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DUEL (Ital. duello, Lat. duellum—old ...

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DUEL (Ital. duello, See also:Lat. duellum—old See also:form of bellum-from duo, two) , a prearranged encounter between two persons, with deadly weapons, in accordance with conventional rules, with the See also:object of voiding a See also:personal See also:quarrel or of deciding a point of See also:honour. The first recorded instance of the word occurs in Coryate's Crudities (1611), but See also:Shakespeare has duello in this sense, and uses " duellist " of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. In its earlier meaning of a judicial combat we find the word latinized in the See also:Statute of See also:Wales (Edw. I., See also:Act 12), " Placita de terris in partibus istis non habent terminari per duellum." Duels in the See also:modern sense were unknown to the See also:ancient See also:world, and their origin must be sought in the feudal See also:age of See also:Europe. The single combats recorded in See also:Greek and See also:Roman See also:history and See also:legend, of See also:Hector and See also:Achilles, See also:Aeneas and Turnus, the See also:Horatii and Curiatii, were incidents in See also:national See also:wars and have nothing in See also:common with the modern duel. It is, however, noteworthy that in See also:Tacitus (Germania, cap. x.) we find the rudiments of the judicial duel (see See also:WAGER, for the wager of See also:battle). Domestic See also:differences, he tells us, were settled by a legalized form of combat between the disputants, and when a See also:war was impending a See also:captive from the hostile tribe was armed and pitted against a national See also:champion, and the issue of the duel was accepted as an See also:omen. The judicial combat was a See also:Teutonic institution, and it was in fact an See also:appeal from human See also:justice to the See also:God of battles, partly a See also:sanction of the current creed that might is right, that the brave not only will win but deserve to win. It was on these grounds that Gundobald justified, against the complaints of a See also:bishop, the famous See also:edict passed at See also:Lyons (A.D. 501) which established the wager of battle as a recognized form of trial. It is God, he argued, who directs the issue of national wars, and in private quarrels we may See also:trust His See also:providence to favour the juster cause. Thus, as See also:Gibbon comments, the absurd and cruel practice of judicial duels, which had been See also:peculiar to some tribes of See also:Germany, was propagated and established in all the monarchies of Europe from See also:Sicily to the Baltic.

Yet in its See also:

defence it may be urged that it abolished a worse evil, the See also:compurgation by See also:oath which put a See also:premium on See also:perjury, and the See also:ordeal, or See also:judgment of God, when the cause was decided by See also:blind See also:chance, or more often by priestcraft. Those who are curious to observe the formalities and legal rules of a judicial combat will find them described at length in the 28th See also:book of See also:Montesquieu's Esprit See also:des lois. On these regulations he well remarks that, as there are an infinity of See also:wise things conducted in a very foolish manner, so there are some foolish things conducted in a very wise manner. For our See also:present purpose it is sufficient to observe the development of the See also:idea of personal honour from which the modern duel directly sprang. In the ancient See also:laws of the Swedes we find that if any See also:man shall say to another, " You are not a man equal to other men," or " You have not the See also:heart of a man," and the other shall reply, " I am a man as See also:good as you," they shall meet on the See also:highway, and then follow the regulations for the combat. What is this but the modern See also:challenge ? By the See also:law of the See also:Lombards if one man See also:call another arga, the insulted party might defy the other to mortal combat. What is arga but the dummer Junger of the See also:German student? See also:Beaumanoir thus describes a legal See also:process under See also:Louis le Debonnaire:—The appellant begins by a See also:declaration before the See also:judge that the appellee is guilty of a certain See also:crime; if the appellee answers that his accuser lies, the judge then ordains the duel. Is not. this the modern point of honour, by which to be given the See also:lie is an insult which can only be wiped out by See also:blood ? From Germany the judicial combat rapidly spread to See also:France, where it flourished greatly from the See also:roth to the r 2th See also:century, the See also:period of customary law. By See also:French See also:kings it was welcomed as a See also:limitation of the judicial See also:powers of their See also:half See also:independent vassals.

