The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-01-14 00:00:00

THE ST.4( KPOoLE CASE.

PARIS, JA 1
M. Tdpier was heard in defence of Stackpoole. IIeNUARY noticed tO. he
V at deference between the judgment given by the Irish lord,
a ioneellor, and that given on the appeal, by the House of Lords
of England. Tbs. titst derision, in awarding to his opponents the
esionnotis suns of 12,197 hews, rejected the other den-weds, having;
for their object the addition of the interest to the iwitacip.d. bl.
Stachpuola would per:nips have deferred to this judgment-
however injunous it 'night be to his hut/eats, but h 6 adver-
saries' appealed, and the ctse carne begirt the Howie of Lords.
Hers the Advocate pointed Inn an recur in the English proceed-
iogs, which panatined the valor 111111 MIT of account; on the appeal
who made the report against Stackpoole in the Brat instance, and
who had acted with great partiality, sty this appeal the pret'ended
claim of the co-Mlicinura of 11. Stackpoule was raised to the fright-
ful &avant of 321,11i1ti livers. I cannot subscribe, continued the
Mita:ate, to the eulogy conferred on the Chamber of Peers of Eng-
It is, without doubt, as • points al body, entitled 111 the
highest consideration ; but in its judicial cat a it y, its authority is
menitely leis imposing than that of our sore-mica Courts & fee
the English Chamber of Petra contains but few lawyers,
and sans of them were influenced by feelings of' personal restnt-
n. to M. SAfk, 0 'lO. Ile canna, therefore, be reproaelted for
•• it hant.a.; Lou, toe execution of a decree which he considered as
neasually unjust. Ile repaired to France, at al obtained from the'
Ilsadares of has 31ajesty lettere Of naturalisation, and the title of
(fount. He is therwetionli a Frenchman, and, like all citizens, has li
• kin to the pnitertion of French law*. We are led to believe by
the oft& leather equivocal) of the 121st article of the I /rdinance of
4*. that there is no wo re
wound tar a vision, except where the decree
awl been mule against a Frenchman. 'rite celebrated A guesseau has
"Pawl din do..trine, and has thus expressed himself :—" All the
laws which have been made respecting judgments given in foreign
ite"; who, h are to be executed to this kingdom, are founded
IP"' general and self-evident principle—that whatever may be the
, stunt of a sore reivhi power in his own States, helms none abroad,
fluent of
to &anther ruler." It u true, that whew it la thie "nlaveal interest of .vereiapia, this ode may be dtaprnard with by
phial consent 1' p.m this principle, the Courts of Colmar. of
end Tmiloose, have reused the execution of forei..,m judg-
tl*att in France : the ROVAI out, of Paris lute also refused to ear-
;lfitlitejudg.lient of the Court of Heston, in the east of
eltee end Parquet. This decree watt confirmed 1)y the I 'ours of
A
„PlAal in a manner winch proves that the princiiile laid down
-1!
"oln Med by them without any exception.
amcluding, V. Tripier repressed a wish that the Tribunal
.414c0t pronounce upon Mt admitrist-atiim which H. Staokpoole
_,,
„ the prop rty of his malr except with n perfect knoeltedge
4" arid that it would requite from the parties' more
.pre-
▪ _taplanalions tluut those whicas had been oared, and whirl'
-',alfi (Si films the question of right.
j„..taresitse is potponed tor a week, to await the answer of 31.
•ho default's the other heirs, having the lame C 111413, sib
(0 the clicuta ilennequin.

THEATRES.

DRUItV-LANK.

