THE YELVERTON DRAMA.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 381, 18 June 1861, Page 4

THE YELVERTON DRAMA.

The surface moral of the Yelverton case scarcely requires to be enlarged upon. It shows, as most of our crk'brated causes show, how terribly fact bents fiction. It covers the whole field cf tho romantic and tho picturesque. Scenery, character, situation, place aud time, the drama and its accessories, tbe plot aud the persona and passions of the play, all surpass fiction on hsown chosen grounds, Tho good and evil, the mixed motives, tho inconsistent consistency' of moral and passion, the dreadful catastrophe •id the ctern, righteous retribution, with the ivi!* vista of evil and wrong yet to come—all exhibit {be great facts of life in one of those :riorc?st ao'i most complex struggles in which the poet and the draraatist only follow nature wiih hiKerirg energies. As it is a moral problem to apportion prr-isc and blame in tho etsse of Hamlet; or an CKI-eho, it might bo a nice point. ?,-hei:kcr our sympathies are rightly eulisted— th.;t is, wholly enlisted—ou this or'that sido of tbe f raged v : and there ought to be the most patient a\ui hesha: i:.;g reluctance to pronouuee a 99eral scnto-ce covering the whole Yelverton f'..BV.ir. "We shall assume an intimate familiarity v";u :h.G K.ViC ol oav readers with the facts of the C9e. Ii is one which, once having begun, it is iimp'vssib c mi. to exhaust, for Iv mere dramatic fa7.b pictorial interest no play or novel with ivijoa wo a-c acquainted is more enthralling. ;Ylajor delvci:^ strikes us as being a very hce soil of person—at any rate at tbe commencement of his Hie history. He was ui'h^'ieiy \il;\' circumstances raado him. Re had ho: su.Tjoicnt moral fibre either to originate •..-■•: to resist kwptailon. We are not disposed to attribute dchbeiation or choice to such a character. l.:'o d*d not so much create circums.iance?. es he was led by thee?. And, after all, -Lis is tii? vtfa of the'world. Few act upon principle. In Miss Lon.^wovf.h ho came into contact v-ii.fr a superior raLure' —we arc uot at present ;;aving vh.'e;bcr of pood or evil. But all along he ciouchrd feebly and irresolutely in tbe pre-r-r.:ce of a Mgher intelligence than bis own. He ■vlr.od no eh crocs in tbe conflict. The man, as f-x<r. h-.d merely the no morals, the no eharac9r, the re vhh, and the no resolution cf com90\!pher r-.?1f.?.ime.!;3. If be bad formed tho deI.borate j-.-hiu of feducing Theresa Longworth, bo >/!.s slow and impassive enough when ihe first overtures invited i:im. ITe cci tainr: did not at first seek her. Lan-sea3U''i-:s ; selfish and supple, he mads tha ho-.!, of circymstT'.nccs as they turned up, careless -vhctbor that best was wicked or virtuous. ■ As i-:o ferny y avonia went on, he seems only to hare drifted, rarc-'lets of the eddies, so that his he-T.. was a'.'.cvo the stream;. but all along his T:,are iv ow.ni? v.-as not self-originated or ccntvoYiifa. Kir, letters and his love-making are r-rdy the cohl Aurora as contrasted with tbe lava hsme of pf.r chio-.:i and sentiment with which he was enveloped. He talked sonorous nonsense about; fa'o ar.-ri destiny, when he only meant ihot ho fa<e himself up to the chances which he was i.oo torpid to attempt to master. No t-ouhL he was ne-t deficient in mere animal passion : r.or was he deef to the solicitations of E-eifisu vice. But he was not vigorous enough oh her io mvlcr;;ta;:d himself or the woman under Tvho~o infl;:e::ce ho was thrown. And it is no para-do- to say Chat a man may be nccalculating ! and at the s;;i.;c time cubing sod hhe. He jnoy be i.;nealcii!ai::2g about generals, and yet üb.\yn > fak-o, mil (rea-hevcus in particulars. 'hhs we tdco to have teca tho caso with Islfav ihlvenrn, Ho we 3 false to the last decree cf Implode k tho details of bis conduct. 31c meant to deceive and to betray for the hour, rr;d for tho prrno«cs of (he hojjV. As to life JiE";f, a-d tv ends cf life, he bad not sufficient memd or mo-9 strength and sense cf right and wrong to work cvj: the problem of duty. It is very doabifr.i, ar. least to ournunds, whether be ever nf; tire ircubie of realising tbe exact 119:al cr legal consequences or bearings of his successive innnh'ges, or paciulo-mairiages, with Tboresa Lor.^woilb.

As to Theresa Lorgworth, we are not careful io say all that we think. Happily for society, we trust thai, the mould in which her character has been formed -as broken after tha first east. Here we have the fact 3of a woman's life, and ?;h?y are incomes*able; but except iv a " scrofulous French novel*' they have, we hope, never before existed. Even now we almost refuse credence lo the existence of such a person, She seems to have had parents, hut all that V"o know about, hoi' father is only the wicked and v^.natural p^est of fiction, which meeis us in i;-o stereotyped form of an atheist's drath-bed. A pivl born *=g don't exactly knew how, and bred in p. convent; left to her own devices, flying mysteriously about Europe and Asia, without, any visile tics '.r restraints ; apparently not troubled or tarred wiili (he necessities of family ov income: cuicatcd in I'ir.neo and Italy, and rrUh a c^trsopoiilan acquaintance with all peoples find languages; driving cardinals to despair, and grounded by an "entourage" of lovers whom phe attracts by her charms and fives by her vi;u;os; prodigiously clever, prodipiously accomplished, romantic, enthusiastic, vcz-sfti.iJo, devout, religious, and charitable; a fJconr de Obvro under the moot picturesque circiimtiar-ces, Eioise at onco nnd Sophia, a Ohantal and a Sappho, mixed up with tho .most Inmous bn.ttlcs and stirring events of history; Lun.ing, aud at the same time prudent; with Tvondeiful powers both of self-sacrifice and selfrestraint; chactc, yet always on tho very verge cf sin ; wiili tho sternest appreciation of characf er, ana yet with the most passionate and abundant disiv-gavd of proprieties; scornful of the vhoJc world's opinion, yet proud, self-contained, and haughty b a certain tort of barren self-re-spect; prodig.il and insolent in her display of passion om] vehement emotion, yet with a clear, cold appreciation of an end of lite-such is her cwn account of herself, and we are.not disposed to question it. Not in the worst sense of the words, hor life h that o£afemme libre. Hitherto we have only met with this sort of lady in French novels; and though she has scorched up the susceptible Celtic hearts in Dublin, we say ifc with no uckindness, we do not desire to meet hor like again. Her excellencies., if such she possesses, are far above the commonplace, dull, stupid exigencies of everyday life. If all our girls were of this pattern, social life would bo an impossibility; and her career and her fate may be a useful warning. She towers afcovo her sex; and the sex may he congratulated that hers is an analtainable level. She is a woman such as the world seldom wishes to see; and all. that she has won by her singular pre-eminence is a crown of misery for which the momentary excitement of the wild Irish ovation tvill poorly compensate.— Saturday Review.

As soon shall one scour the spots out of the poos, as all ignorance out of man.