the people were goaded into insurrection, the fight was long and bloody, and the victory dearly won. over. Protestants and freedom-loving Catholics learned in the Low Countries, from the Duke of Alva, Requesens, and other Spanish rulers, how that the tender mercies of the cruel are cruel also. In the newly-discovered regions of America, which the enterprise of Columbus had opened to Spain, the religious system of the Spaniards was so unlike the religion of Him whom "the common people heard gladly," that The strength of Spain was tremendous, crushing; but there was a canker in it, which, eating through, eventually proved fatal to the life of the tall tree. The King of Spain, Philip II., arbiter as he was of the fate of millions, mighty and feared as he was, was the abject slave of another power. The priests of the Roman Church were his masters, the Pope of Rome was his lord, and the mind of the man was in perfect subjection to the rule of his spiritual guides. So the interests, or supposed interests fled in horror from it, preferring death to conversion. Champ "the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind," of the Roman-Catholic Church became identified with those of | the Spanish crown. Wherever the Spaniard came, there came the priest, and the two together represented pure despotism in the State, and a Church system which was carried out through the medium of the Inquisition. Countries in which the Roman Church was already deeply rooted viewed the approach of the Spanish ecclesiastics with jealousy and dislike, though they were not necessarily in danger of injury at their hands. But in countries where the Roman faith was not the faith of the people, where the Protestant form of Christianity, or no Christianity at all, was the popular religion, the coming of the Spaniards and the Pope was a thing to be dreaded and grieved lain, the navigator, after whom the American lake of that name is called, and who visited the West Indies in 1599-1602, thus wrote of the Spanish priests and the Indians :-" At the commencement of his conquests, he (the King of Spain) had established the Inquisition among them, and made slaves of, or caused them to die cruelly in such great numbers, that the sole recital would cause pity. This evil treatment was the reason that the poor Indians, for very apprehension, fled to the mountains in desperation, and as many Spaniards as they caught they eat them; and on that account the said Spaniards were constrained to take away the Inquisition, and allow them personal liberty, granting them a more mild and tolerable rule of life, to bring them to the knowledge of God and the belief of the holy Church; for if they had continued still to chastise them according to the rigour of the said Inquisition, they would have caused them all to die by fire." Such then were the causes of the deep hatred already spoken of as existing among Englishmen during the reign of Elizabeth. The Spanish political power and the Spanish ecclesiastical power, each lusted after dominion, and allowed no considerations nor scruples to stand in their way. Each helped the other; the priests taught the "right divine" of the Spanish king "to govern wrong," and the Spanish king in return upheld, with brutal obstinacy, the priests' Inquisition-an institution of which more will be said in another paper; but of which it will be enough here to say that it was a spiritual tribunal, irresponsible and acting in secret, which punished men and women with all punishments, including death, for not acting in strict accordance with the rules of the Roman-Catholic Church. ENGLISH SHIP OF WAR. Englishmen, after the Reformation especially, hated both these powers. The one camped their action and their enterprise, forbidding them under pain of being treated as pirates to trade to places where the Spaniards claimed to have a monopoly, as in America; the other oppressed their souls with burdens too heavy to be borne, and then killed them for stumbling. Generous sympathy also for those who suffered wrong at the oppressor's hands, and were unable to help themselves, glowed in the English breast; and that sympathy, in an age of adventure and of chivalrous feeling, was not slow to express itself in action. It had received a fillip, too, in a point which nearly concerned the best interests of the nation. An attempt had been made after the death of Edward VI., in 1553, to introduce both the detested powers into England. Philip II. of Spain, was actually married to Queen Mary of England, and though the nation was, to a man, hostile to the introduction of the Inquisition, and swore it would not have it at any price, the energy and watchfulness of the best men were required to prevent the planting of the Spanish political power. In 1558 Elizabeth came to the throne, and not only roused the wrath of disappointment and jealousy by her prompt rejection of Spanish advances, but directly and indirectly she challenged the Spaniards by the uncompromising Protestantism of her policy. SPANISH THREE-DECKER. Her subjects were imbued with the same spirit as the Queen. The Spaniards were looked upon as public enemies, whom to destroy was to do God service; and many was the private adventure made by persons of good name and reputation, to make war upon them. In a time when the two governments were at peace, cruisers were fitted out in England notably in West-country ports-to prey upon the enemy's commerce on the Spanish Main and in the West Indies. Such men as Sir John Hawkins, Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir Richard Grenville, sailed on their own account