of common propriety-of ordinary delicacy-to leave him free of all obligation to the society until this matter of business should be settled; indeed, that Streicher was one of the principal founders and most influential members of the society is a sufficient pledge, that no disrespect for, nor indifference to, his great merits, had aught to do with the delay, which Schindler blames. We shall find that, so soon as it was certain that Beethoven could not live to fulfill his engagement, the society sent him its honorary diploma. Could it well do this before?

Of noteworthy new friends and acquaintances may be mentioned here Peters, tutor of the young Princes Lobkowitz, and Carl Joseph Bernard, a young literateur and poet-the reviser of Weissenbach's poem-a great admirer of Beethoven's music, soon to be appointed Editor of the official "Wiener Zeitung." He is the "Bernardus non Sanctus" of the Conversation Books; and the two are the friends whom Beethoven set to music in the text:

Sanct Petrus war ein Fels!
Bernardus war ein Sanct??1

Another was Anton Halm, "in whose fresh military nature Master Ludwig took delight," says Schindler. He was a native of Styria, and now but twenty-six years of age. After some years' service against Napoleon, he had resigned (1812) his lieutenancy in the 44th Regiment. He was a pianoforte player of very respectable rank, and even before entering the army had appeared in public in Beethoven's C minor Trio, Op. 1, and the C major Pianoforte Concerto, Op. 15. He had now been three years in Hungary, living during the third with his friend, Brunswick, who gave him a letter to Beethoven upon his departure for Vienna, whither he had come to be tutor in a Greek family named Gyike. "Halm once brought a sonata of his own composition to him," says Czerny, "and when Beethoven pointed out a few errors, Halm retorted that he (B.) had also permitted himself many violations of the rules, Beethoven answered: 'I may do it, but not you.'

Saint Peter was a rock! Bernardus was a Saint!

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Young Schindler's acquaintance with Beethoven had now advanced a step:

Toward the end of February, 1815 (Schindler writes), I accepted an invitation to become tutor at Brünn. Scarcely arrived there, I was summoned before the police officials. I was questioned as to my relations with some of the tumultuaries of the Vienna University as also certain Italians in whose company I had often been seen in Vienna. As my identification papers, especially the statement concerning the different lectures which I had attended, were not in good order, the latter really faulty-through no fault of mine I was detained, notwithstanding that a government officer of high standing offered to become my bondsman. After several weeks of correspondence back and forth it was learned that I was not a propagandist and was to be set at liberty. But a whole year of my academic career was lost.

Again returned to Vienna, I was invited by one of Beethoven's intimate acquaintances to come to an appointed place, as the master wanted to hear the story of the Brünn happening from my own lips. During the relation, Beethoven manifested such sympathetic interest in my disagreeable experiences that I could not refrain from tears. He invited me to come often to the same place and at the same hour, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, where he was to be found nearly every day-reading the newspapers. A handgrasp said still more. The place was a somewhat remote room in the beer-house "Zum Rosenstock" in the Ballgässchen. I was there right often and came to know the place as a quasi-crypt of a number of Josephites of the first water, to whom our master presented no discordant note, for his republican creed had already received a considerable blow through a more intimate acquaintance with the English Constitution. A captain of the Emperor's bodyguard and Herr Pinterics, widely known in musical Vienna, who played an important rôle in the life of Franz Schubert, were the closest companions of the master and, in the exchange of political views, his seconds actively and passively From this place I soon began to accompany him on his walks.

But Schindler's intimacy with Beethoven was not yet such as to save him from errors when writing of this time. Thus he gravely assures us that a concert which took place on the 25th of December "provided the impulse which led the Magistracy of Vienna to elect our master to honorary citizenship.' And yet the "solemn delivery" of the diploma is already an item of news in the Vienna newspapers of December 15. This concert, in the large Ridotto room, conducted by Beethoven was for the benefit of the Bürgerspitalfond (Citizens' Hospital Fund) and the works. performed were "an entirely new overture" (that in C, known as the "Namensfeier"); "a new chorus on Goethe's poem 'Die Meeresstille""; "Christus am Ölberg." Between the cantata and the oratorio, Franz Stauffer, "the twelve-year-old son of a citizen of Vienna," played a "Rondo brillant" by Hummel.

The compositions which are known or, on good grounds, are supposed to belong to the year 1815 are:

1. "15 Scottish Songs, in the month of May," arranged for Thomson; but they are not all Scottish.

2. Chorus: "Es ist vollbracht"; for Treitschke's "Ehrenpforte." 3. Two Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violoncello; C major and D major, Op. 102; in July and August.

4. Chorus with orchestra: "Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt"; text by Goethe; Op. 112.

5. Song: "Das Geheimniss"; text by Weissenberg.

6. Song: "An die Hoffnung"; text by Tiedge; Op. 94 (probably finished).

7. Canons: "Das Reden," "Das Schweigen" and "Glück zum neuen Jahre."

The ascertained publications of the year are:

1. Polonaise, in C major, Op. 89; published by Mechetti, in March. 2. Sonata for Pianoforte, E minor, Op. 90; by Steiner, in June. 3. Song: "Des Kriegers Abschied," text by C. L. Reissig; by Mechetti, in June.

4. Chorus: "Es ist vollbracht," pianoforte arrangement; by Steiner in July.

'Nottebohm's study of the sketchbooks used by Beethoven in 1815 (See "Zweit. Beeth.," pp. 314-20) discloses that he worked upon sketches for works which were never finished-a Symphony in B minor, Pianoforte Concerto in D, and several Fugues, besides experimenting with the opera "Bacchus." There are also sketches for compositions written in 1816, such as the song-cycle “An die ferne Geliebte" and the Sonata, Op. 101.