It was a form of trial open to all freemen and in certain cases, as under Louis VI., the See also:

privilege was extended to See also:serfs. Even the See also:church resorted to it not unfrequently to See also:settle disputes concerning church See also:property. Abbots and priors as territorial lords and high justiciaries had their See also:share in the ' confiscated goods of the defeated combatant, and See also:Pope See also:Nicholas when applied to in 858 pronounced it " a just and legitimate combat." Yet only three years before the See also:council of See also:Valence had condemned the practice, imposing the severest See also:penance on the See also:victor and refusing the last See also:rites of the church to the vanquished as to a See also:suicide. In 1385 a duel was fought, the result of which was so preposterous that even the most superstitious began to lose faith in the efficacy of such a judgment of God. A certain Jacques Legris was accused by the wife of See also:Jean Carrouge of having introduced himself by See also:night in the See also:guise of her See also:husband whom she was expecting on his return from the See also:Crusades. A duel was ordained by the See also:parlement of See also:Paris, which was fought in the presence of See also:Charles VI. Legris was defeated and hanged on the spot. Not See also:long after, a criminal arrested for some other offence confessed himself to be the author of the See also:outrage. No institution could long survive so open a confutation, and it was annulled by the parlement. Henceforward the duel in France ceases to be an appeal to See also:Heaven, and becomes merely a See also:satisfaction of wounded honour. Under Louis XII. and See also:Francis I. we find the first vestiges of tribunals of honour. The last instance of a duel authorized by the magistrates, and conducted according to the forms of law, was the famous one between See also:Francois de Vivonne de la Chataignerie and See also:Guy See also:Chabot de See also:Jarnac.

The duel was fought on the roth of See also:

July 1549 in the courtyard of the See also:chateau of St Germain-en-Laye, in the presence of the See also:king and a large See also:assembly of courtiers. It was memorable in two ways. It enriched the French See also:language with a new phrase; a sly and unforeseen See also:blow, such as that by which de Jamac worsted La Chataignerie, has since been called a coup de Jarnac. And See also:Henry, grieved at the See also:death of his favourite, swore a See also:solemn oath that he would never again permit a duel to be fought. This led to the first of the many royal edicts against duelling. By a See also:decree of the council of See also:Trent (cap. xix.) a See also:ban was laid on " the detestable use of duels, an invention of the See also:devil to See also:compass the destruction of souls together with a bloody death of the See also:body." In See also:England, it is now generally agreed, the wager of battle did not exist before the See also:time of the See also:Norman See also:Conquest. Some previous examples have been adduced, but on examination they will be seen to belong rather to the class of single combats between the champions of two opposing armies. One suchinstance is See also:worth quoting as a curious See also:illustration of the superstition of the time. It occurs in a rare See also:tract printed in See also:London, a6;o, The Duello, or Single Combat. " Danish irruptions and the See also:bad aspects of See also:Mars having drencht the common See also:mother See also:earth with her sonnes' blood streames, under the reigne of See also:Edmund, a Saxon monarch, misso in compendium (so worthy See also:Camden expresseth it) See also:bello utriusque geniis fata Edmundo Anglorum et Canuto Danorum regibus commissa fuerunt, qui singulari certamine de summa imperij in kac insula (that is, the Eight in Glostershire) depugnarunt." By the laws of See also:William the Conqueror the trial by battle was only compulsory when the opposite parties were both See also:Normans, in other cases it was optional. As the two nations were gradually merged into one, this form of trial spread, and until the reign of Henry II. it was the only mode for determining a suit for the recovery of See also:land. The method of See also:procedure is admirably described by Shakespeare in the opening See also:scene in See also:Richard II., where Henry of See also:Bolingbroke, See also:duke of See also:Hereford, challenges See also:Thomas, duke of See also:Norfolk; in the See also:mock-heroic battle between See also:Horner the Armourer and his man See also:Peter in Henry VI.; and by See also:Sir W.

See also:

Scott in the See also:Fair Maid of See also:Perth, where Henry See also:Gow appears before the king as the champion of Magdalen Proudfute.. The judicial duel never took See also:root in England as it did in France. In See also:civil suits it was superseded by the See also:grand See also:assize of Henry II., and in cases of See also:felony by See also:indictment at the See also:prosecution of the See also:crown. One of the latest instances occurred in the reign of See also:Elizabeth, 1591, when the lists were actually prepared and the justices of the common pleas appeared at Tothill See also:Fields as umpires of the combat. Fortunately the petitioner failed to put in an See also:appearance, and was consequently nonsuited (see See also:Spelman, Glossary, s.v. " Campus "). As See also:late as r819 See also:Lord See also:Ellenborough, in the See also:case of See also:Thornton v. See also:Ashford, pronounced that " the See also:general law of the land is that there shall be a trial by battle in cases of appeal unless the party brings himself within some of the exceptions." Thornton was accused of murdering See also:Mary Ashford, and claimed his right to challenge the appellant, the See also:brother of the murdered girl, to wager of battle. His suit was allowed, and, the challenge being refused, the accused escaped. Next See also:year the law was abolished (59 Geo. III., c. 46).

