s do the mellifluous accents of the Lingua
Toscana, the langue par excellence of song.

"The Ravenswing's voice is a magnificent contra-basso of nine octaves,"
etc.--Flowers of Fashion, June 10.

"Old Thrum, the composer, is bringing out an opera and a pupil. The
opera is good, the pupil first-rate. The opera will do much more than
compete with the infernal twaddle and disgusting slip-slop of Donizetti,
and the milk-and-water fools who imitate him: it will (and we ask the
readers of the Tomahawk, were we EVER mistaken?) surpass all these; it
is GOOD, of downright English stuff. The airs are fresh and pleasing,
the choruses large and noble, the instrumentation solid and rich, the
music is carefully written. We wish old Thrum and his opera well.

"His pupil is a SURE CARD, a splendid woman, and a splendid singer. She
is so handsome that she might sing as much out of tune as Miss Ligonier,
and the public would forgive her; and sings so well, that were she as
ugly as the aforesaid Ligonier, the audience would listen to her. The
Ravenswing, that is her fantastical theatrical name (her real name is
the same with that of a notorious scoundrel in the Fleet, who invented
the Panama swindle, the Pontine Marshes' swindle, the Soap swindle--HOW
ARE YOU OFF FOR SOAP NOW, Mr. W-lk-r?)--the Ravenswing, we say, will do.
Slang has engaged her at thirty guineas per week, and she appears next
month in Thrum's opera, of which the words are written by a great ass
with some talent--we mean Mr. Mulligan.

"There is a foreign fool in the Flowers of Fashion who is doing his best
to disgust the public by his filthy flattery. It is enough to make
one sick. Why is the foreign beast not kicked out of the paper?"--The
Tomahawk, June 17.

The first three "anecdotes" were supplied by Mulligan to his paper,
with many others which need not here be repeated: he kept them up
with amazing energy and variety. Anecdotes of Sir George Thrum met you
unexpectedly in queer corners of country papers: puffs of the English
school of music appeared perpetually in "Notices to Correspondents" in
the Sunday prints, some of which Mr. Slang commanded, and in others over
which the indefatigable Mulligan had a control. This youth was the soul
of the little conspiracy for raising Morgiana into fame: and humble as
he is, and great and respectable as is Sir George Thrum, it is my belief
that the Ravenswing would never have been the Ravenswing she is but for
the ingenuity