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might be examined conjointly with those of the Emprefs-Queen, and that a legal decifion might put an end to a conteftation which the court of Berlin had thought proper to excite.

la anfwer to this it was obferved, that the court of Vienna was already in the violent and forcible poffeffion, which it abfolutely refused to relinquish, of all the objects of contention; and that though a legal decifion is talked of, no competent tribunal is mentioned, to which it would fubmit the award; but that, on the contrary, that court had conftantly rejected with the utmost contempt every propofal of that nature; fo that if the expreffion of legal decifion was intended to mean any thing, it must figfy that the Emperor was to be the

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adge in his own caufe. It is eafily feen, that if the Prince of Deuxponts had fuffered his claims to lie dormant, until the Auftrian title to Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate was ftrengthened by length of polion, and all its confequences, how futile his attempts of recovering them mut then prove.

Previous, however, to the delivery of this memorial, a negotiation was opened upon new ground; and attended with fome circumstances which feemed to afford room for hoping, that thefe differences might be terminated amicably. In the course of the difcuffion at Vienna and Ratisbon, and the great preparations for war which were made on both fides; the great force of the Auftrian armies was collected in Bohemia and Moravia, which of course drew the Pruffian forces from the diftant provinces to the frontiers of those countries. These movements alfo drew the King of Pruffia into Silefia, and the Emperor into Bohemia, about the fame time in the month of A. pril. In this fituation, a direct correfpondence by letters was opened by the Emperor, and carried on between the two monarchs, with an apparent view to an accommodation.

A negotiation was accordingly opened * Berlin, under the conduct on one fide of Count Cobentzel, the Imperial minier. The first propofais made by this nifter were fimple and laconic: That the King fhould acknowledge the validity of the convention which the EmPrefs Queen had concluded with the Elector Palatine, and her legal title to thofe territories which the poffeffed in Confequence of that treaty; and that he

should also leave all other arrangements to be fettled by these two princes as they liked, whether they might relate to particular diftricts, or to the whole of the dominion of Bavaria. That it might not be fuppofed this useful compliance was to pafs without due reward, the court of Vienna was to be bound, to favour the King's convenience and pleafure, in all things that related to the fucceffion of the House of Brandenburg, to the countries of Anspach and Bareuth, on the failure of iffue-male in thofe two younger branches of his own family.

To pave, &c. [To be continued.]

An Anticombuflible Cement. the 18th of October 1779, the Sieur de Domaschnew, Chamberlain, and Director of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, made an experiment similar to that exhibited in London [38. 615.], on the incombuftibility of wood prepared after a particular manner. He had a wooden houfe erected, of a square form, twelve feet high, in the Wafily-Oftrow, behind the Petite Perspective, Petersburg. The fire which was lighted up therein was fo violent, that the heat was felt at a very confiderable diftance; but, notwithftanding the fury of the conflagra tion, occafioned by the combustible materials with which it was covered on the outfide and filled within, yet the parti tions, the garret, the flooring, and a fmall faircafe in the building, received not the least damage, during near two hours continuation of the fire, half an hour of which it raged with extreme violence, and then diminished gradually. One remarkable difference between the experiment made at Petersburg and that in London, and which is entirely in favour of Ruffia, is, that from the first mo. ment no mystery was made here of the fimple and cheap process ufed in the preparation of the wood which the fire leaves unburnt. It was very foon declared, that the compofition of this prefervatory cement is nothing more than a quantity of lime, fand, and hay, cut fmall, which may be laid on by any common carpenter. The Empress has ordered, that a particular detail of the exact method of preparing and using this aftonishing and ufeful cement, be inferted, for univerfal benefit, in a publication which appears at the beginning of every

year.

SIR.

January 1780. THE admirable Crichton was confidered as the wonder of his age; becaufe, when twenty years old, he was mafter of twelve languages, of all fciences, and of all exercifes. [15.432.]

William Crotch is in thefe days confidered as a moft extraordinary phænomenon; because, at two years of age, he began to play (self-taught) on the organ. [9.]

But what is all this to the wonderful learned boy of Lubeck? He knew, and would repeat, the principal facts in the five books of Mofes before he was one year old; and he went on in the fame proportion.

But to do juftice to the ftory, I fhall transcribe it from a book, in the German language, published at Gottingen and Lubeck, intitled, The life, actions, trawels, and death, of a child, very fenfible and well-behaved, four years of age, Chriftian Henry Heineken, of Lubeck: recorded by his teacher, Chriftian de Schoeneich.