In sketching the history of the judicial combat we have traced the parentage of the modern duel. See also:

Strip the former of its legality, and divest it of its religious sanction, and the latter remains. We are justified, then, in dating ofh./ fhonoar. the commencement of duelling from the abolition of the wager of battle. To pursue its history we must return to France, the See also:country where it first arose, and the See also:soil on which it has most flourished. The causes which made it indigenous to France are sufficiently explained by the See also:condition of society and the national See also:character. As See also:Buckle has pointed out, duelling is a See also:special development of See also:chivalry, and chivalry is one of the phases of the protective spirit which was predominant In France. in France up to the time of the Revolution. Add to this the keen sense of personal honour, the susceptibility and the pugnacity which distinguish the French See also:race. See also:Montaigne, when touching on this subject in his essays, says, " Put three Frenchmen together on the plains of See also:Libya, and they will not be a See also:month in See also:company without scratching one another's eyes out." The third See also:chapter of d'Audiguier's Ancien usage des duels is headed, " Pourquoi See also:les seuls See also:Francais se battent en duel." See also:English literature abounds with allusions to this characteristic of the French nation. Lord See also:Herbert of Cherbury, who was See also:ambassador at the See also:court of Louis XIII., says, " There is scarce a Frenchman worth looking on who has not killed his man in a duel." See also:Ben See also:Jonson, in his. Magnetic See also:Lady, makes Compass, the See also:scholar and soldier, thus describe France, " that See also:garden of humanity" : " There every See also:gentleman professing arms Thinks he is See also:bound in honour to embrace The bearing of a challenge for another, Without or questioning the cause or asking Least See also:colour of a See also:reason." Duels were not common before the 16th century. See also:Hallam The Judicial combat.

attributes their prevalence to the barbarous See also:

custom of wearing swords as a See also:part of domestic See also:dress, a See also:fashion which was not introduced till the later part of the 15th century. In i56o the states-general at See also:Orleans supplicated Charles IX, to put a stop to duelling. Hence the famous See also:ordinance of 1566, See also:drawn up by the See also:chancellor de 1'H6pital, which served as the basis of the successive ordinances of the following kings. Under the frivolous and sanguinary reign of Henry III., " who was as eager for excitement as a woman," the rage for duels spread till it became almost an epidemic. In 16oz the combined remonstrances of the church and the magistrates extorted from the king an edict condemning to death whoever should give or accept a challenge or act as second. But public See also:opinion was revolted by such rigour, and the statue remained a dead See also:letter. A duel forms a See also:fit conclusion to the reign. A See also:hair-brained youth named L'Isle See also:Marivaux swore that he would not survive his beloved king, and threw his cartel into the See also:air. It was at once picked up, and Marivaux soon obtained the death he had courted. Henry IV, began his reign by an edict against duels, but he was known in private to favour them; and, when de Crequi asked leave to fight See also:Don See also:Philip of See also:Savoy, he is reported to have said, " Go, and if I were not a king I would be your second." Fontenay-Mareuil says, in his Memoires, that in the eight years between 16or and 16og, 2000 men of See also:noble See also:birth See also:fell in duels. In 1609 a more effective measure was taken at the instance of See also:Sully by the See also:establishment of a court of honour. The edict decrees that all aggrieved persons shall address themselves to the king, either directly or through the See also:medium of the constables, marshals, &c.; that the king shall decide, whether, if an See also:accommodation could not be effected, permission to fight should be given; that the aggressor, if pronounced in the wrong, shall in any case be suspended from any public See also:office or employment, and be mulcted of one-third of his See also:revenue till he has satisfied the aggrieved party; that any one giving or receiving a challenge shall forfeit all right of reparation and all his offices; that any one who kills his adversary in an unauthorized duel shall suffer death without See also:burial, and his See also:children shall be reduced to villanage; that seconds, if they take part in a duel, shall suffer death, if not, shall be degraded from the profession of arms.

