Of Sir Michael Costa it is certainly not too much to say that he was in his time the greatest choral conductor that England possessed. He was a born "leader of men," and if I had not formed this impression on my early visits to Exeter Hall, when he was directing the performances of the old Sacred Harmonic Society, I should assuredly have done so at my first Handel Festival in 1874, when he took command of the army of four thousand singers and instrumentalists who obeyed his ample beat with such marvelous rhythmic swing and precision. From the institution of the festival in 1857, Costa alone had trained and directed this army; and so universal was the idea that he alone was capable of keeping it under control, that when the announcement of his serious illness came, just before the festival of 1883, there was an expression of dismay on all sides. The musician who filled the breach happily proved to be in the end as good as his predecessor. Indeed, August Manns, the esteemed and talented conductor of the Crystal Palace Concerts, did much to improve the quality of his vast choir and to raise its level of efficiency and intelligence. Still, he would be the first to admit that the honor and glory of the most striking executive achievement known to music stands principally, if not exclusively, to the credit of Michael Costa, the man who created the machine and left it in perfect working order.