"CHRISTIAN HENRY HEINEKEN was born at Lubeck, Feb. 6. 1721, and died there, June 27. 1725, after having difplayed the most amazing proofs of intellectual talents. He had not completed his first year of life, when he already knew and recited the principal facts contained in the five books of Mofes, with a number of verfes on the creation. In his fourteenth month he knew all the hiftory of the Bible; in his thirtieth month, the hiftory of the nations of antiquity, geography, anatomy, the ufe of maps, and nearly eight thousand Latin words; before the end of his third year, the hiftory of Denmark, and the genealogy of the crowned heads of Europe; in his fourth year, the doctrines of divinity, with their proofs from the Bible; ecclefiaftical history; the Inftitutions; two hundred hymns with their tunes; eigh ty Pfalms; entire chapters of the Old and New Teftament; fifteen hundred verfes and fentences from ancient Latin claffics; almost the whole Orbis Pictus of Comenius, whence he had derived all his knowledge of the Latin tongue; arithmetic; the history of the European empires and kingdoms; could point out in the maps whatever place he was afked for, or paffed by in his journies, and recite all the ancient and modern hiftorical anecdotes relating to it. His ftupendous memory caught and preferved every word he was told his ever-active imagination

ufed, at whatever he faw or heard, inftantly to apply, according to the laws of affociation of ideas, fome examples or fentences from the Bible, from geography, from profane or ecclefiaftical hiftory, from the Orbis Pictus, or from ancient claffics. At the court of Denmark he delivered twelve fpeeches, without once faultering; and underwent public examinations on a variety of subjects, efpecially the hiftory of Denmark. He fpoke German, Latin, French, and Low Dutch. He was exceedingly good-natured and well-behaved; but of a moft tender and delicate bodily conftitution; never ate any folid food, but chiefly subfifted on nurfe's milk; and, notwithftanding his weak ftate of health, fought all his fatisfaction, pleasure, and amufement, in the acquifition of knowledge.

[What a pity that the imprudent parents and teachers of so admirable a child, probably from avaricious motives, could ftrain his mental faculties, in fo tender an age, and fo weak a state of health, to fuch a degree and variety of premature, prepofterous, and ufelefs exertions, as must necessarily have exhausted his ftrength and fhortened his life! ]

He was celebrated all over Europe, under the name of the Learned Child of Lubeck. He died at the age of four years, four months, twenty days, and twentyone hours; and his death was recorded in a number of periodical papers: but his native place, Lubeck, erected no monument to this prodigy of Nature.”

GENEROSITY: An Anecdote.

ΑΝ N elderly gentleman, a merchant in Glasgow, took a young man into a nominal partnership, allowing him only the falary of a clerk. After a faithful fervice of feven years, he one day called him by name, faying, Mr, I have been confidering the nature of our articled agreement and bufinefs-accounts; the latter are confiderably increased fince our junction: your perfonal reputation is high in the world, and I have come to a refolution to reward your merits.Accept this fum, which is a fourth of our profits for feven years paft; it will make a little bank of your own. I fhall continue you a real partner on the fame terms with my laft, being perfuaded your good fenfe, honefty, and abilities, will make a proper ufe of my friendship.

Account

Account of an INFANT MUSICIAN. By Charles Burney, Doctor of Mufic. In a letter to Dr W. Hunter, Feb.9.1779. From the Phil. Tranf. vol. 69. part 1.

William Crotch was born at Norwich, July 5. 1775. His father, by trade a carpenter, having a paffion for mufic, of which however he had no knowledge, undertook to build an organ; on which, as foon as it would fpeak, he learned to play two or three common tunes, fuch as, "God fave great George our King;" Let Ambition fire thy Mind;" and "the Eafter hymn;" with which, and fuch chords as were pleafing to his ear, he fed to try the perfection of his inftru

ment.

About Christmas 1776, when the child was only a year and a half old, he difcoered a great inclination for mufic, by leaving even his food to attend to it when the organ was playing: and about Midfummer 1777, he would touch the keynote of his particular favourite tunes, in order to persuade his father to play them. Soon after this, as he was unable to name hefe tunes, he would play the two or tree firft notes of them, when he thought the key-note did not fufficiently explain which he wished to have played.

But, according to his mother, it seems have been in confequence of his haring heard the fuperior performance of Mrs Lulman, a mufical lady, who came to try his father's organ, and who not only played on it, but fung to her own accompaniment, that he first attempted to play a tune himself: for, the same e vening, after her departure, the child cried, and was fo peevish that his mother was wholly unable to appeafe him. At length, paffing through the diningToom, he fcreamed and struggled violently to go to the organ; in which when he was indulged, he eagerly beat down the keys with his little fifts, as other children ufually do after finding themfelves able to produce a noife, which pleafes them more than the artificial performance of real melody or harmony by

others.

