he carried out in his system of ’Singing for the Million.’  He argued, that as children learn to speak before they can read or construct language grammatically, so they ought to be taught vocal music in such a way as to introduce the rules of harmony gradually, and prepare them for the manipulation of an instrument, if it is intended they should learn one; while for the great masses of both children and adults, the voice is the best and only instrument, and one that can be trained, with very few exceptions, to take part in choral, if not in solo singing, and at the same time be made a powerful and pleasing agent in moral culture.  On this subject, we shall quote Dr Mainzer’s own words, when speaking of the compositions introduced into his classes, he says:  ’Besides religious compositions, there are others, which refer to the Creator, by calling attention to the beauty and grandeur of his works.  Songs, shewing in a few touching lines the wondrous instinct of the sparrow, the ant, the bee, and cultivating a feeling of respect for all nature’s children.  Besides these, there are songs intended to promote social and domestic virtues—­order, cleanliness, humility, contentment, unity, temperance, etc.; thus impressing, not the letter of the law of charity on immature minds, but the spirit of it in the memory, and so identifying them with the very fibres of the heart.’

With such views and principles, Mainzer arrived in England, to propagate his humanising art; and London soon became the centre of a series of lectures and classes, held in the principal towns accessible by railway—­such as Brighton, Oxford, Reading, etc.  But this divided work was not satisfactory, and the national schools and popular field in London were preoccupied by Hullah, who had some time previously introduced Wilhem’s system, under the sanction of government.  There was room and to spare, however, for every system, and Mainzer wished every man good-speed who advanced the cause; but as a fresh field for his own exertions, after two years spent in England, he turned his thoughts towards Edinburgh, where he had been invited by requisition, and warmly received in 1842.

On his return to Scotland, he found his cause somewhat damaged in his absence, by the attempt of precentors to teach his system in congregational classes.  Unlike the church-organists of England, the Scotch precentors are not educated musicians—­a naturally good voice and ear is their only pre-requisite.  Dr Mainzer soon repaired this mistake in those congregations which invited his personal superintendence; and in one church (Free St Andrew’s) the good effects of his system are still to be heard, in a congregation forming their own choir, and singing in four parts.