This edict has been pronounced by See also:

Henri See also:Martin " the wisest decree of the ancient See also:monarchy on a See also:matter which involves so many delicate and profound questions of morals, politics, and See also:religion touching civil rights " (Histoire de France, x. 466). In the succeeding reign the See also:mania for duels revived. See also:Rostand's Cyrano is a See also:life-like modern See also:portraiture of French bloods in the first half of the i7th century. De See also:Houssaye tells us that in Paris when See also:friends met the first question was, " Who fought yesterday? who is to fight to-See also:day ? " They fought by night and day, by moonlight and by See also:torch-See also:light, in the public streets and squares. A hasty word, a misconceived gesture, a question about the colour of a riband or an embroidered letter, such were the commonest pretexts for a duel. The slighter and more frivolous the dispute, the less were they inclined to submit them to the king for See also:adjudication. Often, like See also:gladiators or See also:prize-fighters, they fought for the pure love of fighting. A misunderstanding is cleared up on the ground. " N'importe," cry the principals, " puisque nous sommes See also:ici, battons-nous." Seconds, as Montaigne tells us, are no longer witnesses, but must take part themselves unless they would be thought wanting ih See also:affection or courage; and he goes on to complain that men are no longer contented with a single second, " c'etait ancionnement des duels, ce sont a See also:cette heure.rencontres et batailles." There is no more striking instance of See also:Richelieu's firmness and See also:power as a statesman than his conduct in the matter of duelling. In his Testament politique he has assigned his reasons for disapproving it as a statesman and ecclesiastic.

But this disapproval was turned to active detestation by a private cause. His See also:

elder brother, the See also:head of the See also:house, had fallen in a duel stabbed to the heart by an enemy of the See also:cardinal. Already four edicts had been published under Louis XIII. with little or no effect, when in 1626 there was published a new edict condemning to aleath any one who had killed his adversary in a duel, or hadbeen found guilty of sending a challenge a second time. Banishmentand partial See also:confiscation of goods were awarded for lesser offences. But this edict differed:. from preceding ones not so much in its severity as in the fact that it was the first which was actually enforced. The cardinal began by imposing the penalties of banishment and fines, but, these proving ineffectual to stay the evil, he determined to make a terrible example. To quote his own words to the king, " Il s'agit de couper la See also:gorge aux duels ouaux edits de votre Majeste." The See also:count de Boutteville, a renommist who had already been engaged in twenty-one affairs of honour, determined out of pure bravado to fight a twenty-second time. The duel took See also:place at midday on the Place Royale. Boutteville was arrested with his second, the count de ChapelIes; they were tried by the parlement of Paris, condemned and, in spite of all the See also:influence of the powerful house of Montmorenci, of which de Boutteville was a See also:branch, they were both beheaded on the 21st of See also:June 1627. For a See also:short time the ardour of duellists was cooled. But the See also:lesson soon lost its effect. Only five years later we read in the Mercure de France that two gentlemen who had killed one another in a duel were, by the cardinal's orders, hanged on a gallows, stripped and with their heads downwards, in the sight of all the See also:people.

This was a move in the right direction, since, for fashionable vices, ridicule and ignominy is a more drastic remedy than death. It was on this principle that Caraccioli, See also:

prince of See also:Melfi, when See also:viceroy of See also:Piedmont, finding that his See also:officers were being decimated by duel-See also:ling, proclaimed that all duels should be fought on the See also:parapet of the See also:Ponte Vecchio, and if one of the combatants chanced to fall into the See also:river he should on no See also:account be pulled out. Under the long reign of Louis XIV. many celebrated duels took place, of which the most remarkable were that between the duke of Guise and Count See also:Coligny, the last fought on the Place Royale, and that between the See also:dukes of See also:Beaufort and See also:Nemours,, each attended by four friends . Of the ten combatants, Nemours and two others were killed on the spot, and none escaped without some See also:wound. No less than eleven edicts against duelling were issued under le Grand Monarque. That of 1643 established a supreme court of honour composed of the marshals of France; but the most famous was that of 1679, which See also:con-firmed the enactments of his predecessors, Henry IV. and Louis XII. At the same time a solemn agreement was entered into by the See also:principal See also:nobility that they would never engage in a duel on any pretence whatever. A See also:medal was struck to commemorate the occasion, and the firmness of the king, in refusing See also:pardon to all offenders, contributed more to restrain this See also:scourge of society than all the efforts of his predecessors. The subsequent, history of duelling in France may be more shortly treated. In the See also:preamble to the edict of 1704 Louis XIV. records his satisfaction at seeing under his reign an almost entire cessation of those fatal combats which by the inveterate force of custom had so long prevailed. See also:Addison (Spectator, 99) notes it as one of the most glorious exploits of his reign to have banished the false point of honour. Under the regency of Louis XV. there was a brief revival.

