Prince Alfonso of Bourbon contributed to Monday's Times a very
interesting account of the progress of the campaign against duelling which he initiated several years ago in Spain. For some time the Prince appears to have carried on his crusade almost single-handed, but of late the movement has made remarkable strides, thanks to the adhesion of the Marquis d'Heredia, now president of the National Anti-Duelling League, who is admitted to be the best swordsman in Spain, and above all of Baron d'Albi. This nobleman has not only constituted himself a travelling advocate of the principles of the League, but has succeeded in winning over the famous Spanish dramatist, Jose Echegarray, in whose plays the punclonor was up to the time of his conversion invariably referred to the arbitrament of the "bare bodkin." Now he has signalised his conversion by writing a play in which the duello is held up to ridicule. But ridicule by itself is not enough to kill duelling, as the case of France sufficiently proves. The only effective method, as the Times points out, is for the law to treat the killing of a man in a duel simply as a common murder. That is the law of England, and Prince Alfonso and his colleagues have so far worked on public opinion in Spain that a Bill to this effect has been presented to the Senate, and, members of all parties having promised their support, will, it is hoped, become law on the reassembling of the Cortes.
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