upon expeditions which, directed against any other power than Spain, would have been called piratical, or at least, buccaneering; and they won honour and no small profit in the course of them. After the Spanish Armada, sent in 1588 for the avowed purpose of conquering England and establishing despotism and priestcraft therein, had shown the depth of the Spanish ill-will, the Government acted pretty much as its subjects had done, and made war whenever it chose. There was no declaration of war. After the Armada there could be nothing but perpetual war between the nations, and a fresh declaration of an old fact would have been useless as well as tiresome. So whenever a Spanish treasure fleet was coming home, or a Spanish squadron of merchantmen was known to be on the seas, the English royal vessels slipped out of port, and smote the Philistines wherever they found them. One of the most courageous and indomitable of the English rovers was Sir Richard Grenville, of Stowe, in Cornwall, a gentleman of ancient family and large fortune, an enthusiastic admirer of all that was generous and manly. He hated the Spaniards with an exceeding bitter hatred, and again and again left his pleasant home in Cornwall to roam the seas after the enemies of God and man, as he considered them to be. He had been eminently successful, both in distant expeditions and in repelling the attack of the Armada on the English coast itself; and his name was a terror to many a Spanish sailor. It happened, in the year 1591, that a Government expedition of the kind above-mentioned was about to sail under orders of Lord Thomas Howard, to intercept the Spanish treasure ships on their way from the West Indies. Sir Richard was appointed second in command, and hoisted his flag on board the Revenge; the rest of the squadron inIcluding eight fighting ships, with tenders and victuallers. The account of the action in which the Revenge fought single-handed for England is given here as best showing the kind of spirit it was which animated Englishmen at the time when their enemies were the detested upholders of Absolutism in Church and State. TIME OF ELIZABETH. Lord Thomas Howard sailed with his ships in August, 1591, and after cruising about for some time, put into the Western Islands, to recruit his men, ill with scurvy, and to wait there for the treasure ships. On the 31st of August, 1591, the lookout men reported a fleet in sight, and great was the joy and TIME OF ELIZABETH. greedy, perhaps, the expectation of the English warriors. But a nearer view disclosed, not the Spanish treasure ships, but a fleet of fifty-three ships of war, which had been equipped and sent out for the very pur. pose of pouncing on the pouncers. Half the English crews were on shore, ill, and the rest were busy watering and victualling the ships. Lord Thomas looked at his vessels and sickly crews, and then at the enemy's ships, concerning which the cry was still, "They come." Eight against fifty-three-the disproportion was too great. He determined not to try conclusions with them, and having recalled his crews by signal, stood out of the Bay of Flores, and succeeded in getting away. There was one ship, however, which did not follow. Sir Richard Grenville felt it to be almost an immoral act to retreat before a Spaniard, and though he was too good an officer wilfully to disobey the orders of his superior, he was not loth to take advantage of some unavoidable delay which occurred in getting his men from the shore, to stay behind. The other English ships gained the offing, and thither, too, was sent the master of one of the victuallers, who, seeing Sir Richard's danger, offered to stay and share it with him. On came the Spanish fleet, on the weather bow of the Revenge. Some of the officers remonstrated with the admiral, and advised him to crowd all sail and try to outsail the enemy; but Sir Richard declared "he would much rather die than leave such a mark of dishonour on himself, his country, and the Queen." Don Alonso de Baçan, the Spanish admiral, bore down on the Revenge, and becalmed her sails, so that she was not manageable. The San Philipe, a huge three-decker, and a number of other large ships came down like vultures on the prey, and the battle began. A dreadful fire was kept up from the Revenge, which blazed away, right and left, with crossbar shot and grape, compelling the San Philipe to drop out of the fight, and causing enormous destruction to the other ships. On the side of the Spaniards the fight was well sustained, though they were to some extent embarrassed by their numbers; many of their guns, also, being mounted high, could not be depressed, and fired harmlessly over the heads of the English. The battle of fifty-three to one began at three o'clock in the afternoon. Towards evening, a "double flie boat, of 600 tons, and admiral of the flie boats," with another vessel, went down, so cut up were they by the fire of the Revenge. That good ship was dreadfully riddled. At eleven o'clock at night, Sir Richard Grenville, being wounded a second time, was obliged to go below, and while his wound was being dressed, he received another severe hurt in the head, and the surgeon was killed beside him. Forty men out of 103-all he had on board-were killed, the rest were almost all wounded; the ship's masts had been shot away, the rigging was gone; the hull was pierced through and through; powder was running short: but Sir Richard's cry was still, "No surrender!" and when after two hours more of the dreadful work had passed it was proposed to make terms, the admiral advised his men to trust to God's