The last legislative act for the suppression of duels was passed on the See also:

lath of See also:April 1723. Then came the Revolution, which in abolishing the ancien regime fondly trusted that with it would go the duel, one of the privileges and abuses of an aristocratic society. See also:Dupleix, in his Military Law concerning the Duel (1611), premises that these have no application to lawyers, merchants, financiers or justices. This explains why in the legislation of the National Assembly there is no mention of duels. Camille See also:Desmoulins when challenged shrugged his shoulders and replied to the See also:charge of cowardice that he would prove his courage on other fields than the Bois de See also:Boulogne. The two See also:great Frenchmen whose writings preluded the French Revolution both set their faces against it. See also:Voltaire had indeed, as a See also:young man, in obedience to the dictates of society, once sought satisfaction from a nobleman for a brutal insult, and had reflected on his temerity in the solitude of the See also:Bastille.' Henceforward he inveighed against the practice, 1 Voltaire met the See also:chevalier See also:Rohan-Chabot at the house of the See also:Marquis of Sully. The chevalier, offended by Voltaire's See also:free speech, not only for its absurdity, but also for its aristocratic exclusiveness. See also:Rousseau had said of duelling, " It is not an institution of honour, but a horrible and barbarous custom, which a courageous man despises and a good man abhors." See also:Napoleon was a sworn foe to it. " Bon duelliste mauvais soldat " is one of his best known sayings; and, when the king of See also:Sweden sent him a challenge, he replied that he would See also:order a See also:fencing-See also:master to attend him as plenipotentiary. After the battle of See also:Waterloo duels such as See also:Lever loves to depict were frequent between disbanded French officers and those of the See also:allies in occupation. The restoration of the Bourbons brought with it a fresh See also:crop of duels.

Since then duels have been frequent in France-more frequent, however, in novels than in real life—fought mainly between politicians and journalists, and with rare exceptions bloodless affairs. If fought with pistols, the distance and the weapons chosen render a See also:

hit improbable; and, if fought with rapiers, honour is generally satisfied with the first blood drawn. Among Frenchmen famous in politics or letters who have gone out " may be mentioned Armand See also:Carrel, who fell in an encounter with Emile See also:Girardin; See also:Thiers, who thus atoned for a youthful indiscretion; the elder See also:Dumas; Lamartine; Ste Beuve, who to show at once his sangfroid and his sense of See also:humour, fought under an See also:umbrella; Ledru See also:Rollin; Edmond About; See also:Clement Thomas; See also:Veuillot, the representative of the church militant; See also:Rochefort; and See also:Boulanger, the Bonapartist fanfaron, whose discomfiture in a duel with See also:Floquet resulted in a notable loss of popular respect. Duelling did not begin in England till some See also:hundred years after it had arisen in France. There is no instance of a private duel fought in England before the 16th century, In England. and they are rare before the reign of See also:James I. A very fair notion of the See also:comparative popularity of duelling, and of the feeling with which it was regarded at various periods; might he gathered by examining the part it plays In the novels and lighter literature of the times. The earliest duels we re- member in fiction are that in the Monastery between Sir Piercie Shafton and See also:Halbert Glendinning, and that in See also:Kenilworth between Tressilian and Varney. (That in See also:Anne of Geierstein either is an See also:anachronism or must reckon as a wager by battle.) Under James I. we have the encounter between See also:Nigel and Lord Dal- garno. The greater evil of war, as we observed in French history, expels the lesser, and the literature of the See also:Commonwealth is in this respect a See also:blank. With the Restoration there came a reaction against Puritan morality, and a return to the gallantry and Ioose See also:manners of French society, which is best represented by the See also:theatre of the day. The See also:drama of the Restoration abounds in duels. Passing on to the reign of See also:Queen Anne, we find the subject frequently discussed in the Taller and the Spectator, and Addison points in his happiest way the moral to a con- temporary duel between Mr See also:Thornhill and Sir Cholmeley Dering.

