with which the affair is viewed on all sides, and the strict observance of the rules in question.

On this ground even prize-fighting was advocated. It was said:-Prohibit prize-fighting, and the mob will soon forget how a pugilistic contest should be conducted. If two Italians or Portuguese quarrel, their knives are displayed in a moment; and the consequence is often fatal to one, if not both. No people use the knife so much as the Portuguese at Rio and Bahia, in Brazil; we scarcely meet an individual among the lower classes there who has not the mark of a stiletto wound on his person.

"About thirty-two years ago," writes a resident in Brazil, "I witnessed several most cold-blooded murders. One victim was a fine, hardy, weather-beaten old English sailor, who had left his vessel for a day's cruise on shore; he was, I believe, the coxswain of Lord Cochrane's gig. I first observed him seated near the mole, in front of a tobacco-shop, enjoying his pipe and glass of grog, and seemingly well-pleased at feeling himself relieved for a few hours from the restraints consequent to his profession.

"The man's figure particularly attracted my attention; his muscular frame and open independent expression of countenance formed a striking contrast with the appearance of the half-emaciated natives who occupied a part of the same bench. Suddenly a loud disturbance arose in the shop; another English sailor rushed out, followed by a Portuguese brandishing a

drawn sword-stick, and making several ineffectual thrusts at the man, whose coolness and agility enabled him to escape the evil intended.

"The old tar looked on for some moments; he had no arms save those with which nature had furnished him; but observing a countryman so unequally engaged, without knowing anything of the quarrel, rushed to his assistance; and a very few seconds gave a decided proof of the superiority of British muscle and valour over Portuguese science and cold steel. The man was floored and the sword-stick broken. The affray now became general; a crowd of foreigners hurried to the spot; and ere I arrived the most dreadful vengeance had been taken. The old sailor was

struck from behind with a knife, which entered both his heart and lungs; his death was instantaneous; he sprang about a foot from the ground, and, falling back, never moved again.

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'It would have given me great satisfaction to have discharged my pistol through the head of the assassin; but surrounded as I then was by the rascals, and unable to obtain assistance, such an act would probably only have brought upon myself the same fate that had befallen the old sailor, without mending his case. It was distressing to witness the life of a hardy old veteran, who had braved many a stiff gale, and escaped many a cannon-shot, thus brought to a close; and annoying to find that no effort was made to secure the murderer. The police at Rio are not over-active in

endeavouring to discover a culprit, when guilty of no greater offence than stilettoing a heretic."

There can be no doubt that fisticuff encounters have always been the characteristic of Englishmen in preference to the knife or poignard; but still the instances of the use of the latter have been too numerous in all times to warrant the belief that encouragement to prize-fighting would tend to abolish or check the practice among us. If in the present "decline and fall" of the Ring, we not unfrequently hear of the use of the knife among the lower orders, it is very probable that the instances are not proportionately more numerous than they were in former times, when, it is well known, defective police and street darkness prevented many a case from coming under the eye of justice. When, therefore, the Ring, by its treacheries and deceptions, has forfeited the small claim to honour it arrogated, it may be safely discarded from among our institutions without in the least affecting our national proficiency in "the noble art of self-defence."

The only tolerable argument in excuse of duelling was that relating to those great injuries that one man can inflict upon another in the case of the seduction of his wife, daughter, or sister. It was said, “In a case of seduction, who could censure the act of a brother, in calling out the author of his sister's misfortune? Or of adultery, the conduct of a husband, in avenging his wrongs upon the person of a destroyer of all his domestic comforts? Nothing, in my opinion,

is more horribly degrading to human nature than the plan adopted in this country, of awarding an individual a pecuniary compensation for the most cruel injury that can be inflicted; and I would sooner read the account of the death of a whole regiment by duelling than see recorded one of those disgusting trials for seduction or adultery, which are a disgrace to our national character."

But times are now changed more than ever, and such chivalric sentiments are by no means in vogue or tolerated in the present generation. The lapse of a century, or indeed the life of a single generation, has sufficed to put down duelling in England without an apparent chance of revival-even with the example of such great names as those of Burke, Fox, Pitt, Sheridan, Canning, the Dukes of York, Wellington, and Richmond, and others among the most highly-gifted and illustrious individuals of former times who advocated and practised duelling. At the present day, most people take the view of it expressed by the celebrated philosopher, Dr. Franklin :—

"It is astonishing that the murderous practice of duelling should continue so long. Formerly, when duels were used to determine lawsuits, from an opinion that Providence would, in every instance, favour truth and right with victory, they were excusable; at present they decide nothing. A man says something, which another man tells him is a lie ;-they fight; but whichever is killed, the point in dispute remains un

settled. To this purpose they have a pleasant little story here:-A gentleman in a coffee-house desired another to sit further from him.- Why so?'-' Because, Sir, you smell.' That, Sir, is an affront, and you must fight me.'-'I will fight you if you insist upon it; but I don't see how that will mend the matter; for if you kill me, I shall smell too; and if I kill you, you will smell, if possible, more than you do at present.'*

"How can such miserable worms as we are entertain so much pride as to conceit that every offence against our imagined honour merits death? These petty princes, in their own opinion, would call that sovereign a tyrant who would put one of them to death for a little uncivil language, though pointed at a sacred person; yet every one of them makes himself judge in his own cause-condemns the offender without a jury—and undertakes himself to be the executioner."

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Duelling," says Paley, "as a punishment, is absurd, because it is an equal chance whether the punishment falls on the offender or the person offended; nor is it much better as a reparation,-it being difficult to explain in what the satisfaction consists, or how it tends to undo the injury or afford a compensa

* Franklin here alludes to the celebrated duellist, St. Foix, who returned that answer to a challenge which he received from a gentleman whom he had asked, "Why the devil he smelt so confoundedly ?"