It appears that the French are still profoundly prepossessed in
favour of that kind of homicide under conventional regula- tions which is called duelling. A French jury on Tuesday acquitted the Marquis de Mores of homicide for killing his opponent, Captain Mayer, by running him through the lung in a duel, the question turning to some considerable extent at last on a subsidiary doubt as to whether the swords chosen were of exceptional weight, and chosen by the challenger expressly because he knew that Captain Mayer's sword-arm was not strong. The jury thought,—very likely rightly,— that this aggravating circumstance was not established, and ought not to have been raised ; and though there was no doubt at all as to the fact of the homicide, and the illegality of the duel, they acquitted the Marquis de Mores. Perhaps, also, the prejudice against the Jews was mixed up with the accusa- tion, as it was in an anti-Jewish quarrel that the Marquis de Mores sent his challenge. Until the French begin to see the essential vain-gloriousness and ostentatious frivolity of this willingness to sacrifice life in the interests of braggadocio, such miscarriages of justice will continue to be frequent.
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