" I come not," says Spinomont to King Pharamond, " I come not to implore your pardon, I come to relate my sorrow, a sorrow too great for human life to support. Know that this See also:

morning I have killed in a duel the man whom of all men living I love best." No reader of Esmond can forget See also:Thackeray's description of the doubly fatal duel between the duke of See also:Hamilton and Lord See also:Mohun, which is See also:historical, or the no less life-like though fictitious duel between Lord Mohun and Lord Castlewood. The duel between the two See also:brothers in See also:Stevenson's Master of Ballantrae is one of the best conceived in fiction. Throughout the reigns of the Georges they are frequent. See also:Richardson expresses his opinion on the subject in six voluminous letters to the See also:Literary Repositor. insolently asked the marquis, " Who is that young man?" " One," replied Voltaire, " who if he does not See also:parade a great name, honours that he bears." The chevalier said nothing at the time, but, seizing his opportunity, inveigled Voltaire into his See also:coach, and had him beaten by six of his footmen. Voltaire set to See also:work to learn fencing, and then sought the chevalier in the theatre, and publicly challenged him. A bon-mot at the chevalier's expense was the only satisfaction that the philosopher could obtain. See also:Monsieur, si quelque affaire d'interet ne See also:vous a point fait oublier I'outrage dont j'ai a me plaindre, j'espere que vous m'en rendrez raison." The chevalier was said to employ his See also:capital in See also:petty See also:usury. VIII. 2I See also:Sheridan, like See also:Farquhar in a previous See also:generation, not only dramatized a duel, but fought two himself. See also:Byron thus commemorates the bloodless duel between Tom See also:Moore and Lord See also:Jeffrey : " Can none remember that eventful day, That ever glorious almost fatal fray, When Little's leadless pistols met the See also:eye, And See also:Bow See also:Street myrmidons stood laughing by?" There are no duels in See also:Miss See also:Austen's novels, but in those of Miss See also:Edgeworth, her contemporary, there are three or four.

As we approach the ,9th century they become rarer in fiction. Thackeray's novels, indeed, abound in duels. " His royal See also:

highness the late lamented See also:commander-in-See also:chief " had the greatest respect for See also:Major Macmurdo, as a man who had conducted scores of affairs for his acquaintance with the greatest prudence and skill; and Rawdon Crawley's duelling pistols, " the same which I shot See also:Captain Marker," have becomd a See also:household word. See also:Dickens, on the other See also:hand, who depicts contemporary English life, and mostly in the See also:middle classes, in all his numerous See also:works has only three; and See also:George See also:Eliot never once refers to a duel. See also:Tennyson, using a poet's privilege, laid the scene of a duel in the' year of the See also:Crimean War, but he echoes the spirit of the times when he stigmatizes " the Christless See also:code that must have life for a blow." See also:Browning, who delights in cases of See also:conscience, has given admirably the See also:double moral aspect of the duel in his two lyrics entitled " Before " and " After." To pass from fiction to fact we will select the most memorable English duels of the last century and a half. Lord Byron killed Mr Chaworth in 1765; Charles James See also:Fox and Mr See also:Adams fought in 1779; duke of See also:York and See also:Colonel See also:Lennox, 1789; William See also:Pitt and George See also:Tierney, 1796; George See also:Canning and Lord Castlereagh, 1809; Mr See also:Christie killed See also:John Scott, editor of the London See also:Magazine, 1821; duke of See also:Wellington and See also:earl of See also:Winchelsea, 1829; Mr See also:Roebuck and Mr See also:Black, editor of Morning See also:Chronicle, 1835; Lord Alvanley and a son of See also:Daniel O'Connell in the same year; Earl See also:Cardigan wounded Captain Tuckett, was tried by his peers, and acquitted on a legal quibble, 1840. The year 1808 is memorable in the See also:annals of duelling in England. Major See also:Campbell was sentenced to death and executed for killing Captain See also:Boyd in a duel. In this case it is true that there was a suspicion of foul See also:play; but in the case of See also:Lieutenant Blundell, who was killed in a duel in 1813, though all had been conducted with perfect fairness, the surviving principal and the seconds were all convicted of See also:murder and sentenced to death, and, although the royal pardon was obtained, they were all cashiered, The next important date is the year 1843, when public See also:attention was painfully called to the subject by a duel in which Colonel See also:Fawcett was shot by his brother-in-law, Lieutenant See also:Monro. The survivor, whose career was thereby blasted, had, it was well known, gone out most reluctantly, in obedience to the then prevailing military code. A full account of the steps taken by the prince See also:consort, and of the See also:correspondence which passed between him and the duke of Wellington, will be found in the Life of the Prince by Sir See also:Theodore Martin. The duke, unfortunately, was not an unprejudiced counsellor.

