and a number of successful concerts were given.  The chief promoters seem to have been Count Krasinski and the two Prussian officials Mosqua and E. Th.  A. Hoffmann.  In the last named the reader will recognise the famous author of fantastic tales and of no less fantastic musical criticisms, the conductor and composer of operas and other works, &c.  According to his biographer, J. E. Hitzig, Hoffmann did not take much interest in the proceedings of the Musical Ressource (that was the name of the society) till it bought the Mniszech Palace, a large building, which, having been damaged by fire, had to undergo extensive repairs.  Then, indeed, he set to work with a will, planned the arrangement and fitting-up of the rooms, designed and partly painted the decorations—­not without freely indulging his disposition for caricature—­and when all was ready, on August 3, 1806 (the King of Prussia’s birthday), conducted the first concert in the splendid new hall.  The activity of the society was great, and must have been beneficial; for we read that they had every Sunday performances of quartets and other kinds of chamber music, that ladies frequently came forward with pianoforte sonatas, and that when the celebrated violinist Moser, of Berlin, visited Warsaw, he made them acquainted with the finest quartets of Mozart and Haydn.  Still, I should not have dwelt so long on the doings of the Musical Ressource were it not that it was the germ of, or at least gave the impulse to, even more influential associations and institutions that were subsequently founded with a view to the wider diffusion and better cultivation of the musical art in Poland.  After the battle of Jena the French were not long in making their appearance in Warsaw, whereby an end was put to Prussia’s rule there, and her officials were sent about, or rather sent out of, their business.  Thus the Musical Ressource lost many of its members, Hoffmann and Mosqua among others.  Still, it survived, and was reconstructed with more national elements.  In Frederick Augustus of Saxony’s reign it is said to have been transformed into a school of singing.

The year 1815 brought into existence two musical institutions that deserve to be noticed—­society for the cultivation of church music, which met at the College of the Pianists, and had at its head Count Zabiello as president and Elsner as conductor; and an association, organised by the last-named musician, and presided over by the Princess Sophia Zamoyska, which aimed at the advancement of the musical art in Poland, and provided for the education of music teachers for schools, organists for churches, and singers for the stage.  Although I try to do my best with the unsatisfactory and often contradictory newspaper reports and dictionary articles from which I have to draw my data, I cannot vouch for the literal correctness of my notes.  In making use of Sowinski’s work I am constantly reminded of Voltaire’s definition of dictionaries:  “Immenses archives de mensonges et d’un