TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR. , 234 July 1843.
SIR—Your acceptance, and (to some extent) approbation, of my former letter on the subject of duelling, encourage me to offer my sentiments again on that head; especially as I find this morning that you have not relinquished the topic. I cannot forbear expressing my surprise and sorrow at the half-sided view which you and many others seem to me to take upon the question. The duel came into use as a remedy against an evil; a poor and inadequate remedy, it is true, but still not wholly ineffectual. Yet it is proposed to abolish, if possible, this remedy, before any thing has been devised to supply its place. In your article of today, a rapid glance is indeed cast at the necessity of providing a substitute ; but, though this is treated as remote, and nearly hopeless, you proceed without hesitation to recommend new penalties against the duellist.
Let us suppose that your recommendation is adopted, and that the means proposed are successful; that no man ventures in future to brave the disastrous consequences of a duel, and that the system is exploded. What would be the effect upon society? All the discourtesy, polished ruffianism, and insolent brutality, which are now in some degree kept under, would stalk abroad in full proportions ; and civilization would receive a blow and discouragement greater than has been inflicted on it since the dark ages.
What would there then be to prevent the bully and the 'swaggerer, if he keep himself within the law, and is tall and athletic enough to deride an appeal to strength, from riding rough-shod over society, and revelling in his impunity ? Absolutely nothing. Duelling, Sir, is a moral Camarina; a foul and pestilential marsh indeed, and fatal occasionally to the lives of the inhabitants, but still a barrier against greater evils, against the incursion of a foe worse than sickness or death. Ne moreas Camarinam.
With submission, you are beginning at the wrong end. Care society of its toleration of insolent behaviour ; teach it to take part with the insulted, and to reprobate the insulter, and duels will fall of themselves. As long as injustice subsists, martyrs will always be found to brave any consequences in righting that injustice. By accumulating penalties, you only increase the honour of the martyrdom. What indeed are those which you propose, compared with the twofold chance of death which be already affronts, aggravated (if Lis religious views are such that he sees an inexpiable crime in punishing wrong personally, though none in doing so through his delegate the law,) by the dread of eternal reprobation after death?
These apparently sanguinary sentiments come to you from one of the most 'peaceable men in the world, but from one who justifies resistance to oppression,
and is A HATER OF BULLIES. [Many arguments in favour of duelling apply to murder in other forms; and if duelling is to be winked at in the face of law because it is a sort of wild • justice, reaching cases that are beyond law or equity, so may assassination or other modes of revenge, where the offender is too exalted in station to be chal- lenged, or is surrounded by official or professional protection. Bullying and blackg-uardism of other kinds cannot be entirely eradicated; but if individuals could no longer challenge the aggressor, they would not hesitate in calling upon the police for assistance. Duels, moreover, keep up the very state of things out of which they generally arise. A man wishing for notoriety hectors and offends for the sole purpose of obtaining the éclat of fighting a duel; and on the other hand, offence is often taken rather than avoided, lest forbearance should be construed into cowardice. Our correspondent views duelling as a necessary evil, and thinks that greater evils would arise if it were suppressed : we think that duelling produces much of the evil to which he alludes, and for which he supposes it to be a remedy. Put it down at all hazards, and we have no doubt that society of itself would discover other ways for settling personal disputes on punctilios of honour, either by arbitration or by sending bragga- docios "to Coventry."—En.]
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