6 JANUARY 1923, Page 34

THE QUEEN'S MINISTER. By E. M. Smith-Dampier. (Melrose.. 2s. (id.)

A play written from the slightly sardonic standpoint it is now customary to take up with regard to Victorian characters and episodes—a symptom of priggishness, perhaps ? The satire is delicately conveyed, and some of the dialogue between Melbourne and Stockmar is frankly funny. The whole is amnsinil rather than convincing.