The next day, however, being left, while his mother went out, in the dining-room with his brother, a youth of about fourteen years old, he would not let him reft till he blew the bellows of the organ, while he fat on his knee, and beat down the keys; at firft promifcuously; but prefently, with one hand, VOL. XLII.

he played enough of "God fave great George our King" to awaken the curio fity of his father; who being in a garret, ftairs to inform himself who was playing which was his workfhop, haftened down this tune on the organ. When he found

it was the child, he could hardly believe what he heard and faw. At this time he was exactly two years and three weeks old, as appears by a copy I have obtained of the register in the parish of St George's, Colgate, Norwich, figned by the Rev. Mr Tapps, Minifter.

When his mother returned, the father defired her to go up stairs with him, as he had fomething curious to fhew her. She obeyed; and was as much surprised as the father on hearing the child play the first part of "God fave great George our King." The next day he made himfelf mafter of the treble of the fecond part; and the day after he attempted the bafe, which he performed nearly correct in every particular.

In the beginning of November 1777, he played both the treble and bafe of "Let ambition fire thy mind."

Upon the parents relating this extraor dinary circumftance to fome of their neighbours, they laughed at it; and, regarding it as the effect of partial fondnefs for their child, advised them by no means to mention it, as fuch a marvellous account would only expofe them to ridicule. However, a few days after, Mr Crotch being ill, and unable to go out to work, Mr Paul, a mafter-weaver by whom he was employed, paffing accidentally by the door, and hearing the organ, fancied he had been deceived, and that Crotch had flayed at home in order to divert himself on his favourite inftrument. Fully prepoffeffed with this idea, he entered the houfe, and, fuddenly o pening the dining-room door, faw the child playing on the organ while his brother was blowing the bellows. Mr Paul thought the performance fo extraor dinary, that he immediately brought two or three of the neighbours to hear it; who propagating the news, a croud of near a hundred people came the next day to hear the young performer; and, on the following days, a ftill greater number flocked to the houfe from all quarters of the city; till, at length, the child's parents were forced to limit his exhibition to certain days and hours, in order to leffen his fatigue, and exempt themfelves from the inconvenience of conftant attendance on the curious multitude.

B

This

The firft voluntary he heard with attention was performed at his father's house by Mr Mully, a mufic-mafter; and as foon as he was gone, the child feeming to play on the organ in a wild and different manner from what his mother was accustomed to hear, she asked him what he was doing? And he replied, "I am playing the gentleman's fine thing." But he was unable to judge of the refemblance. However, when Mr Mully returned a few days after, and was afk ed, whether the child had remembered any of the paffages in his voluntary, he anfwered in the affirmative. This hap pened about the middle of November 1777, when he was only two years and four months old; and for a confiderable time after he would play nothing else but thefe paffages.

This account agrees in most particulars and perhaps the delicacy and acuteness with a letter I received from Norwich, of another sense, that of feeling, now diand of which the following is an extract. rect him to the keys, which he preffes "There is now in this city a mufical down, as he hardly ever looks at them. prodigy, which engages the converfation, and excites the wonder of every body. A boy, fon to a carpenter, of only two years and three quarters old, from hearing his father play on an organ which he is making, has difcovered fuch mufical powers as are scarcely credible. He plays à variety of tunes, and has from memory repeated fragments of feveral voluntaries which he heard Mr Garland, the organift, play at the cathedral. He has Jikewife accompanied a perfon who played upon the flute, not only with a treble, but has formed a base of his own, which to common hearers feems harmonious. If any perfon plays falfe, it throws him into a paffion directly; and though his little fingers can only reach a fixth, he often attempts to play chords. He does not feem a remarkably clever child in any other refpe&t; but his whole foul is abforbed in mufic. Numbers croud daily to hear him, and the mufical people are all amazement *."

The child being but two years and eight months old when this letter was written, his performance muft have appeared confiderably more wonderful than at prefent: for as he feems to have received scarce any inftructions, and to have purfued no regular course of study or practice fince that time, it can hardly be imagined that he is much improved. However, experience must have informed him what series or combination of founds was moft offenfive to his ear; but fuch is his impetuofity, that he never dwells long on any note or chord and indeed his performance muft originally have been as much under the guidance of the eye as the ear; for when his hand unfortunately falls upon wrong notes, the ear cannot judge till it is too late to correct the mistake. However, habit,

His father, who has lately been in London, and with whom I have converfed fince this account was drawn up, all the particuJars of which he has confirmed, told me, that when he first carried the child to the cathedral, he used to cry the inftant he heard the Joud organ, which, being fo much more powerful than that to which he had been accuftomed at home, he was fome time before he could bear without difcovering pain, occafioned, perhaps, by the extreme delicacy his ear, and the irritability of his nerves.

