3000 workmen in Paris was considered dangerous: it could not
be credited that they met merely for social improvement and
relaxation; some political design must surely lurk under it:
government was alarmed, the police threatened; and it was left to
Mainzer's choice either to remain in Paris without his artisan
classes, or to seek elsewhere a field for his popular labours. He
decided at once on the latter alternative, and departed for England,
amidst the heartfelt regrets of those whom he had attached so strongly
to himself, while he inculcated peace, order, and every social virtue.
On his revisiting Paris long after, his old pupils serenaded him
unmolested; and in 1849, the Institute of France voluntarily placed
his name on their list for the membership vacant by the death of
Donizetti; yet he would not accept the proposal of a later French
government to return and establish his system: he preferred the
freedom of action which he enjoyed in Britain.

In London, a period of arduous labour commenced. Mainzer arrived
without patronage, without the _prestige_ that his name had earned
abroad, and, what was a greater drawback, without any knowledge of
English! But, nothing daunted, with his usual energy he set about the
task of acquiring the language, which he did in an incredibly short
time--commencing, like a child, by naming all familiar objects, and
going on, until, without perplexing himself with rules or their
exceptions, he had acquired facility enough to lecture in public. His
work on _Music and Education_ shows with what force and purity of
style he could afterwards write in English. It was the same
principle--that of commencing with practice and letting theory
follow--which he carried out in his system of 'Singing for the
Million.' He argued, that as children learn to speak before they can
read or construct language grammatically, so they ought to be taught
vocal music in such a way as to introduce the rules of harmony
gradually, and prepare them for the manipulation of an instrument, if
it is intended they should learn one; while for the great masses of
both children and adults, _the voice_ is the best and only instrument,
and one that can be trained, with _very few exceptions_, to take part
in choral, if not in solo singing, and at the same time be made a
powerful and pleasing agent in moral culture. On this subject, we
shall quote Dr Mainzer's own words, when speaking of the compositions
introduced into his clas