Japan are also increasing. Berlin is growing in importance as a money market and centre of industrial undertakings. The Berlin Cassenverein, through which the banking houses transact their business, passed 1,351,988,967 sterling through its books in 1872, as compared with 644,431,255 sterling in 1871. In 1872, 23 new banking establish ments were enrolled in the trade register, with a capital of 7,565,000 sterling; and in the same year 144 new joint-stock companies were enrolled, representing a capital of 18,000,000 sterling. Since that time the tide of enterprise has ebbed, but the majority of these under
takings continue to exist.In the progress of its growth Berlin has lost much of its original character. The numerical relations of class to class have been greatly modified. New political institutions have sprung into existence, of which the Berlin of the early years of Frederick William IV. had not a trace. It has become the seat of a parliament of the realm, and of a parliament of the empire. Manufacture and trade have come to absorb 70 per cent, of the entire population. But these have also changed their character ; old branches which constituted a marked feature of its commercial and manufacturing activity have almost suddenly died out, while new branches have with equal rapidity more than supplied their place. While the commercial and manufacturing element has thus increased, other elements have undergone a relative decline. The learned professions and the civil service numbered in 1867 7.9 per cent. of the population. In 1871 the proportion had sunk to 6.ll, and since then the percentage has gone on decreasing. In this altered state of affairs Berlin will have to cherish and nurture the scientific, educational, ethical, and religious elements in her life with double care, not only to keep up her old reputation abroad, but also for the purpose of pre venting the degeneration of her people at home.
Sources of information:—Yon Kloden, Handbuch der Lander- und Staatenkunde von Europa ; Daniel, Handbuch der Geographic, vol. iv.; Fidiei.i, Historisch- Diplomat! sche Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin, 5 vols. ; Kb pke, .Die Griindung der Fred. Wilhelm Universitat zu Berlin ; Wiese, Das Hijkere Schidwesen in Preussen, 3 vols. Das Statistische Jahrbuch von Berlin, 1867 to 1874. Dr H. Schwabe, Residtate der Volkszahlung und Volksbcschreibuny vom l ten December 1871, Berlin, Simion.
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BERLIOZ, Hector, by far the most original composer of modern France, was born in 1803 at Cote-Saint-Andre", a small town near Grenoble, in the department of Isere. His father was a physician of repute, and by his desire our composer for some time devoted himself to the study of the same profession. At the same time he had music lessons, and, in secret, perused numerous theoretical works on coun terpoint and harmony, with little profit it seems, till the hearing and subsequent careful analysis of one of Haydn s quartets opened a new vista to his unguided aspirations. A similar work written by Berlioz in imitation of Haydn s masterpiece was favourably received by his friends. From Paris, where he had been sent to complete his medical studies, he at last made known to his father the unalter able decision of devoting himself entirely to art, the answer to which confession was the withdrawal of all further pecuniary assistance. In order to s ipport life Berlioz had to accept the humble engagement of a singer in the chorus of the Gymnase theatre. Soon, however, he became recon ciled to his father and entered the Conservatoire, where he studied composition under Reicha and Lesueur. His first important composition was an opera called Les Franc.s- Juges, of which, however, only the overture remains extant. In 1825 he left the Conservatoire, disgusted, it is said, at the dry pedantry of the professors, and began a course of autodidactic education, founded chiefly on the works of Beethoven, Gluck, Weber, and other German masters. About this period Berlioz saw for the first time on the stage the talented Irish actress Miss Smithson, who was then charming Paris by her impersonations of Ophelia, Juliet, and other Shakespearean characters. The young enthusiastic composer became deeply enamoured of her at first sight, and tried, for a long time in vain, to gain the responsive love or even the attention of his idol. To an incident of this wild and persevering courtship Berlioz s first symphonic work, Episode de la Vie d un Artiste, owes its origin. It describes the dreams of an artist who, under the influence of opium, imagines that he has killed his mistress, and in his vision witnesses his own execution. It is replete with the spirit of contem porary French romanticism and of self-destructive Byronic despair. A written programme is added to each of the five movements to expound the imaginative material on which the music is founded. By the advice of his friends Berlioz once more entered the Conservatoire, where, after several unsuccessful attempts, his cantata Sardanapalus (1830) gained him the first prize for foreign travel, in spite of the strong personal antagonism of one of the umpires. During a stay in Italy Berlioz composed an overture to King Lear, and Le lietour d, la Vie, a sort of symphony, with intervening poetical declamation between the single movements, called by the composer a melologue, and written in continuation of the Episode de la Vie d un Artiste, along with which work it was performed at the Paris Conservatoire in 1832. Paganini on that occasion spoke to Berlioz the memorable words : "Vous commencez par ou les autres ont fini." Miss Smithson, who also was present on the occasion, soon afterwards consented to become the wife of her ardent lover. The artistic success achieved on that occasion did not prove to be of a lasting kind. Berlioz s music was too far remote from the cur rent of popular taste to be much admired beyond a small circle of esoteric worshippers. It is true that his name became known as that of a gifted though eccentric com poser ; he also received in the course of time his due share of the distinctions generally awarded to artistic merit, such as the ribbon of the Legion of Honour and the member ship of the Institute. But these distinctions he owed, perhaps, less to a genuine admiration of his compositions than to his influential position as the musical critic of the Journal des Dcbats (a position which he never used or abused to push his own works), and to his successes abroad. In 1842 Berlioz went for the first time to Germany, where he was hailed with welcome by the leading musicians of the younger generation, Robert Schumann foremost amongst them. The latter paved the way for the French composer s success, by a comprehensive analysis of the Episode in his musical journal, the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik. Berlioz gave successful concerts at Leipsic and other German cities, and repeated his visit on various later occasions in 1852, by invitation of Liszt, to conduct his opera, Ben- venuto Cellini (hissed off the stage in Paris), at Weimar ; and in 1855 to produce his oratorio-trilogy, L Enfance du Christ, in the same city. This latter work had been pre viously performed at Paris, where Berlioz mystified the critics by pretending to have found one part of it, the " Flight into Egypt," amongst the manuscript scores of a composer of the 17th century, Pierre Ducre" by name. Berlioz also made journeys to Vienna (1866) and St Petersburg (1867), where his works were received with great enthusiasm. He died in Paris, March 9, 1869.
Berlioz has justly been described as the French representative of musical Romanticism, and his works are in this respect closely con nected with the contemporary movement in literature known by that name. The affinity between him and Victor Hugo, for in stance, is undeniable, and must be looked for deeper than in the fantastic eccentricities and breaches of the established form common