Not only had he been out himself, but, in See also:

writing to Lord See also:Londonderry on the occasion of the duel between the See also:marquess and See also:Ensign Battier in 1824, he had gone so far as to See also:state that he considered the See also:probability of the Hussars having to fight a duel or two a matter of no consequence. In the previous year there had been formed in London the association for the suppression of duelling. It included leading members of both houses of See also:parliament and distinguished officers of both services. The first See also:report, issued in 1844, gives a memorial of the association presented to Queen See also:Victoria through Sir James See also:Graham, and in a debate in the House of See also:Commons (15th of See also:March 1844) Sir H. See also:Hardinge, the secretary of war; announced to the House that Her See also:Majesty had expressed herself desirous of devising some expedient by which the barbarous practice of duelling should be as much as possible discouraged. In the same debate Mr See also:Turner reckoned the number of duels fought during the reign of George III. at 172, of which 91 had been attended with fatal results; yet in only two of these cases II had the See also:punishment of death been inflicted. But though the affirmed this See also:interpretation of the law. But here as elsewhere proposal of the prince consort to establish courts of honour met with no favour, yet it led to an important See also:amendment of the articles of war (April 1844). The,98th See also:article ordains that " every See also:person who shall fight or promote a duel, or take any steps thereto, or who shall not do his best to prevent duel, shall, if an officer, be cashiered, or suffer such other See also:penalty as a general court-See also:martial may See also:award." These articles, with a few verbal changes, were incorporated in the consolidated See also:Army Act of 1899 (See also:section 38), which is still in force. In the German army duels are still authorized by the military code as a last resort in See also:grave cases. A German officer who is m involved in a difficulty with another is bound to Germany. notify the circumstance to a council of honour at the latest as soon as he has either given or received a challenge. A council of honour consists of three officers of different ranks and is instructed, if possible, to bring about a reconciliation.

If unsuccessful it must see that the conditions of the duel are not out of proportion to the gravity of the quarrel. Public opinion was greatly roused by a tragic duel fought by two officers of the reserve in 1896; and the German See also:

emperor in a See also:cabinet order of 1897, confirmed in 1901, enforced the regulation of the military court of honour, and gave warning that any infringement would be visited with the full penalties of the law. It is, notwithstanding, still the fact that a German officer who is not prepared to accept a challenge and fight, if the opinion of his See also:regiment demands it, must leave the service. The German penal code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch, pars. for-L 1o) only punishes a duel when it is fought with lethal weapons; and much controversy has raged See also:round the question of the Mensuren or students' duels, which, as being conducted with sharpened rapiers, have, despite the precautions taken, in the way of bandaging the vital parts of the body which a cut would reach, to reduce the See also:risk of a fatal issue to a minimum, been declared by the Supreme Court of the See also:Empire to fall under the head of duels, and as such to be punishable. The Mensuren (German students' duels) above referred to are frequently misunderstood. They See also:bear little resemblance, See also:save in form, to the duel d. outrance, and should rather be considered in the light of athletic See also:games, in which the overflow of high See also:animal See also:spirits in young Germany finds its outlet. These combats are indulged in principally by picked representatives of the " See also:corps " (recognized clubs), and according to the position and value of the Schmisse (cuts which have landed) points are awarded to either See also:side. Formerly these so-called duels could be openly indulged in at most See also:universities without let or hindrance. Gradually, however, the See also:academic authorities took See also:cognizance of the illegality of the practice, and in many cases inflicted punishment for the offence. Nowadays, owing to the decision of the supreme court reserving to the common law tribunals the power to See also:deal with such cases, the governing bodies at the universities have only a disciplinary See also:control, which is exercised at the various seats of learning in various degrees: in some the practice is silently tolerated, or at most visited by reprimand; in others, again, by relegation or carter—with the result that the students of one university frequently visit another, in order to be able to fight out their battles under less rigorous surveillance. Any formal discussion of the morality of duelling is, in England at least, happily superfluous. No fashionable See also:vice has been so unanimously condemned both by moralists and Modern divines, and in tracing its history we are reminded views.