mercy rather than to the Spaniards, and to blow up the magazine. The master, however, went on board the Spaniard about daybreak, and surrendered; Sir Richard being too ill to prevent him. On board the San Paulo, the dying man had every attention paid to him; his wounds were dressed, and the Spanish officers came to condole with and to admire him. Feeling the end to be near, he said in Spanish, that all might understand: "Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, Queen, religion, and honour, leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant soldior is in his duty bound to do." He died, and the Revenge, the first English ship that had fallen into Spanish hands, refused to survive him. In a storm which arose shortly after the action, she sank, with 200 Spaniards on board, "so that it may be said the Revenge made good her name, and forced the Spaniards to pay dear for their victory." SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE AND REIGN OF ELIZABETH. LESSONS IN MUSIC.-II. Ir is important that the learner should become thoroughly and practically familiar with the structure of that musical "scale of all nations and of all time" which was partially described in the last lesson. The following account, by General T. Perronet Thompson, who is no less distinguished for his philosophical and learned disquisitions on the science of music than for the other great services which, by pen and speech, he has rendered to his countrymen-the following account by him, of the first attempts of philosophy to measure this scale, will interest the student: * * * "The dispute upon this point (the application of science to music), is at least as old as the contest between Aristoxenus and the Pythagoreans, which dates as early as 300 years before the Christian era. # The opposition of Aristoxerrus was, in reality, nothing but a good ear declaring itself against a faulty division. The musical mathematicians of antiquity took as many as three successive steps into the truth, but their next was a marvellous blunder. "The histories of all nations refer to very early periods the discovery that certain successions or combinations of sounds have the effect upon the ear which is implied by music; and it may be assumed that in all countries a considerable degree of practical acquaintance has been acquired with the sounds before any person has thought of investigating the cause. The story of Pythagoras listening to blacksmiths' hammers, and dis covering that the different sounds had some relation to the weights, has been sufficient to secure to that philosopher the renown of being the first who sought for the explanation of musical relations in the properties of matter. The account given by Nicomachus is, that Pythagoras 'heard some iron hammers striking on an anvil, and giving out sounds that made most harmonious combinations with one another, all except one pair,' which led him to inquire what were the peculiarities of the hammers which produced these different effects. Whether this is an exact account or not, some observation of this kind appears to have speedily led to the discovery, that of strings of the same thickness and composition, and stretched by the same weight, those gave the same musical sound (or were what is called Massacre of St. Bartholomew in unison) which were of equal lengths;-that if of two strings in (France). Aug. 23 1572 unison, as above, one was shortened by a half, it produced a Trial of Mary for treason at sound which, though very far from being in unison with the Fotheringay Castle. 1586 sound of the other, might be heard contemporaneously with it, Execution of Mary. Feb. 8 1587 with a strong sensation of satisfaction and consciousness of Destruction of the "Invinagreement, and that the two sounds in fact bore that particular relation to each other by which two voices, of very different Tyrone's rebellion in Ireland 1598 kinds, like those of a man and a child, can sing the same tune or air as really as if they sang in unison, being what musicians have since distinguished by the title of octaves;-that if, instead of a half, the string were shortened by a third part, there was produced a note which, heard either in combination with or succession to the first, created one of those marked effects which all who had attained to any degree of musical execution by the guidance of the ear had treasured up as one of the most efficient weapons in the armoury of sweet sounds, being what modern musicians name the fifth ;-and that if, instead of a third part, it was shortened by a fourth, there was produced another note distinct from the last, but which, like it, was immediately 1559 recognisable as one of the relations which experimental musicians 1566 had agreed in placing among their sources of delight, being the same which in modern times is called the fourth. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. by his second queen, Anne Boleyn. She was the twenty-third Sovereign of England after the Norman Conquest, and the fifth and last of the Tudor Dynasty. 1589 cible Armada" Died at Richmond. Mar. 24 1603 SOVEREIGNS CONTEMPORARY WITH ELIZABETH. Poland, Kings of. (afterwards King of France. 1548 1547 America were seized by nexed to that Country Rome, Popes of. 1555 1559 1588 Henry de Valois France, Kings of. Henry III. Portugal, Kings of. Pius IV. 1578 Urban VII . . 