Such was the rapid progress this child had made at this time, in judging of the agreement of founds, that he played the Eafter hymn with full harmony; and in the laft two or three bars of Hallelujah, where the fame found is fuftained, he played chords with both hands, by which the parts were multiplied to fix; which he had great difficulty in reaching, on account of the fhortnefs of his fingers. In making a base to tunes which he had recently caught by his ear, whenever the harmony difpleafed him, he would continue the treble note till he had formed a better accompaniment.

From this period his memory was ve ry accurate in retaining any tune that pleafed him and being present at a concert where a band of gentlemen-performers played the overture in Rodelinda, he was fo delighted with the minuet, that the next morning he hummed part of it in bed; and by noon, without any further affiftance, played the whole on the organ.

voluntaries; which certainly would not His chief delight at prefent is in playing be called mufic, if performed by one of riper years, being deficient in harmony and meafure; but they manifest such a difcernment and selection of notes as is truly wonderful, and which, if fpontaneous, would furprife at any age. But though he executes fragments of common tunes in very good time, yet no adherence to any particular meafure is difcoverable

coverable in his voluntaries; nor have I ever obferved in any of them that he tried to play in triple time. If he difcovera a partiality for any particular mea fure, it is for dactyls of one long and two hort notes, which conftitute that fpecies of common time in which many treetmes are compofed; particularly the first part of the Belleifle March, which, perhaps, may first have fuggefted this meafure to him, and impreffed it in his memory. And his ear, though exquifitely formed for difcriminating founds, is as yet only captivated by vulgar and common melody, and is satisfied with very imperfect harmony. I examined his countenance when he first heard the voice of Signor Pacchierotti, the principal inger of the opera, but did not find that he feemed fenfible of the fuperior talte and refinement of that exquifite performer: however, he called out very foon after the air was begun, "He is finging

in F."

One of the aftonishing properties of his ear, is, that he can diftinguish at a great ditance from any inftrument, and out of fight of the keys, any note that is ftruck, whether A, B, C, &c. In this I have repeatedly tried him, and never found him miltaken even in the half-notes; a circunftance the more extraordinary, as many practitioners and good performers are unable to diftinguith by the ear at the opera, or elsewhere, in what key aby air or piece of music is executed.

laft he weakened the fprings of two keys at once, which, by preventing the valves of the wind cheft from clofing, occafioned a double cipher, both of which he direly found out. Any child, indeed, that is not an idiot, who knows blackfrom white, long from fhort, and can pronounce the letters of the alphabet by which mufical notes are called, may be taught the names of the keys of the harpfichord in five minutes; but, in general, five years would not be fufficient, at any age, to imprefs the mind of a musical student with an infallible reminifcence of the tones produced by these keys, when not allowed to look at them.

Another wonderful part of his prematurity, was the being able, at two years and four months old, to tranfpofe into the most extraneous and difficult keys whatever be played; and now, in his extemporaneous flights, he modulates into all keys with equal facility.

The laft qualification which I fhall point out as extraordinary in this infant mufician, is the being able to play an extemporary base to eafy melodies when performed by another perfon upon the fame inftrument. He generally gives the key-note to paffages formed from its common chord and its inverfions, and is quick at difcovering when the fifth of the key will serve as a base. At other times he makes the third of the key serve as an accompaniment to melodies formed from the harmony of the chord to the key-note; and if fimple paffages are played flow, in a regular progreffion afcending or defcending, he foon finds out, that thirds or tenths, below the treble, will ferve his purpose in furnishing an agreeable accompaniment.

But this child was able to find any note that was ftruck in his hearing, when out of fight of the keys, at two years and a half old, even before he knew the let ters of the alphabet: A circumftance fo extraordinary, that I was very curious, to know, when and in what manner this At prefent, all his own melodies are faculty first discovered itfelf; and his fa- imitations of common and eafy paffages, ther fays, that in the middle of January and he feems infenfible to others. Ex1778, while he was playing the organ, a ample is the only method by which fuch particular note hung, or, to fpeak the an infant can be taught; and if he were language of organ builders, ciphered, by to hear only good melody and har which the tone was continued without mony, he would doubtless try to produce the preffure of the finger: and though fomething fimilar: but at prefent he neither himself nor his elder fon could plays nothing correctly, and his volunfind out what note it was, the child, taries are little lefs wild than the native who was then amufing himself with draw notes of a lark or a blackbird. Nor does ing on the floor, left that employment, he, as yet, feem a fubject for inftruction; and going to the organ, immediately laid for till his reafon is fufficient matured his hand on the note that ciphered. Mr to comprehend and retain the precepts Crotch, thinking this the effect of chance, of a mafter, trammels of rule would bat the next day purpofely caufed feveral difguit, and, if forced upon him, destroy notes to cipher, one after the other; all the miraculous parts of his felf-taught which he inftantly difcovered; and at performance.

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