of the words of Tacitus, " in civitate nostra et vetabitur See also:

semper et retinebitur." Some, however, of the problems, moral and social, which it suggests may be shortly noticed. That duelling flourished so long in England the law is, perhaps, as much to blame as society. It was doubtless from the fact that duels were at first a form of legal procedure that English law has refused to take cognizance of private duels. A duel in the eye of the law differs nothing from an See also:ordinary murder. The greatest English legal authorities, from the time of Elizabeth downwards, such as See also:Coke, See also:Bacon and See also:Hale, have all distinctly the severity of the penalty defeated its own object. The public conscience revolted against a Draconian code which made no distinction between wilful murder and a deadly combat wherein each party consented to his own death or submitted to the risk of it. No See also:jury could be found to convict when conviction involved in the same penalty a Fox or a Pitt and a See also:Turpin or a Brownrigg. Such, however, was the conservatism of English publicists that See also:Bentham was the first to point out clearly this defect of the law, and propose a remedy. In his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, published in 1789, Bentham discusses the, subject with his usual boldness and logical precision. In his exposition of the absurdity of duelling considered as a branch of penal justice, and its inefficiency as a punishment, he only restates in a clearer form the arguments of See also:Paley. So far there is nothing novel in his treatment of the subject. But he soon parts company with the See also:Christian moralist, and proceeds to show that duelling does, however rudely and imperfectly, correct and repress a real social evil.

" It entirely effaces a blot which an insult imprints upon the honour. Vulgar moralists, by condemning public opinion upon this point, only confirm the fact." He then points out the true remedy for the evil. It is to extend the same legal See also:

protection to offences against honour as to offences against the person. The legal satisfactions which he suggests are some of them extremely See also:grotesque. Thus for an insult to a woman, the man is to be dressed in a woman's clothes, and the See also:retort to be inflicted by the hand of a woman. But the principle indicated is a See also:sound one, that in offences against honour the punishment must be analogous to the injury. Doubtless, if Bentham were now alive, he would allow that the See also:necessity for such a See also:scheme of legislation had in a great measure passed away. That duels have since become See also:extinct is no doubt principally owing to social changes, but it may be in part ascribed to improvements in legal remedies in the sense which Bentham indicated. A notable instance is Lord Campbell's Act of 1843, by which, in the case of a newspaper See also:libel, a public See also:apology coupled with a pecuniary See also:payment is allowed to See also:bar a plea. In the See also:Indian Code there are special enactments concerning duelling, which is punishable not as murder but as See also:homicide. Suggestions have from time to time been made for the establishment of courts of honour, but the need of such tribunals is doubtful, while the objections to them are obvious. The present tendency of See also:political See also:philosophy is to See also:contract rather than extend the See also:province of law, and any interference with social life is justly resented.

Real offences against reputation are sufficiently punished, and the See also:

rule of the lawyers, that See also:mere scurrility or opprobrious words, which neither of themselves import nor are attended with any hurtful effects, are not punish-able, seems on the whole a wise one. What in a higher See also:rank is looked upon as a See also:gross insult may in a See also:lower rank be regarded as a mere pleasantry or a harmless joke. Among the lower orders offences against honour can hardly be said to exist; the learned professions have each its own tribunal to which its members are amenable; and the highest ranks of society, however imperfect their See also:standard of morality may be, are perfectly competent to enforce that standard by means of social penalties without resorting either to trial by law or trial by battle. The duel, which in a barbarous age may be excused as " a sort of See also:wild justice," was condemned by Bacon as " a See also:direct affront of law and tending to the See also:dissolution of magistracy." It survived in more civilized times as a class distinction and as an ultimate court of appeal to punish violations of the social code. In a democratic age and under a settled See also:government it is doomed to extinction. The military duels of the See also:European See also:continent, and the so-called See also:American duel, where the See also:lot decides which of the two parties shall end his life, are singular survivals. For real offences against reputation law will provide a sufficient remedy, The learned professions will have each its own tribunal to which its members are amenable. Social stigma is at once a surer and a juster defence against conduct unworthy of a gentleman. Yet 64 the duel See also:dies hard, and even to-day it is approved or palliated by some notable publicists and professors in France and Germany. M. H. See also:Marion (La Grande Encyclopedie), in an article strongly condemnatory of duels, still holds that the wrongdoer is bound to accept a challenge, though he may not take the offensive, and further allows that obligatory duels may be .the only way of evoking a sense of honour and of maintaining discipline in the army.

Dr See also:

Paulsen goes much further, and not only defends the duels of university students (Mensu.ren) as an encouragement of See also:physical exercise, a See also:proof of courage and a protest of worth against See also:wealth, but maintains generally that the duel should be retained as an expedient in those exceptional cases when a man cannot bring himself to See also:drag before a law court the outrage done to his personal honour. But in such cases Dr Paulsen would have the courts hold the injured person scathless, whether he be challenger or challenged, and visit the‘ aggressor with condign punishment.

End of Article: DUEL (Ital. duello, Lat. duellum—old form of bellum-from duo, two)

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