but neither the pain of his illness, nor the pleasure of his recovery, nor even the loved labours of his history, offered sufficient occupation for the insatiate activity of his mind. no sooner did he breathe again the breath of health, resume his daily business, and return to his nocturnal studies, than a project occurred to him of a new undertaking, which would have seemed to demand the whole time and undivided attention of almost any other man.
this was nothing less than to establish in england a seminary for the education of musical pupils of both sexes, upon a plan of which the idea should be borrowed, though the execution should almost wholly be new-modelled, from the conservatorios of naples and vienna.
as disappointment blighted this scheme just as it
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seemed maturing to fruition, it would be to little purpose to enter minutely into its details: and yet, as it is a striking feature of the fervour of dr. burney for the advancement of his art, it is not its failure, through the secret workings of undermining prejudice, that ought to induce his biographer to omit recounting so interesting an intention and attempt: and the less, as a plan, in many respects similar, has recently been put into execution, without any reference to the original projector.
the motives that suggested this undertaking to dr. burney, with the reasons by which they were influenced and supported, were to this effect.
in england, where more splendid rewards await the favourite votaries of musical excellence than in any other spot on the globe, there was no establishment of any sort for forming such artists as might satisfy the real connoisseur in music; and save english talent from the mortification, and the british purse from the depredations, of seeking a constant annual supply of genius and merit from foreign shores.
an institution, therefore, of this character seemed wanting to the state, for national economy; and to the people, for national encouragement.
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such was the enlarged view which dr. burney, while yet in italy, had taken of such a plan for his own country.
the difficulty of collecting proper subjects to form its members, caused great diversity of opinion and of proposition amongst the advisers with whom dr. burney consulted.
it was peculiarly necessary, that these young disciples should be free from every sort of contamination, mental or corporeal, upon entering this musical asylum, that they might spread no dangerous contagion of either sort; but be brought up to the practice of the art, with all its delightful powers of pleasing, chastened from their abuse.
with such a perspective, to take promiscuously the children of the poor, merely where they had an ear for music, or a voice for song, would be running the risk of gathering together a mixed little multitude, which, from intermingling inherent vulgarity, hereditary diseases, or vicious propensities, with the finer qualities requisite for admission, might render the cultivation of their youthful talents, a danger—if not a curse—to the country.
yet, the length of time that might be required for selecting little subjects, of this unadulterate description,
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from different quarters; with the next to impossibility of tracing, with any certainty, what might have been their real conduct in times past; or what might be their principles to give any basis of security for the time to come; caused a perplexity of the most serious species: for should a single one of the tribe go astray, the popular cry against teaching the arts to the poor, would stamp the whole little community with a stain indelible; and the institution itself might be branded with infamy.
what, abstractedly, was desirable, was to try this experiment upon youthful beings to whom the world was utterly unknown; and who not only in innocence had breathed their infantine lives, but in complete and unsuspicious ignorance of evil.
requisites so hard to obtain, and a dilemma so intricate to unravel, led the doctor to think of the foundling hospital; in the neighbourhood of which, in queen-square, stood his present dwelling.
he communicated, therefore, his project, to sir charles whitworth, the governor of the hospital.
sir charles thought it proper, feasible, desirable, and patriotic.
the doctor, thus seconded, drew up a plan for
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forming a musical conservatorio in the metropolis of england, and in the bosom of the foundling hospital.
the intention was to collect from the whole little corps all who had musical ears, or tuneful voices, to be brought up scientifically, as instrumental or vocal performers.
those of the group who gave no decided promise of such qualifications, were to go on with their ordinary education, and to abide by its ordinary result, according to the original regulations of the charity.
a meeting of the governors and directors was convened by their chief, sir charles whitworth, for announcing this scheme.
the plan was heard with general approbation; but the discussions to which it gave rise were discursive and perplexing.
it was objected, that music was an art of luxury, by no means requisite to life, or accessary to morality.
these children were all meant to be educated as plain, but essential members of the general community. they were to be trained up to useful purposes, with a singleness that would ward off all ambition for what was higher; and teach them to
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repay the benefit of their support by cheerful labour. to stimulate them to superior views might mar the religious object of the charity; which was to nullify rather than extinguish, all disposition to pride, vice, or voluptuousness; such as, probably, had demoralized their culpable parents, and thrown these deserted outcasts upon the mercy of the foundling hospital.
this representation, the doctor acknowledged, would be unanswerable, if it were decided to be right, and if it were judged to be possible, wholly to extirpate the art of music in the british empire: or, if the foundling hospital were to be considered as a seminary; predestined to menial servitude; and as the only institution of the country where the members were to form a caste, from whose rules and plodden ways no genius could ever emerge.
but such a fiat could never be issued by john bull; nor so flat a stamp be struck upon any portion of his countrymen. john bull was at once too liberal and too proud, to seek to adopt the tame ordinances of the immutable hindoos; with whom ages pass unmarked; generations unchanged; the poor never richer; the simple never wiser; and with whom, family by family, and trade by trade, begin,
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continue, and terminate, their monotonous existence, by the same pre-determined course, and to the same invariable destiny.
