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( Bntapan Wtmntan}.
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Specimens of that elegant instrument , the Concertina , are exhibited by Messrs . Wheatstone , the original inventors . The concertina possesses an extraordinary combination of qualities . For the most expressive performance and the utmost rapidity of execution it is equally adapted . Asa solo instrument , accompanied by the pianoforte , it is singularl y dulcet in tone , while in two , three , or four part harmony it has the richness of a fine
swell on the organ . The exquisite reedy quality renders it a beautiful accompaniment for the voice , particularly in glees and quartettes . The latest instrument produced by Messrs . Wheatstone , possesses a complete chromatic scale and additional notes for making the chords in different keys perfect and harmonious . Some elegant Concertinas—one m ivory , with gold stops—are exhibited by Mr . Rock Chidley ; and a Concertina of three octaves and a half compass , by Mr . Case of New Bond-street .
Mr . Ward has proved that a " solo on the drum " is no longer chimerical . The Drums exhibited by him are not only beautiful-looking instruments , but their quality of tone is unapproachable . The tone of these drums may also be set to any note or pitch within the range of a full octave , with such celerity and precision as to admit the performance of a melody . Before the Philharmonic Society " God save the Queen" was performed on a single drum , one of those , we believe , now exhibited . Nothing can possibly show more than this the facility of tuning ; indeed the adjusting of the pitch
is instantaneous . A very fine collection of brass musical instruments is exhibited by Messrs . Koenig and Pask . A singular invention , by Signor Anelli , is a centripetal peg and pin , which cannot draw nor give way . By this invention all kinds of stringed instruments can be tuned and regulated gradually in all their divisions , in less than half the time usually required , and without the slightest
" give , " whatever the strain may be . The importance of this invention , if it effect all it proposes , is incalculable , overcoming , as it does , one of the greatest difficulties in pianoforte manufacture . Signor Anelli also exhibits a spring " Capo Tasto , " which , attached to the head « f the guitar , changes at once the diapason of the strings , so that the performer may play in all keys without altering the position of the hand or fingers .
Turning into the foreign department , we have from France a Piano Organ , by H . Herz , and a singular application of the barrel organ to the pianoforte , by M . Debain . The latter produces pieces of any calibre , by mechanical execution . The precision and expression thrown into this automaton are really wonderful . The most * interesting instrument , however , is the new organ exhibited by MM . A . and JM . Ducci , of Florence . It is the most powerful instrument in a small compass we have yet seen . The stops are : —Principal , octave , quinzieme ,
dix-neuvieme , vingt-deuxictne , Trompette dc hint pieds . The quality of this combination is surprisingly full and piercing , and such as astonishes all who hear it . The instrument is prettily ornamented , and stands about eight feet in height , five feet long , and three feet deep . J 5 ut the most remarkable feature of thin instrument is its twelve pedals , the notes of which are all obtained from one pipe contained in the seat of the performer . From this pipe in obtained a sixteen-feet sound , and all the gradations of twelve semitones . The manner in which every note
responds is truly surprising . MM . Ducci have lately made another" seat " containing a pipe which gives a thirty-two feet sound . The saving of this invention , in room and expense , is enormous . The whole range of the wood pipes of a pedal organ may be thus reduced to one pipe . We apprehend the principle is that of the llute , the holes being left open down the pipe , and the pedals acting upon and stopping them . The manual is composed of fifty-four keys . This invention exhibits not only a perfect knowledge of mechanics , but a practical acquaintance with the laws of acoustics , results
which may lead to even greater . Among the greatest advantageH of this organ is its portability , and this extends to the . internal mechanism , which in so constructed that the instrument will bear transmission from place to place without any chance of becoming out of order . We never saw a more satisfactory instrument , and we trust our manufacturers will not miller it to depart from this country , without making themselves thoroughly acquainted with the principle upon which the pedal tone is produced , and that , having given it a fitir trial , no unworthy prejudice will prevent its adoption .
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We have already , in this part of our paper , spoken of Italy , Germany , and Poland ; let us now advert to a country which is as much separated from the rest of Europe , as if by a Chinese wall ; for though neither stone , bricks , nor other such materials are used in its construction , but in lieu thereof hordes of Cossacks , custom-officers , and myriads of spies , it is not less impenetrable . Owing to the just mentioned myrmidons , we know less of that country than we do of China , especially of the political and social condition of its People , and of the aspirations and tendencies of that People to another state of things . We , of course , allude to
BtTSSIA . Whilst some people believe that the mere name of Russia is sufficient to frighten away every thought of Democracy out of the notion of that vast empire , believing , as in the Gospel , in the strength of the Russian army , and in the inexhaustibility of its treasures , others have fished up the phrase that Russia " is but a colossus standing upon legs of clay " hence thinking themselves entitled to ridicule her " pretended " power . But we , thinking both those parties in error , and that this enemy ought neither to be despised nor feared , will endeavour to furnish our readers with a true view of the condition of that empire .
