COMMEMORATION BIRTHDAY CONCERT.--The programme you are preparing, after
the fashion set the other evening in St. James's Hall, at an
entertainment organised in honour of the birthday of the poet BURNS, for
the purpose of paying a similar tribute to the memory of his great
fellow-countryman, Sir WALTER SCOTT, certainly promises well. As you
very truly point out that, as at the Concert which you are taking as
your model, though the name of BURNS was tacked on to nearly every item
in the programme, as if he had been responsible for the words, music and
all, it did not seem limited to the Poet's work alone, you might
certainly allow yourself the latitude you propose in arranging your own
scheme. The fact that, at the Burns Celebration, M. NACHEZ played his
own Hungarian dances, the connection between which and the Poet's
birthday is not, at first sight, entirely obvious, and that another
gentleman, with equal appropriateness, favoured the company with "_The
Death of Nelson_," on the trombone, seems certainly to give you a
warrant for the introduction you contemplate making, in commemoration of
Sir WALTER, of the Chinese Chopstick Mazurka, and the Woora-woora
Cannibal Islanders side-knife and sledge-hammer war-dance. It may of
course be possible, in a remote way, to introduce them, as you suggest,
into _Old Mortality_, but we should think you would be nearer the mark
with that other item of your programme, that associates _Jem Baggs_ with
_The Lay of the Last Minstrel_. Your idea of accepting and utilising the
offer of the GIRALFI family to introduce their Drawing-room
Entertainment into your programme seems excellent, and has certainly as
much in common with the Birthday of Sir WALTER SCOTT as the "_Death of
Nelson_," on the trombone, has with that of the distinguished Novelist's
great brother Poet. There is no reason, as you further point out, why
you should not organise a whole Series of Commemorative Birthday
Entertainments, as you think of doing, on the same plan, and with
BEETHOVEN, MACAULAY, Dr. JOHNSON, and WARREN HASTINGS, the celebrities
you mention, to begin upon, you ought to have no difficulty in working
in the solo on the big drum, the performance of the Learned Hyæna, the
Japanese Twenty-feet Bayonet-jump, and the other equally appropriate
attractions with which you are already in communication. Anyhow, begin
with Sir WALTER SCOTT, following the St. James's Hall lead, and let us
hear how you get on.
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STRIKING WEDDING PRESENTS.--As you seem to think that a list of the
presents made to your young friends who are about to be married will in
all probability be published in some of the Society papers, "with the
names of the donors," we think, on the whole, we would advise you _not_
to give them, as you seem rather inclined to do, those three hundred
weight of cheap sardines of which you became possessed through a seizure
of your agents for arrears of rent. You might certainly present them
with the disabled omnibus horse that came into your hands on the same
occasion. Horses are sometimes given as wedding presents. There were
four down in a list of gifts at a fashionable marriage only last week.
But, of course, it would not suit your purpose to appear as the donor of
a "damaged" creature. We think, perhaps, it would be wiser to accept the
five pounds offered you through the veterinary surgeon you mention, and
lay out the money, as you suggest, in sixteen hundred Japanese fans. If
it falls through, and you find the horse still on your hands, there is
no need to mention its association with the omnibus. "Mr. JOHN
JOHNSON--a riding horse," doesn't read badly. We almost think this is
better than the fans. Think it over.
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