1590 1590 very So far, Pythagoras and his followers appear to have run well. Instead, however, of pursuing the clue of which they already had hold, and examining the effects of shortening the 1592 original string by a fifth part and by a sixth, they strayed into 1591 * shortening the results of previous experiments by a third, and lengthening them by an eighth, * and here was the beginning of sorrows. * The attempt (beyond these three steps) at the division of the "Canon"-in other words, at the division of a string into the lengths which produce the sounds that make music in a single key-was a faure." The experiments of modern philosophers have been rewarded with the discovery that a musical string divided in the proportions given underneath will produce the notes of the scale as there described. Let it be noticed that the figure 1 stands for the whole length of the string, whether a foot, a yard, or any other measure, and whatever sound (in pitch) it gives-that sound being taken for the key note-Dон. It may also be mentioned that the same numbers denote the comparative lengths of organ pipes capable of sounding the corresponding notes. Perhaps these proportions will be better understood by the annexed diagram. A single string thus stretched and used for these experiments is called a monochord. If the student is of a mechanical turn, let him make one and verify the measurements here given. Let him suspend a board of four or five feet in length against a wall. To the upper part of this board fasten the end of a pianoforte-wire or other musical string which is of the same thickness throughout. Let the wire pass down the face of the board, over a firm wooden bridge, an inch or so high, and close to the top, and over a movable bridge at the bottom; and let it be kept stretched by a heavy weight. Set your movable bridge (which the weight will keep in its place) at the bottom, marking the spot, and take the sound of the whole string, by the help of a fiddle bow, for your Doн, or key-note. Then (having properly measured and marked the board) move the bridge to the other divisions, sounding each note as before. It may be well to mention that Colonel Thompson maintains, and with good show of reason, what he calls the "duplicity" of RAY and TE. They are sometimes sounded by good singers and violinDOK' players a very small degree lower than their usual position given above. These experiments will fix in your mind a clear notion of the scale. LAH If our arithmetical friend will now work a few sums in proportion, he will be able to show the value of the intervals be tween the several notes of this scale. Thus the vibrations of DOH differ from those of RAY, in being three less, and (three being one-ninth of twenty-seven) DOH has therefore only eightninths of RAY's vibrations. The same proportion will be found between FAH Sон, and LAH TE. These intervals are called the 'great tones." The proportion of RAY ME, and of SOH LAH is nine-tenths. These are the "small tones." The proportion of ME FAH, and of TE DOн, is fifteen-sixteenths. These are called semitones, or, more properly, Tonules. If you calculate from the length of the string given above you will find still the same proportions existing. Let our arithmetical friend reduce these "ratios," or proportions, of the three intervals in the scale to fractions having a common denominator. They will then stand thus: Now this evidently means that the lower note of the "great tone" has 1,280 vibrations, while the higher note has 1,440, and (as the lengths of string are in inverse proportion to the vibrations) that it takes 1,440 degrees of the string, while the higher takes only 1,280 such degrees. Therefore the proportional difference between them, whichsoever way you look at it, is one hundred and sixty degrees. In the same way you will find that the difference between the two notes of this "small tone" is one hundred and forty-four degrees, and that the interval of the "tonule" is ninety degrees. The degrees in each case are of similar value, all measured on the same scale (common denominator) of 1,440 degrees. We may therefore treat them as belonging to one scale, and adding three "great tones," two "small tones," and two "tonules" together, we shall obtain a perfectly measured scale of 948 degrees. As all these numbers, It will be well for you to understand the con- however, will divide by 2, retaining, of course, the same pronection between these musical notes and the vibra- portion to one another, it is better to regard the scale as comtions of the sonorous body which produces them-posed of 474 degrees, containing three " great tones" of 80 SOH whether that body be the string of a violin, the air degrees, two "small tones" of 72 degrees, and two "tonules" in an organ pipe, a small plate of glass or metal, or of 45 degrees, and this is the smallest perfect measurement of the "chorda vocales"-the vocal chords-of that the scale in plain figures. But if the pupil will go one step РАН wonderful little box instrument, called the "larynx," further, and divide each of these intervals by nine, he will see which you can feel in your own throat. Sounds how we obtain the proximate scale of fifty-three degrees. The ME produced by irregular vibrations are not musical. tonule will be exactly 5 degrees, the small tone exactly 8 They form the "roar, rattle, hiss, buzz, crash," or degrees, and the great tone only one-ninth of a degree less than some other noise. But sounds produced by equal 9 degrees. Adding these together, as before, you will have the and regular vibrations are musical. "That musical "Index scale," as Colonel Thompson calls it, "of fifty-three," notes are produced by a rapid succession of aërial and you will see that it is three-ninths or one-third of a degree impulses at equal intervals, is very clearly illus- too large. We strongly