In the first instance , we think no army in the world easier to be demoralized than the Russian one . The principal cause is the frightful mode of levying recruits , the evil of which mode extends itself even to the veterans . As soon as the ukase for the levying of so many thousands from this or that government ( province ) is issued , a series of violences and treacheries , of fraud and bribery , connected with the recruitment , begins . The arbitrarily selected victims are overtaken at night ; the wife is suddenly deprived of her husband , the blind mother of her children ; the son is wrested from the arms of his helpless decrepit father , frequently only because this son has a
handsome wife , or may have offended the steward of the manor . The front part of his hair is shaven , and a heavy block of wood , called deeby , encumbers one of his feet ; and from that moment he becomes the property of the Autocrat . But the community of the village from which lie was taken call him the property of death , and accompany him to a certain distance with bitter groanings and funeral lamentations , taking leave of him for ever ; and they are right in so doing , for the mortality of the recruits is fearful , averaging about ten per cent . ; and , indeed , how can it be otherwise when the poor creature , his limbs scarcely covered , his hair shaven , is obliged to drag a burden
at his foot , half starved , for thousands of miles ere he can reach ihe garrison of his regiment , where he is to receive a salaiy amounting to 12 s . 2 d . per annum , only payable every four months ; and where his food will consist of half a pound of meat per week , with which he is regaled on a Sunday , whilst on the other days nothing but thin sour krout , with potatoes , and some coarse bread resembling peat , is given to him . Eut he is even robbed out . ot that pittance by his superiors , more espeeiiilly by the colonel , who is always the greatest rogue and thief of the regiment , but who sets his conscience nt rest by remembering the ltussian proverb— " There is no thief where
everybody steals . Add to his misery that of every dny s drilling und exercise , and you will acquire a faint idea of his position . This Htttte of things compels him , if he does not wish to die from starvation , to stealnay , he is even commanded by his captain to commit theft , the booty to be given to the latter , out of which the poor fellow gets a trifle not worth mentioning ; but woe unto him if he be cauglit in the act ; for though ordered by the captain to do so , be is Hogged inst unmercifully . If a soldier ia taken ill , and enters a military hospital , it is only to his strong constitution that he is indebted to bis ever leaving it alive , certainly not to the curative means administered , for the Hanitary officers derive enormous riches from the defraudation of the funds assigned for the purchase of medicines and dietetics . Lot us quote an
illustration . The regulations of the military hospitals prescribe for the patients of the fever ward leinonadu for their UHiial beverage ; but it is never given to them ; only when the director of the hospital expects a visit from the inspector , and that is extremely rare , ho tben ( the director ) takes the hull of « lemon , enters the wurd , and orders every one of the « ick Holdiero to lick it . The inspector upon entering the ward nt » kH every one individually : — " (' oonhtdl tee lenwnt " ( Hast thou partaken of lemon or of lemonade ?)—and an the very genius of thoir tongue connpires , ns if it were , against tbo poor wretches ( for the lluHirinn language has but one name for both ; and coos / ulU means either ate , drunk , or linked ) ; they , of courac , each and ull answer alliriuAtirely #
It will not be irrelevant here to inform our readers that in Russia a lemon costs about sixpence , and that thus the director of the hospital pockets a goodly number of that small coin . Thus having passed through , his noviciate the Russian soldier comes for three years to Poland ; an < J . despite the strictest surveillance , despite the most frightful punishment , he leaves that countrv "infected" "with democratic ideas . As to the regiments of the guard , the Tsar himself undertakes their democratic education by inflicting maddening torments upon them . Hence , the Tsar on the one side , with has dreadful system of torture , and Poland on the o'her , form , so to say , Democratic universities , both , for officers and private soldiers ; and the Poles well knew what they were about , when in 1831 they inscribed on their flags : — "For our and your Liberty ! "
We shall not speak here of the first fraternization between the two nations , by the conjoint conspiracy of 1823 , in consequence of which , in the year 1826 , besides the five Russian Republicans , members of the first families , Pestel , Bestuzeff , Reeleieff , Kakhofskoi , and Mooravieff ( who died on the scaffold for t he idea of constituting Russia , Poland , Hungary , Bohemia , Moravia , Dalmatia , Croatia , and Serbia , into a Great Sclavonic Federative Republic ) , several hundreds , both
Russians and Poles , were sent to Siberia ; but we will advert to the years 1838 and 1839 , when several Russian commissioned officers at Vilna conspired to rescue Simon Konarski , the Democratic emissary of young Poland . The plot of the conspiracy was betrayed , and the just-named martyr was shot ; but the name of Captain Koravaieff , who was executed as the head of the conspiracy , is still pronounced with the utmost veneration amongst his countrymen .
