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CHAPTER IX.

In conclusion, I trust that I have now shown, with sufficient clearness, that duelling and the law of honour are repugnant to common sense, contrary to the law of the land, and an awful violation of the law of God.

It is much easier, however, to prove these points, than to suggest a sufficient remedy for the existing evil.

The whole civilized world, as it is called, has been so long habituated to these encounters, that many scarcely consider it any crime to kill another in a duel.

If a man is found dead by the hand of some robber, the dreadful tale is circulated with feelings of horror and alarm; the deepest regret is felt on account of the deceased, and the utmost anxiety is manifested to detect the assassin, and bring him to justice; rewards are offered for his apprehension, and crowds will attend his trial, anxious for his condemnation, because the world approves not of such murders.

But if a gentleman is brought home a corpse from a "morning meeting," a totally opposite feeling is excited. The deceased is but little thought of, whereas the utmost sympathy is awakened toward the survivor; and if he is brought to trial for his crime, he, who in the sight of his Creator is a wilful murderer, stands before his fellow-men an interesting prisoner, whose acquittal from the seared consciences of his jurors is most anxiously looked for, and approvingly received.

From such a gross and total perversion of all just sense of right and wrong, the growth of ages and the effect of habit, with all the train of evils attendant upon the practice of duelling, it may now be asked, to what are we to look for relief? To this I answer, without hesitation or disguise, not to human laws and human institutions alone, as heretofore attempted, but to the blessing of God upon the spread of gospel truth and christian instruction as a moving principle, and to human laws and institutions as a secondary means. this course, and to this only, can we venture to look with any confidence for the abolition of this most fiend-like practice. All that human ingenuity alone could suggest and devise has been already tried, and found ineffectual. The most severe penal laws have been enacted, and rigidly

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enforced to no purpose. In France, duellists and seconds were liable to heavy fines, imprisonments, and confiscations, even if no fight ensued; if they fought, though neither fell, both were to be put to death without pardon; their estates, real and personal, forfeited, and their bodies not allowed christian burial. If either fell in the combat, the same process was pursued with respect to his body, and with his effects.

It is supposed by some, that if a court were established to which differences upon punctilious points of honour might be referred, this would be effectual. The mareschals of France were at one period formed into such a court of honour, with an express view to the prevention of duelling; but this, too, proved singularly ineffectual, and was abandoned.

In our own country, much pains has been taken to abolish the crime; and if human ordinances could have accomplished the object, it would surely have been achieved, (in military circles, at least,) by the excellent series of laws to be found in the articles of war for the government of the British army, and the furtherance of military discipline. Not content with inflicting the punishment of death upon the crime of murder, when committed in a duel, peculiar and extraordinary provisions were also made for the prevention of

the crime, and even for the protection and encouragement of those who should refuse to join

in the commission of it.

By article the 1st of the 7th section,* " any officer making use of reproachful or provoking speeches or gestures, may be put under immediate arrest, and be ordered to ask pardon of the party offended, in the presence of his commanding officer." This necessarily implies a prompt investigation and speedy redress, so that the very germs of a duel may thus be destroyed.

This article, if properly attended to, seems to provide that very court of honour which some suppose would be so useful; yet military men are well aware that this part of their law is almost a dead letter, and that the redress provided is never resorted to.

An officer may also be tried by a court-martial, "for provoking another to fight a duel." In many instances, the charge has been substantiated, and officers cashiered in consequence.

A court-martial has also entertained a charge of "unofficer and ungentlemanlike conduct in

• Persons desirous of further information on this part of the subject, will find it in Samuel's Historical Account of the British Army, from which book I have taken the groundwork of these observations.

endeavouring to persuade another to be his second in a duel."

By the second article of the same section, any officer who gives or sends a challenge (which includes both principals and seconds) is to be cashiered, and this whether the challenge be accepted or not.

By the 3d article, "If any commissioned or non-commissioned officer, commanding a guard, shall knowingly and wilfully suffer any person whatsoever to go forth to fight a duel, the officer shall be cashiered, and the other receive corporal punishment or imprisonment."

The 4th article empowers officers of any rank to quell quarrels, frays, or disorders, even by persons belonging to other regiments, and to arrest officers until their superior be acquainted therewith; and in order to make the law effective, it enacts, that whoever shall refuse to obey the arrest even of an inferior in rank, he shall be punished at the discretion of a general court-martial.

And the 5th article inflicts the heaviest of the foregoing punishments upon any officer, who shall reproach another for having exhibited the COURAGE to REFUSE a challenge!

It is scarcely possible to imagine any thing more complete than this little code of law. The object being to prevent the crime, every stage