The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-29 00:00:00

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THE LORD CHANCELLOR on Tuesday delivered
judgment in the Tipperary Bank case, " O'Flalierty
v. BI'Dowell." The petition was for ie purpose of
removing the affairs of the Tipperary Joint-stock
Bank from under the Winding-up Act, and placing
them under the old act of 33rd George IL, on the
ground that the former act was intended solely for
the settlement of a joint-stock concern as between
the shareholders, and did not give relief or security
to the creditors. The Chancellor dismissed the
petition without costs, thus substeutially setting aside
the provisions of the old Irish Bankers Act of
George 11., and disentitling the creditor to any
remedy against the private estate of the share-
holders, except through the medium of the public
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The deputation then retired. officer. The decision of the Chancellor will be If ever any one deserved assistance it is assuredly
brought before the House of Lords by Sir Fitzroy Mrs. Seacole.
'Viscount Monck, the Right Hon. Lord Belper, the Kelly. THE WRECK REGISTER for the year 1855 states
Right Hon. Sir Edward Ryabi, Sir Alexander Young NOTHING definite has transpired concerning the that 1,141 vessels, representing 176,544 tons, occurred
Spearman, Bart., and Thomas Mathias Weguelin, murder of Mr. Little. The police are actively em- that year upon the coasts of the United Kingdom,
Esq., Governor of the Rank of England, are gazetted ployed day and night. Several persons are under being an increase of 15.6 per cent, over the wrecks
as Commissioners to inquire into the existing regu- suspicion, and are closely watched, but no arrest has of '54. The total number of lives lost was 469, to
lations under which allowances on retirement are yet been made ; and so secret aro the proceedings of 1549 of 1854. The increase in collisions is remark-
granted to persons who have held civil offices in her the authorities in the investigation that to the public able. In 1852, they amounted to 67 ;in '53 to 73 ;
Majesty's service. • the whole affair is yet wrapped in deep mystery.; in '54, to 04; and in 1855, to 247.
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NOVEMBER 29, 1856.

fittratart.

Retribution. A Domestic Drama in Four Acts.

By Tom Taylor, Esq. London : Lacy.
Is the art of dramatic composition entirely
" lost in England ? Are we for ever to be at
" the mercy of French playwrights, and are
" we never again to have a native school of
writers for our English stage ?" Such are
the questions repeatedly asked in literary
circles ; and there is no concealing the fact
that the answers are generally in a desponding
tone. For our part, we heartily wish that we
could encourage the hope that there may yet
be a regeneration of the English drama. Its
present state is painfully discreditable. The
pieces acted on our boards are only adapta-
tions from French plays, for in the drama, as
in dress, we take our fashions from Paris.

It is in " constructive form " that the French
plavwiights certainly excel, and that our
English writers for the stage fail. We doubt
even whether au English general public appre
ciates " form." A series of pictures, loosely
connected together, with spirited acting and
good scenery, satisfies our uncritical audiences.
The Parisians, on the other hand, demand,
what they prize so highly, " neatness of con-
struction. They like to behold the rapid action
of a passage of life which in itself has been the
result of long antecedents. Their writers
have adopted a method of meeting the Pari-
sian tastes ; and, assuming that the French
fashion (originally borrowed from the ancient
drama) of compressing the action into a day
and a half of time is the best for the stage, it
certainly shows great poverty of invention in
our English dramatic writers not to meet the
French on their own field.

" Form " in the drama is, after all, little
more than a mere knack. First of all, exhibit
a scene or two which may even run into a first
act; then explain, through the lips of some
soliloquising person, or in a confidential tete-
a-tete, how the foregoing opposition of parties
was brought about into that exact status quo;
next advance the action by a strong incident,
and conclude. In a novel the events are
spread over months and years ; hut in a drama
intended solely to exhibit action before the eye
(by the interlocutory explanation of a previous
chain of circumstances) the " form " can, with
a little skill, be made to suit thirty-six hours
of time.

And yet it is this want of " form " which
runs through most of our English living play-
wrights. The play before us of Retribution
is a signal instance of how easy it is to exhibit
" form " in a drama, even when not taken from
the French stage. Mr. Taylor has dramatised
the novellette of La Peine du Talion (not "La
Loi du Talion," as stated in this edition), and
in doing so the clever dramatist has given a prac-
tical example of the whole art of exhibiting
"form." Given the substance and subject of
the plot, it would puzzle an ordinary English
playwright of the Fitzball genus to compress
the action of the piece into a day and a half.
The story involves the case of an injured
husband, brooding over his vengeance for ten
months ; the art with which he sought out
the assailer of his happiness, and the series of
circumstances which brought the wife of the
latter into the power of the former—all these,
with divers romantic incidents, are passed
before the audience, and the action of the
piece is kept within thirty-six hours. How?
Mr. Tom Taylor shall answer that question.
He is, beyond question, the most artistic play-
wright or "dramatist" of the day. If he
does not invent character of a strikingly
original type, ho can group together with
much spirit, and his dialogue always sparkles
with brilliancy. His play of Retribution, only
recently avowed by him, exhibits much skill
in construction, and it exemplifies most
strongly the knack of producing " form "
in dramatic composition. It is not a bor-
rowed piece, though the story is to be
found in Charles de Bernard's tale. The
action turns upon the situations produced by
a naval officer whose wife was seduced in his
absence at sea, coming to Paris, finding out
the person who had outraged him, and then,
in revenge, endeavouring to seduce his enemy's

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