All the commissioned officers up to the captains in regiments of the Line and in the Artillery , are animated by liberal ideas ; but those in the regiments of the Life Guard and of Cavalry , have been degraded to mere materialists and machines , by the corrupting system introduced into the colleges of the cadets . The dreadful misery in which the Russian soldier is plunged , and which , we have but faintly portrayed , is the cause he so ardently longs for his parental hearths—why he so reluctantly goes to war—and why he in time of war goes so readily over to kindred nations , and in that of peace deserts when he can . At the insurrection of 1846 in Cracow , the Russians were inclined to join the insurgents , and in 1848 , numbers of deserters came to Cracow , took part in the struggleand even at Breslau a strong battalion
, of them could have been organized . But , alas I the insurrection did not extend itself sufficiently to bring about the demoralization , or rather the moralization , of the Russian army . And how many of them fled to Prussia during the few months the cartel for the exchange of deserters was withdrawn ! An anecdote of that period will best illustrate that fact . A Russian sergeant-major was sent to a Prussian place near the frontier , there to claim the delivery of twenty deserters . The Prussian functionary , of course , refused ; the sergeant-major endeavoured to intimidate him with the Tirath of the Tsar ; but when even such a threat proved ineffective , and the Russian noncommissioned officer thus acquired the certainty that there was no hope , or rather no fear of their being given up , he said :- " If that is the case , I shall
likewise remain here . ' But to return . After tAventy-two years * of tho utmost misery the dismissed soldier returns to ins commune , without , however , becoming a » cc man , he is merely " furloughed for an . unlimited time , ana can again be called upon in case of emergency . J > ut in the meantime the position of such a man is an entirely exceptional one ; be belongs to the Itor , without the latter contributing a farthing toward " bis subsistence ; but he is neither subject to Ins landowner nor liable to his jurisdiction . Ho avails himinfluence
self of this exceptional position to gain some over bis brethren , the peasants ; he is the preacher o discontent and spreads the revolutionary seed on w fertile soil of Russian serfdom . Those furlougl" - ' " men are tho most active ringleaders ot the eontm «» rebellions of the peasants , of which we shall spwnt hereafter ; for whilst these " rebels " formerly ; fougM without order or tactics , burning and kull . K around them , it was noticed during the rebellions * the governments of Simbir . sk , Saratoff , 1 » " > » V that the pennants bad a centre , a van , and roar gu * and that they , generally BpenkiiiK , lougM
militarily . From tho poldier let us now pass to the . lluSB "" people in general , of whom the other » IlU () I 1 H ' y Poles exempted , have either no idea at all ,
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This page is accorded to an authentic Exposition of the Opinions and Acts of the Democracy cf Europe : as such we , do not impose any restraint on the utterance of opinion , and , therefore , limit our own responsibility to the authenticity of the statement .
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* According to the Collection of Military 1 1 * 9 * « ff ' vol . vi . $ 2 < J 1 , the military Hervico n . rjjj < * ^ follows : l « l '« r individual- « nh * ed ... he Ou r £ ^ yearn ; for those who are incorporated in the . w learn In tirnn of i . rucc . however , tho «« P" " /[ £ . [ ot Shortened :-For tV HC . ldierH of tho Uunrd to 1 " , thoio of the Lin . to 22 years ; but for th » reman » ng J d tliey only obtain an unlimited furlough , and art « to rejoin thoir regiments at the ( irnt notice , Bh * " j .: tarT go through ou « e a year during thoir furloug h mil" * J exercinen . "
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974 &t ) C ftttlilV ** [ Saturday , - - — ———————j . ^ ^ ^ ^ _ J _^^_^__ . . ^
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1851, page 974, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1904/page/18/
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