air, houris,
sentimental peasants, or highborn beauties, as the case may be,
lithographed upon the title-page. This class is entitled to notice, not
because of the merit or ability they possess, but because these masters
(!) really produce the popular music of the day, and because at present
we literally possess no other new music. The first object of the
publisher of a song is, or used to be, to have it sung in public by some
popular performer. This is not done without fee and reward; but the
value of the subject of the publisher's speculation, is greatly
increased by the publicity gained by the introduction of the song at the
theatre or the concert-room. When this event takes place, _claqeurs_ are
active, the friends of the singer support them, the playbills announce
"a hit," and a sly newspaper puff aids the delusion; copies of the
ornamented title-page are distributed among the various music-sellers,
to be exhibited in their windows, and the song is popular, and "sells."
Modest merit is unknown among us now. Thus songs and ballads without
number, which would otherwise remain in well-merited obscurity on the
shelves of the publisher, are forced into notice and repute. The trade,
no doubt, benefits by this system, the commercial end of these
speculations may indeed be answered, but the public taste is lowered by
each and every of these transactions.

We may here notice the extravagant price of music of every description
in England. For a piece of four or five pages, the sum of 2s. is
commonly demanded. Even where there has been an outlay in the purchase
of the copyright, this sum can scarcely be considered reasonable; but
when the same price is asked for music which has become common property,
it is out of all reason. The expense of engraving four or five pages of
music, the cost of the plates, together with the expense of paper and
printing a hundred copies of a song of this description, does not amount
to L5; therefore the sale of fifty copies will reimburse the publisher;
while, if the whole hundred are disposed of, he is an actual gainer of
cent per cent upon his original outlay, while the profit upon every copy
subsequently struck off is necessarily enormous. On the Continent, music
may be purchased for about one-third the sum which it would cost in
England. In Paris, Pacini's "partitions," an excellent edition of the
popular Italian operas, are sold for twelve francs each. The whole set
may be purchased at the r