It was in this year that the terrors of the Franco-Prussian War, to which we have already alluded, drove to London large numbers of refugees, many of them celebrities connected with the leading musical and dramatic institutions of Paris. It was a golden opportunity for music-lovers. At Covent Garden there were Adelina Patti, Lucca, Scalchi, Tamberlik, Mario, Bettini, Faure, Cotogni, Tagliafico; at Her Majesty's, Christine Nillson, Tietjens, Trebelli, Marimon, Ilma di Murska, Mongini, Gardoni, Capoul, Wachtel, Agnesi, Rota, Santley, Foli, and Carl Formes. In the concert-room there were to be heard the still marvellous voices of Alboni, Carlotta Patti, and Sims Reeves; or the glorious playing of Sivori, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, Neruda, Joachim, Clara Schumann, and Alfredo Piatti.
Then among the French refugees were the members of the Comédie Française, and these gave a memorable series of representations at one of the London theatres, selecting for it most of the gems of their matchless repertoire, with casts that included such artists as Got, Delauny, Mounet-Sully, Worms, Febvre, the Coquelins, Sarah Bernhardt (who during this season was making her London _début_), Blanche Pierson, Bartet, Barretta, Reichemberg, and Samary.
The following year, 1872, saw the _début_ at Covent Garden of Albani. Later in the year, after the close of the opera season, a "fantastical spectacle" by Dion Boucicault and Planché was produced at the Opera House, under the title of "Babil and Bijou," in which took part Mrs Howard Paul, Lionel Brough, and Joseph Maas.
Finally, in 1873, Gye gathered round him a bevy of stars which included Patti, Lucca, and Albani; Scalchi, Sinico, and Monbelli; Nicolini, Bettini, Graziani, Cotogni, Maurel, and Faure.
"Every year a man lives, he is worth less." This is what Manuel Garcia used to assert when he was drawing near to the completion of those three-score years and ten which have been set down as the natural span of human life. As far as his own career was concerned, however, the statement was singularly lacking in truth. His mode of living at the age of seventy has been well described by Hermann Klein, his pupil, friend, and collaborator in the final text-book, 'Hints on Singing,' published some twenty years later, when the veteran musician was over ninety years of age.