of the Incorporated Law Society in 1902. They may be found in the Annual Practice.
Retainer of Debt.—In connexion with the administration of 'an estate under a will, it is the right of the personal representative—whether executor or administrator—of a deceased person to retain legal assets which have come into his hands towards the payment of a debt due to himself as against creditors of an equal degree, and this even though his debt is barred by the Statutes of Limitation. The privilege arose in all probability from the inability of the representative to sue himself, though it has been suggested that it is merely a corollary to the right of the representative to prefer one creditor to another of equal degree.[1] The principle of retainer is not looked upon with favour by courts of equity, and consequently it has long been the rule that there is no right to retain out of equitable assets. It was thought that the effect of the Land Transfer Act 1897 was to make all the assets of the deceased legal assets, and so extend the privilege to reality which had till then been exempt; this view, however, has been repudiated by the courts of equity, and it must now be taken that there is still no right to retain out of real estate.[2] It is a rule of the probate division to require a creditor administrator, to whom letters of administration are granted, to enter into a bond with two sureties not to prefer himself. This course, however, is not followed where administration is granted to a person as next of kin who happens also to be a creditor.
The privilege is not lost by judgment for an account being given in a suit by other creditors for the administration of assets, and the representative may retain out of assets which come to his hand subsequent to such judgment. On the other hand, the appointment of a receiver deprives the representative of his right except as regards assets which come to his hands prior to the appointment of the receiver.
RETALIATION, repayment of like with like, especially the
return of hostile action, injuries or wrongs by similar action or
injury, as in the primitive theory of punishment, an “eye for
an eye,” “tooth for a tooth.” The Late Lat. retaliare was formed
from talis, such as, of the same quality as; and this source also
gave talio, talionis, the name of this type of punishment. (See
Punishment, Theory of, and Roman Law, § The Twelve Tables.)
A special form of retaliation is familiar in the imposition of
differential import duties against the goods of a particular
country (see Tariffs and Protection).
RETENE (methyl isopropyl phenanthrene), C18H18, a hydrocarbon
present in the coal-tar fraction, boiling above 360° C.;
it also occurs in the tars obtained by the distillation of resinous
woods. It crystallizes in large plates, which melt at 98.5° C. and
boil at 390° C. It is readily soluble in warm ether and in hot
glacial acetic acid. Sodium and boiling amyl alcohol reduce
it to a tetrahydroretene, whilst if it be heated with phosphorus
and hydriodic acid to 260° C. a dodecahydride
is formed. Chromic acid oxidizes it to retene quinone,
phthalic acid and acetic acid. It forms a picrate which melts
at 123–124° C.
RETFORD (officially East Retford), a market town and
municipal borough in the Bassetlaw parliamentary division of
Nottinghamshire, England, 1381⁄2 m. N. by W. from London by
the Great Northern railway, the station being a junction with
the Great Central railway. Pop. (1901) 12,340. The church
of St Swithin dates from the 13th century, but was rebuilt
in 1658 by a brief granted by Richard Cromwell. Modern
buildings are the town hall, the corn exchange, the court house,
and the covered markets. There is a large trade in corn and
cheese, and the town possesses iron foundries, paper and corn
mills, and india-rubber works. The town is governed by a
mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors. Area, 4656 acres.
The situation of Retford (Redforde, Ratford), near one of the Roman roads and on the river Idle, where there was possibly a ford, may account for its origin. In 1086 the archbishop of York owned a mill at Retford, and Roger de Busli had rights here. Retford was a borough by prescription, and was in the hands of the crown when, in 1276, Edward I. granted it to the burgesses in fee-farm with the right of electing bailiffs. This charter was confirmed by Edward III., Henry VI. and Elizabeth. In 1607 James I. granted a charter of incorporation to the bailiffs and burgesses, under which the town was governed until 1835, when it was reincorporated under a mayor. East Retford returned two members to parliament in 1315, and again from 1572 till 1885, when it was disfranchised. Henry III. granted the burgesses an eight-days' fair at Holy Trinity, altered by Edward II. to St Gregory. Edward III. granted a six-days' fair at St Margaret, and Henry VI. a four-days' fair at St Matthew. Fairs are now held in March, June, July and December. The market held on Saturdays by prescription was sanctioned by Edward III. and still exists.
RETHEL, ALFRED (1816–1859), German historical painter,
was born at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1816. He very early showed an
interest in art, and at the age of thirteen he executed a drawing
which procured his admission to the academy of Düsseldorf.
Here he studied for several years, and produced, among other
works, a figure of St Boniface which attracted much attention.
At the age of twenty he removed to Frankfort, and was selected
to decorate the walls of the imperial hall in the Römer with
figures of famous men. At the same period he produced a
series of designs illustrative of Old Testament history. Four
years later he was the successful competitor for the work of
ornamenting the restored council house of his native city with
frescoes depicting prominent events in the career of Charlemagne,
but the execution of this work was delayed for some six years.
Meanwhile Rethel occupied himself with the production of easel
pictures and of drawings; and in 1842 he began a striking series
of designs dealing with the “Crossing of the Alps by Hannibal,”
in which the weird power which animates his later art becomes
first apparent. In 1844 Rethel visited Rome, executing, along
with other subjects, an altar-piece for one of the churches of
his native land. In 1846 he returned to Aix, and commenced
his Charlemagne frescoes. But mental derangement, remotely
attributable, it is believed, to an accident from which he suffered
in childhood, began to manifest itself. While he hovered between
madness and sanity, Rethel produced some of the most striking,
individual and impressive of his works. Strange legends are
told of the effect produced by some of his weird subjects. He
painted “Nemesis pursuing a Murderer”—a flat stretch of landscape,
with a slaughtered body, while in front is the assassin speeding
away into the darkness, and above an angel of vengeance.
The picture, so the story goes, was won in a lottery at Frankfort
by a personage of high rank, who had been guilty of an undiscovered
crime, and the contemplation of his prize drove him
mad. Another design which Rethel executed was “Death the
Avenger,” a skeleton appearing at a masked ball, scraping
daintily, like a violinist, upon two human bones. The drawing
haunted the memory of his artist friends and disturbed their
dreams; and, in expiation, he produced his pathetic design of
“Death the Friend.” Rethel also executed a powerful series of
drawings—“The Dance of Death”—suggested by the Belgian
insurrections of 1848. It is by such designs as these, executed in
a technique founded upon that of Dürer, and animated by an
imagination akin to that of the elder master, that Rethel is
most widely known. He died at Düsseldorf on the 1st of
December 1859.
His picture of “Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple,” is preserved in the Leipzig Museum, and his “St Boniface” and several of his cartoons for the frescoes at Aix in the Berlin National Gallery. His Life, by Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter, was published in 1861. See also Art Journal, November 1865.
RETHEL, a town of N. France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ardennes, on the right bank of the Aisne and the Ardennes canal, 31 m. S.W. of Mézières by rail. Pop. (1906) 5254. The church of St Nicholas was formed by the amalgamation of two churches, the oldest of which dates from the 13th century. Rethel has a sub prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, a board of trade arbitration, a chamber of arts and manufactures and a school of agriculture, and carries on
