The tension in the Hungarian Chamber has produced a bewildering
crop of duels. M. Horansky, leader of the Nationalists, began it by accusing Baron BaniTy, the Premier of bad faith. Baron Banffy. in a severe letter, gave him the lie, and M. Horansky challenged him to "a second-class duel," which means in Hungary that the challenger will fight, but does not acknowledge that his opponent is a gentleman. Baron Banffy, of course, considered this merely a fresh insult, and refused to accept such a challenge ; and in the quarrels about the incident which arose among the seconds eight more duels were arranged. Three of them were fought out on Wednesday, but though two of the combatants were wounded, nobody was killed. It is believed that a whole series will be fought, headed by one between M. Horansky and Baron Banffy, the former agreeing, it may be presumed, to give a challenge to a duel of the first-class kind ; but it is not prob- able that there will be any fatal result. The whole business seems very silly and wicked to Englishmen, but the Continent is all of one mind on the subject, and the Kings, who do not fight duels, appear rather to approve them. The oddest fact in the whole business is that the Church of Rome condemns duelling as severely as Freemasonry, and that none of these Catholic gentlemen attend for one moment to her teaching. If they do, all other Catholic gentlemen boycott them.