advise the pupil to construct a "monotrated by an instrument called the syren, the in- chord," and try for himself whether this is not in truth an DOR Vention of Cagniard de la Tour. A blast of air is accurate description of that scale of related notes which God has forced through a narrow aperture in a pipe; and a made most suitable to human ears and souls. All the books of flat eircular disk, perforated near its circumference science are agreed that it is; and experience bears the same with a number of small holes equidistant, and in a testimony. It is the more important that you should undercircle concentric with the disk, is so applied to the stand these points, because the true scale is dreadfully abused CHORD. pipe, that the blast is interrupted by it, excepting by the common keyed-instruments. Many of these are tuned by when one of the holes in the disk is opposite to that of the pipe; what is called "equal temperament;" that is, the scale is and when the former is made to revolve rapidly, the resulting divided into twelve equal semi-tones, and it follows that the aerial impulses cause a series of isochronous vibrations that pro- tones are all 79 degrees (of the perfect scale of 474), while they duce a musical note, and the corresponding number of its ought to be sometimes 80 and sometimes 72 degrees! and the vibrations can very easily be computed, from knowing the tonules (semitones) are both 39 instead of 45!! They might as number of holes and of revolutions of the plate. The results well cut down the fingers of a statue to "equal temperament!” obtained by this instrument agree exactly with those found by Human ingenuity will surely deliver us soon from this monother methods." The more rapid the vibrations of the sonorous strous distortion. You will understand now why it is so often body, the more "acute" (shriller, or higher) the note produced. pleasanter to sing "without the piano." RAY DIVISIONS OF THE STRING OF A MONO In this exercise you should take a middle sound of your voice (neither high nor low) for the key-note or Doн. A friend again will be needed to set you a "pattern" with voice or instrument. Tell him to play or sing G, D, B, G, D, B, G. He may understand these names better than those by which you are learning, and to which your attention must at present be confined. Take care to sing the upper SOH with a clear trumpet-like sound, and ME with a calm but firm effect. Sing the exercise slowly, but with sustained decision. It will greatly add to your pleasure if you can get a friend to sing the second line of notes while you are singing the first. This exercise, too, will give you confidence. [If you are singing from the staff above, remember that one voice will take the higher notes of each couple while the other voice is taking the lower notes. The open notes, which you have here, when they occur in the same tune with the black notes, SOH Дон ME SOH1 DOH DOH which were used in the former exercises, are to be sung twice as long, in time, as the black notes; and the open notes without a stem, like the last note in this exercise, are to be twice as long as those with a stem. This relative length does not, however, hold true out of the same tune. An open note in one tune may be no longer than a black note in another, and a black note in one tune no shorter than an open note in another. Let it, however, be repeated that it will be much better for the learner not to pay any attention at present to the old "notation" (way of writing), or to the remarks thus placed between brackets. He may get his mind puzzled with the notation of music, when he ought to be giving his whole attention to music itself. Sing exclusively from the syllables, and never leave an exercise until you can sing it correctly from memory, pointing on the modulator the while.] Take some low sound of your voice for this and the next | The exercise which follows differs from the present only in this exercise. Be careful to give an "accent" (additional force, quality of "accent," and yet how great the difference! Learn not length of sound) to the notes which follow an upright bar. to sing both the upper and the lower "parts." EXERCISE 7.-KEY D (OR C). The attention of the learner is directed exclusively to that which lies between the two staves of five lines. Do not attempt the words until you have perfectly mastered the syllables. Tell your musical friend, who sets you the "pattern," to play in the treble clef with one flat. If, however, you can sing the "scale" with accuracy you will not need his help. Take some rather low sound for Doн. Sound the tonic chord," or DOH, ME, SOн. Let the three notes be well established in your ear. Then notice that the first note of the upper line is ME. Sing ME with a somewhat prolonged sound, as indicated by the mark of continuance. Then trace the other notes on the modulator And he shall direct thy | paths as you sing them, at every mistake or uncertainty striking the "chord," and beginning again with great patience. When you can sol-fa the chant from the modulator by memory, then learn to use, instead of the syllables, the words "One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four, five, six," still pointing to the right notes on the modulator. It may be well for you now to learn the second line of notes (to be sung by another voice along with the upper line) as you learnt the first, and not, for the present, attempt the words. But if you wish to use the words, then first on the single learn to sing the words "Trust in the Lord with note ME. To do this with distinct utterance, you should divide " |