DUELLING IN ITALY.
SIDNEY SMITH said the railroad would never be made safe till a bishop was killed ; and if the death of a distin- guished scholar and respected citizen like Professor Cesare Parrini contributes to the suppression of that barbaric mode of settling quarrels still so prevalent in Italy, some good results will have been obtained by his untimely and tragic end. Not many months ago, the lamented Professor Parrini delivered a much-applauded lecture in Florence, in which he strongly con- demned the practice of duelling. How a man of letters, of superior intellect and sense, should be so weak as to yield to a vulgar prejudice which he heartily despised, is one of the anoma- lies of human nature difficult to understand or explain. The facts are briefly as follows. Professor Parrini was the Florence correspondent of the Gazzella d'Italia, published in Rome, and he had given a summary of a criminal case in Florence, accord- ing to the report of it which he had received. It was the trial of an adventuress for dishonest practices. In the course of the pro- ceedings, the facts of her life were brought out, and her early connection with a certain De Witt, son of a rich banker of Leghorn, now resident in Florence. Some inaccuracy got into the report transmitted to the Gazzetta d'Italia. De Witt, furious at the exposure, and wanting to wreak his rage on some one, telegraphed to Rome for the name of the corre- spondent. The editor did not answer him, but sent a warning note to Parrini, asking him to correct and explain matters. This letter, by a neglect not uncommon with the Post Office in Italy, did not reach its destination till poor Parrini had been dis- patched to another world. Arriving in proper time, it might have saved his life. Meantime, De Witt sought the Professor, and meeting him coming out of his office, asked if he were the Cavaliere Cesare Parrini, to which the Professor, quite ignorant of who addressed him, replied in the affirmative ; whereupon De Witt slapped him in the face. The proper thing to do, it seems
to us, would have been simply to give the man into the hands of the police; and it has always been a matter of surprise to us that the hot-blooded Italians, since they will not do the proper thing, can control the impulse of the natural man to knock those who insult them down, and can await a formal encounter with swords or pistols. It is not that they meditate a deep revenge ; they are as capable of generosity and forgivingness as we are; and, in point of fact, their duels end generally in a scratch or two, and all is forgotten. It is the prejudice of Society which they dare not resist, and Parrini was not superior to it. He sent his friends, the Count G. Arrivabene, and Dr. Malenotti, to demand satisfaction. The four seconds, according to their account, endeavoured to bring about a peaceful solution of the question, but in vain. The meeting was then arranged for the following morning, at day- break, outside the city. It was agreed that the combat was to continue till rendered absolutely impossible by the wounds of one or both of the antagonists. The fight lasted about an hour, Professor Parrini standing always on the defensive, and doing nothing but parrying the assaults of his adversary.
His friends• think he did this of a set purpose, from excessive generosity and unwillingness to shed blood. He had received repeated surface-wounds in the arm and shoulder, and seemed fatigued, when the seconds say they interposed, and asked the doctors to declare him incapable of continuing the combat; the doctors could not say it was impossible for him to continue it, and he himself asserted be was quite well able to go on.
So they set-to again, and in a moment when the Professor was unguarded the sword of his adversary penetrated several inches into his body, fatally wounding the intestines. He was carried to the villa of the Marchese Gorrigiani, where, after three days' agony, he expired, on July 23rd. Anticipating his death, he made his will in the morning, leaving his splendid library to the city of Turin. He had probably the finest collection of historic works to be found in a private house in Italy ; and he desired his remains to be interred in the same city, which he loved
better than his native Florence. He then asked and received the Sacrament, and almost immediately afterwards had a
haemorrhage, which left him prostrate. " My last hour is come," he said. "I thank all my dear friends, and I pardon him who has done me this injury." In a few minutes he breathed his last sigh.
Cesare Parrini was a kind-hearted, generous, courteous gentle- man. He had many friends, who somewhat unjustly call his death an assassination, and cry loudly for justice on his murderer. The Gazzetta d'Ilalia, with which he was connected, and which always condemned duelling as an infamous practice, is more vehement in its denunciations than the other journals. But people get tired of crying out, when they see nothing comes of it ; and it is to be feared that this crime will be hushed up in the usual way. The culprit has fled to Greece, and will keep out of the way till the noise has blown over, when doubtless he will return home without let or hindrance.
The event has created a profound sensation throughout Italy, for though duelling is not infrequent, death by duelling is very rare. It would seem that the public is now disgusted with a practice as barbarous and senseless as ordeal by fire, and if the Government introduced a strong law on the subject, it would probably be supported by a large majority. The authorities of Florence have ordered an investigation as to the facts ; and there will be an interesting trial, which will perhaps settle the duel question for ever.
In conclusion, we must add that novelists like Signor Barili, who have the talent to write popular and attractive books, have much to answer for in exalting the duelist as a hero, displaying the finest type of manly courage. We firmly believe that a popular novelist has more power for good or evil in his hands than a popular preacher ; and it would be better that be buried his talent in a napkin and laid it aside, than that he used it recklessly to work mischief.
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