these children, the doctor answered, are all orphans; they are taken from no family, for by none are they owned; they are drawn from no calling, for to none are they specifically bred. they are all brought up to menial offices, though they are all instructed in reading and writing, and the females in needle-work; but they are all, systematically and indiscriminately, destined to be servants or apprentices, at the age of fifteen; from which period, all their hold upon the benevolent institution to which they are indebted for their infantine rescue from perishing cold and starving want, with their subsequent maintenance and tuition, is rotatorily transferred to new-born claimants; for the hospital, then, has fulfilled its engagements; and the children must go forth to the world, whether to their benefit or their disgrace.
were it not better, then, when there are subjects who are success-inviting, to bestow upon them professional improvement, with virtuous education? since, as long as operas, concerts, and theatres, are licensed by government, musical performers, vocal
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and instrumental, will inevitably be wanted, employed, and remunerated. and every state is surely best served, and the people of every country are surely the most encouraged, when the nation suffices for itself, and no foreign aid is necessarily called in, to share either the fame or the emoluments of public performances.
stop, then; prohibit, proscribe—if it be possible,—all taste for foreign refinements, and for the exquisite finishing of foreign melody and harmony; or establish a school on our own soil, in which, as in painting and in sculpture, the foreign perfection of arts may be taught, transplanted, and culled, till they become indigenous.
and where, if not here, may subjects be found on whom such a national trial may be made with the least danger of injury? subjects who have been brought up with a strictness of regular habits that has warded them from all previous mischief; yet who are too helpless and ignorant, as well as poor, to be able to develop whether or not nature, in her secret workings, has kindled within their unconscious bosoms, a spark, a single spark of harmonic fire, that might light them, from being hewers of wood, and brushers of spiders, to those regions
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of vocal and instrumental excellence, that might propitiate the project of drawing from our own culture a school for music, of which the students, under proper moral and religious tutelage, might, in time, supersede the foreign auxiliaries by whom they are now utterly extinguished.
the objectors were charged, also, to weigh well that there was no law, or regulation, and no means whatsoever, that could prevent any of this little association from becoming singers and players, if they had musical powers, and such should be their wish: though, if self-thrown into that walk, singers and players only at the lowest theatres, or at the tea and cake public-gardens; or even in the streets, as fiddlers of country dances, or as ballad squallers: in which degraded exercise of their untaught endowments, not only decent life must necessarily be abandoned, but immorality, licentiousness, and riot, must assimilate with, or, rather, form a prominent part of their exhibitions and performances.
here the discussion closed. the opponents were silenced, if not convinced, and the trial of the project was decreed.
the hardly-fought battle over, victory, waving her gay banners, that wafted to the doctor hopes of
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future renown with present benediction, determined him, for the moment, to relinquish even his history, that he might devote every voluntary thought to consolidating this scheme.
the primary object of his consideration, because the most conscientious, was the preservation of the morals, and fair conduct of the pupils. and here, the exemplary character, and the purity of the principles of dr. burney, would have shone forth to national advantage, had the expected prosperity of his design brought his meditated regulations into practice.
vain would it be to attempt, and useless, if not vain, to describe his indignant consternation, when, while in the full occupation of these arrangements, a letter arrived to him from sir charles whitworth, to make known, with great regret, that the undertaking was suddenly overthrown. the enemies to the attempt, who had seemed quashed, had merely lurked in ambush, to watch for an unsuspected moment to convene a partial committee; in which they voted out the scheme, as an innovation upon the original purpose of the institution; and pleading, also, an old act of parliament against its adoption, they solemnly proscribed it for ever.
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yet a repeal of that act had been fully intended before the plan, which, hitherto, had only been agitating and negotiating, should have been put into execution.
all of choice, however, and all of respect, that remained for dr. burney, consisted in a personal offer from sir charles whitworth, to re-assemble an opposing meeting amongst those friends who, previously, had carried the day.
but happy as the doctor would have been to have gained, with the honour of general approbation, a point he had elaborately studied to clear from mystifying objections, and to render desirable, even to patriotism; his pride was justly hurt by so abrupt a defalcation; and he would neither with open hostility, nor under any versatile contest, become the founder, or chief, of so important an enterprize.
he gave up, therefore, the attempt, without further struggle; simply recommending to the mature reflections of the members of the last committee, whether it were not more pious, as well as more rational, to endeavour to ameliorate the character and lives of practical musical noviciates, than to behold the nation, in its highest classes, cherish the art, follow it, embellish it with riches, and make it
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fashion and pleasure—while, to train to that art, with whatever precautions, its appropriate votaries from the bosom of our own country, seemed to call for opposition, and to deserve condemnation.
thus died, in its birth, this interesting project, which, but for this brief sketch, might never have been known to have brightened the mind, as one of the projects, or to have mortified it, as one of the failures, of the active and useful life of dr. burney.
