SUBSTITUTE FOR PISTOLS.
WHILE the crowd are eagerly devouring each gossiping detail of the late duel furnished by the industry of the press, more solid minds strive to profit by the chance of a hearing which the tem- porary excitement affords, to suggest modes by which for the future the fancied necessity for such occurrences may be averted. A cor- respondent, who in regarding " murder" as an inapplicable term for this description of homicide differs from the view taken not only by the law but by most writers on the subject, closes his letter with a sensible suggestion.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
SIR-It is seldom that I rise from the perusal of your articles with so quali- fied a satisfaction as that which your remarks on the late duel have occasioned. In your observations on the hypocrisy of society, in hounding a man to the fight with one hand and lashing him for his obedience with the other, I entirely agree. But your own abhorrence of the act of duelling is greater than I should have expected, or than appears to me to be warranted by its nature. You treat duelling as truly murder, and of the worst sort ; though you admit that society preclude themselves from so treating it, by their encouragement of it. But is it in fact murder, or anything like it ? It may be as great a crime, if you please ; but it seems to me to be confounding notions to class the two together, and that duelling is no more murder than seduction is rape. Not only should we, as you suggest, cease to call it murder in our statute-book, but we should cease to consider it as such in our minds.
Is duelling any thing more than the remnant of the universal practice, in uncivilized times, of righting one's own injuries? In proportion as society provides vicarious means for doing this, it forbids the injured party to act for himself, and Public Opinion sides with Law : but where society has failed to provide a remedy, the old right remains in full force, and will always be exer- cised, and its exercise meet with sympathy, let Law say what it will.
You might agree to this where the injury was a serious one; but you talk of the trifles for which duels are fought,—" a slighting or disrespectful word." Alas, Sir, what but conventional is the value of anything for which people con- tend? What is the intrinsic value of a diamond ? and yet men have been hung for stealing it. The slighting word, if it lowers a man's reputation in society, may be more to him than half his fortune.
The only cure lies with society itself. Let them but divert the obloquy which they now heap on an insulted party if he bears the insult, to the head of the insulter, and they may then justly punish the man who seeks redress by a duel. Let them as scornfully excommunicate the man who insults any one, as they would now (I trust) the man who insulted a woman or a clergyman, and they will then hear of no more duels, because there will then be no more insults. In the mean time, let the inquiry for a jury be, not whether the prisoner at the bar fought the duel, but whether he caused the duel. If, by giving the in- sult and refusing to apologize for it—or by declining to accept a sufficient apology for an insult received by him—he was the occasion of the duel, let him meet with no mercy : but if the duel was forced on him by a brute or a fool, let him meet with pity rather than blame. I say this without reference to the late unhappy case, of the merits of which I know nothing, and have heard little that can be depended on. I am happy to learn from some of your contemporaries that projects are in formation for superseding duels. Allow me to propose mine. Let seconds be appointed, as now : let them choose an umpire : let the seconds, if they can agree—or, if not, the umpire—dictate the apologies or explanations proper to he made by the offending party, or by both parties if both are in fault. Should a party refuse to obey the award so made, let his refusal be published in the newspapers, and himself be cut in decent society. And whether he gives or re- fuses the apology required of him, let the honour of the other party be con- sidered as satisfied by the proceeding. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, A. HATER Or BULLIES.
Now, most persons will consider that the intentional taking of human life, upon any ground short of self-preservation, is not only
something " like " murder, but broadly and unequivocally murder itself. That many persona engage in duels without the intention of killing or wounding, is a matter of probability ; and of course to these even the charge of attempting murder would be inapplicable; such affairs being merely farcical, were it not that they serve as ex- amples for others who may imitate them in earnest, and that it is impossible to discriminate cases in which the homicidal intention is absent. The distinction, too, between seduction and rape is wrongly applied by our correspondent. Wide as the difference is between these offences, it is still only a difference of degree. But between duelling and murder he does not contend for this difference, since he admits them to be of like enormity. He fails also to esta- blish any inherent dissimilarity, since the " wild justice " of re- vengeful murder is, equally with duelling, a remnant of the practice of "righting one's own injuries" in cases—and these are numerous— where the law appears inadequate to that end. Undoubtedly, where the law fails to provide redress, the injured party is driven to seek it for himself; but lie must be careful how he falls into the error of supposing that he is righting his own injury by shooting his wronger. Waiving, however, these points, and leaving our correspondent to adopt any specific term that may seem most appropriate for this mode of killing, which although " no murder" may be " as great a crime," we regard his proposal for the suppression of the evil as clear and practical. The chief doubt of its probable adoption arises from the circumstance that it is left to emanate from indivi- duals engaged in controversy : the unlikelihood of its originating in such moments is shown by the fact that a plan so much in har- mony with common sense, and which has always been obviously available, has never yet been mooted either by principals or seconds. Apprehension would always exist that cowardice would be retorted upon its proposer ; and hence the scheme, good in its way, requires some adventitious aid for its development.
This aid may be furnished by very simple means. The disease which manifests itself by a morbid sensitiveness of what is called "honour," must be cured by acting in harmony with that symptom, and not by opposing it. It' the Anti-Duelling Association, which has been lately formed, would elect from among their body a suffi- cient number to form a permanent Court of Arbitration, and if a successful application could be made to the husband of the Queen to become its Patron, a refusal in any case to refer to it would be regarded in fashionable society as disrespectful to its leader, and the knowledge of this might prove sufficient, when perhaps all other means would be ineffectual, to insure obedience even from naval and military men, with whom it is felt the chief diffi- culty lies. The public existence of such a court would, moreover, take away all those considerations which at present operate upon juries as palliatives of the offence, and it is probable that any case then occurring would be visited with something more than the mere forms of law.
But it will be said that the duties of such a court would be end- less, since paltry disputes, which die away under the dread of a duel, would then be pertinaciously maintained and dragged forward for arbitration. To obviate this, in each appeal a certain sum, say ten or twenty pounds, might be required, to be applied at the dis- cretion of the court to a public charity ; the judgment including an award as to the party by whom this payment should be made. The lament, " that of all the evils which beset society there are few which Kings or Laws can cure," has long been familiar. By the course now indicated, the Prince—in many cases debarred by political considerations from taking an active part in the advance- ment of the People—may be the instrument of achieving for Eng- land the distinction of being the first among the nations of the world to discard a custom which, in whatever country it may be retained, must stand as a satire upon every boast of civilization.
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