A new opera was brought out at this theatre last even-
ing, under the somewhat affected title of Philandering, or
Me Ruse Quern. Tlw author is, we understand, Mr.
licasley, a gentleman who bits acquired much reputation
as a second-rate draniatiat. .1t the English Opera-house
b.• is a host of apes ofteris, since Mr. Arnold has withdrawn
from the field. Mr. Dearley has a great deal of case,
vivacity, and smartness in his dialogue ; his plots are eon-
structed with a due regard to the cenvenientes of the thea-
ire, and the tastes of his audit nce--there is a never-failing
current of witticism and punning, prettily dashed with sen- '
titsmut and romance, which pervades all his dramatic coin-
positions. But well-fitted as the genius of Mr. Beasley I,
may he to the atitiosphe re of the Strand in the gentle
evenings of remitter, it is doubtful whether it be sufficiently
hardy to endure the rugged blasts of Drury-lane in the
sternness of a winter night. However, the experience and
tact of this gentleman may in moue degree be regarded as
substitutes fur higher and better qualities. Philandering
is a translation, or, more properly awaking, a rtfurentusentu,
of the celebrated French opera, Jocular, the most success-
ful musical piece of modern times. The composer of the
original music is Nicola, who died not long since, at an
early age, and of whom it has been said, that, for the sake
of his fame, lie flee& no other inscription on his tomb-
stone than this—"L.:l•:teur de .lo.novie." Mr. Beszley
has followed, with considerable fidelity, his French proto-
type ; but Mr. Ilorn, the composer, has utterly disregarded
the music of Nicolo. Trusting entirely to his own inven-
tion, taste, and judgment, he has either composed the airs
and concerted pieces himself, or selected them from Falai-
ello, Mozart, Amber, or ('seats. Stone of the selected
compositions arc extremely beautiful, and others not much
above mediocrity. Mr. Horn's own music is simply pretty,
without any pretensions to rigour or originality. But we
must say something of the plot, which is very intricate,
and not very interesting :
'fbe Count Amaranth (Brabant), is in love with Matilda, and
Philander (Liston), is enamoured of Etude. 'Hwy an both some-
what sinspkious of the sincerity of their mistresses& sad, slims few
mein .. i.. toy experiments. they set about putting the ladies to
more • trial, by quitting anent for a time es a voyage of allO-
- discovery. The fair Itetrinlied get wind of their intention,
and in the meantime set out after then, in the disguise of gipsies.
They ail arrive at a village just at the time when the village festi-
val of thinning the Ruse Queen is about to take place. '1 to gen-
tlemen, in disguise, inake love to the young candidates for the
queenly honours, and are taken up, at the instigation of l.apsus
(flub y), the village schoolmaster, who is spurred on by the sug-
gestions of Matilda and Emile. To summon the miseries of the
amorists prisoners, they are permitted to gaze from their grated
windows upon the sports of the festival, amongst which their mis-
tresses arc revelling in their gipsy attire, and enjoying the misery
oldie': lovers They arc firstly 'Menaced, after undergoing 6011.0
taunts front the veiled fair ones. Tae Rose Queen is elected ; the
gentlemen confide in the attachment of their wives, and the wives
are grateful kr the corliclenee of theft turd.. There are isolate
other chamfers, which ate more excrescences on the main story,
and yet are made of touch importance. Jerome (Brewton), and
Pierre (Terry), are fathers of two girls, hotline and Lisette. Je-
rome is a jolty, gootkatured, unsuspicious father ; Pierre is morose,
suspicions, wad harsh. The consequenee is, that the daughter of
the first is gay, hi. M-spirited, and obedient; the other is pensive,
lovesick, and runs away with a clandestine lover.
This is but an imperfect outline of a complicated plot.
But what is the plot of an opera? We want nothing
more in such compositions than mere situations for the
p nine of the musician. lit the resent case, the situations
are numerous enough, and not without interest. The per-
formers did their duty with great seal, and with much suc-
cess. Brabant, in the Cum* f, if he slid not look like •
nobleman, saw as a nobleman should sing, if lie sing at
all. Setting aside Isis share in the concerted pieces, which
he managed as lie always dues, he was singularly
success-
ftd in the 'tingle airs. In a song called" Temptation," in
the first act (composed by lone), ht• gained great applause,
soul received an (swore. The Mlle tribute was paid to
another original air, " Reason and Love," in the second
act. There was another .1(40 called " Liberty," (Mr.
lit azley has given panics to all his songs.) in the
third act, which afforded some scope to the lofty and
passionate style of this celebrated vocalist, but he did
nut wake so elt ep an impression as we might have expected.
Liston had nothing to do, except to utter a certain quati •
City of shallow dialogue, attempt two or three duets, and
wear a spleittlid dress. It was inipossibie to sympathise'
'with his sentiment, or laugh at his comicality. Itowton
and Terry, in the two fathers, were as good as they could
he ; hut the extreme inferiority of their parts disabled these
eminent actors of all opyortunity for display. Knight bad to
sustain the character of a rustic lover, and was aufficicutly
vi-
vacious, fidgety, and conical. Harley had a sort of French
Caleb Quoteni to play, which he made very amusing. The
female personages were of the same unimpressive cast with
those of the other sex. Some slight approach to spirit
was apparent in Puss/ice (Madame Vestria), but it was ra-
ther due to the ability of the actress, in filling up, than to the
author in sketching the euttine. She had a lively air," Tiro
things to your bow," in which she was d.semmily encored.
Miss Forde (Mull/do) was very successful in an original
air, " The Imo,- and in her parts of the concerted pieces.
The principal support of the opera was Miss Stephens,
who was sufficiently delightful to make us forget the de-
licieocies of the opera. In all her songs she was summit-
ful. lu the sectnal act, a song by (ire/is, called " The
Souvenir," was loudly encored. Timer, is something about
this singer which compels us to ovt rlook all minor imper-
fections, when we arc dwelling on the sweetness, simpli-
city, richness and volume of her voice, and the grace, na-
ture, and insaffectu elms, of her manner. Her appearance
throughout the piece was the signal for universal and en-
thusiastic applause, which was due not only to the re-
collection of her termer excellence, but also to her suc-
cessful achievements of last night. Rossini was in the
house, and manifested great delight with the perform-
ance of Braham and Miss Stephens. The opera, though
so long as to extend far beyond the usual limit of such
pieces, was nevertheless completely successful. It requires
much contraction and excision, and will then probably
have its run of fifteen or twenty nights. The theatre was
crowded to suffocation, but we suspect that a large portion
of the audience was on the temporary free list.