A short time before her death—not more than six weeks—a complete edition of her Poetical Works was published in London, in a very large and compact volume of 850 pages, by the Longmans—"with many corrections and a few additions by herself." The volume opens with the Plays on the Passions. We have then the miscellaneous plays; and the last division includes her delightful songs and all her poetical compositions not dramatic nor connected with the plays; and here appears a poem of some length, recently printed for private circulation, as well as some short poems not before published. A pleasing and characteristic portrait accompanies the volume, and we have had it copied for the International.
Though Miss Baillie's fame always tended to draw her into society, her life was passed in seclusion, and illustrated by an integrity, kindness, and active benevolence, which showed that poetical genius of a high order may be found in a mind well regulated, able and willing to execute the ordinary duties of life in an exemplary manner. Gentle and unassuming to all, with an unchangeable simplicity of character, she counted many of the most celebrated persons of the last age among her intimate friends, and her quiet home was frequently resorted to by people of other nations, as well as by her own countrymen, for the purpose of paying homage to a woman so illustrious for genius and virtue.
Spontini, the celebrated composer, author of La Vestale and Fernand Cortez, died on the 24th ult., at Majolati, near Ancona, where he had gone to pass the winter, in the hope of re-establishing his health. Being desirous of attending divine service, in spite of the severity of the season, he took cold on leaving the church, which in a short time led to a fatal result. He expired in the arms of his wife, the sister of M. Erard, the celebrated pianist. He was in the seventy-second year of his age. The life of this unfortunate Maestro, says the Athenæum, would be a curious rather than a pleasing story, were it thoroughly written. He was educated at the Conservatorio de la Pietà of Naples, and began his career when seventeen years of age, as the composer of an opera, I Puntigli delle Donne. To this succeeded some sixteen operas, produced within six years, for the theatres of Italy and Sicily, not a note of which has survived. In 1803, Spontini went to Paris, in which capital again he produced some half-a-dozen operas and an oratorio,—all of which have perished. It would seem, however, as if there must have been something of grace in either Maestro or music, since Spontini was appointed music-director to the Empress Josephine; and it was owing to court interest that his La Vestale—on a libretto rejected by both Mehal and Cherubini—was put into rehearsal at the Grand Opéra. The rehearsals went on for a twelvemonth. Spontini rewrote and re-touched the work while it was in preparation to such an excess, that the expense of copying the alterations is said to have amounted to ten thousand francs ($2,000)! La Vestale, however, was at last produced, in 1809, with brilliant and decisive success, so far as France and Germany were concerned. In 1809 he produced his Fernand Cortez at the Grand Opéra. That work, too, was favorably received, and still keeps the stage in Germany. In no subsequent essay was the composer so fortunate. Olympie, the third grand work written by him for France, proved a failure. During the latter part of his residence in Paris, he directed the Italian Opera, until it fell to Madame Catalani. It was in 1820 that the magnificent appointments offered to the Maestro by the Court of Prussia tempted him to leave Paris for Berlin; in which capital his last three grand operas were produced with great splendor. These were, Nourmahal (founded on 'Lalla Rookh), Alcidor, and Agnes von Hohenstauffen. None of them, however, could be called successful. In Berlin, Spontini continued to reside as first Chapel-master till the death of the late King,—and there his professional career may be said to have ended. A life in some respects more outwardly prosperous cannot be conceived. Spontini was rich,—girt with ribbons and hung with orders;—but it may be doubted whether ever official grew old in the midst of such an atmosphere of dislike as surrounded the composer of La Vestale at Berlin. He was mercilessly attacked in print,—in private spoken of by rival musicians with an active hatred amounting to malignity. There was hardly a baseness of intrigue with which report did not credit him. His music, even, was avoided in his own theatre; and it was an article in the contract of more than one prima donna, that she would not sing in Spontini's operas. Of later years, he rarely was seen in the orchestra save to direct his own works. In this capacity he showed a vivacity, a precision, and an energy almost incomparable. As a man, he had the courtliest of courtly manners; the air, too, of one well satisfied with his own personal appearance. He conversed chiefly concerning himself and his works, apparently taking little or no interest in other transactions of art. This might account for his ill odor in a capital where misconstructions and jealous evil-speaking have too often been the lot of the simplest, the most learned, and the least self-asserting of artists. The limited nature of his sympathies may be felt in Spontini's music. With all its spirit, this is generally dry—awkward without the excuse of learned pedantry—sometimes grand, very seldom tender—the rhythm more decided than the melody, which is often frivolous, often flat, rarely vocal. He has been accused of shallowness in the orchestral treatment of his operas,—in which noise is often accumulated to conceal want of resource. But allowing all these objections to be generally true to the utmost, the finale to the second act of La Vestale still remains—and will remain—a master-piece of declamation, spirit, and stage climax. The rest of La Vestale is carefully wrought,—but in power, and brightness, and passion, by many a degree inferior to that temple-scene. For its sake, the name of Spontini will not be forgotten, unsatisfactory as was his career in Art, and small as was his personal popularity.
Charles Coquerell, a brother of the eminent Protestant minister, and himself well known and esteemed in the scientific circles of Paris, died in that city, early in February. He long reported the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences for the Courrier Français; and is the author, besides, of various works in general literature. He wrote a History of English Literature—Caritéas, an Essay on a complete Spiritualist Philosophy—and The History of the Churches of the Desert, or of the Protestant Churches of France from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Reign of Louis the XVI. In this last performance he introduces the substance of a mass of private and official correspondence from Louis XIV.'s time down to the revolution, relative to Protestantism in France, and the numberless and atrocious persecutions to which it was subjected. Many of the papers he obtained are of great literary and historical value, and he has taken measures for their preservation.
Colonel George Williams, M. P. for Ashton, died on the nineteenth of December. He was born in St. John's Newfoundland, and is said to have joined the army of Burgoyne at the age of twelve years, and to have been present at the battle of Stillwater. He afterwards accompanied Lady Harriet Acland on her memorable expedition to join her husband in captivity. He afterwards saw much active service, and died aged eighty-seven, supposed to have been the last survivor of the army of Saratoga.
Herr Charles Matthew Sander, described as one of the most celebrated surgeons of Germany, and author of many works not only in illustration of his more immediate profession and of medicine, but also on Greek phiology and archæology, died suddenly, at Brunswick, in his seventy-second year, while seated at his desk in the act of writing a treatise on anatomy.