LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
SIR HARRY VERNEY'S EXPERIENCE.
fro THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIE,-A letter which is conceived in so genial a spirit, and written with so facile a pen as Sir H. Verney's, must be ac- cepted with much satisfaction as a proof of the great change for the better which has taken place in his time. May I sup- plement his statement by reference to a common practice which has happily ceased for about half-a-century, but to which he has made no reference ? I allude to the frequency of duelling, which often led to such disastrous results, with many instances of which he must have become familiar.
There was, for instance, the duel between Mr. Canning and Lord Castlereagh, and twenty years later, the one between the Duke of Wellington and Lord Winchelsea. More lamentable among political duels, from the fatal consequences, were those in which Mr. Scott and Sir A. Boswell fell, as was also the result in the duel between O'Connell and D'Esterre, or Lord Camelford and Mr. Best.
Still later in life, he must have become acquainted with the duel between Lord Cardigan and Captain Tuckett, when the latter was wounded ; or that between Colonel Fawcett and Lieutenant Monro, more hateful from the relationship between the two, in which the former was killed. This took place in 1843, and in the following year the War Office put a stop to the practice by stringent regulations, inflicting condign punishment upon any officer who should be in any way engaged in a duel, whether as principal or not.
Since that time, society has accepted in England as its rule for procedure in cases of honour, the decision which was then pronounced.—I am, Sir, &c., Sandford St. Martin.
E. MARSHALL, F.S.A.
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