TOPICS OF THE DAY.
DUELLING.
DUELLING is once More a prominent topic of conversation. A poor man has just thrown away his life in compliment to a custom of so- ciety. Is society the better for it ? If not, what right has society to exact such sacrifices of its members ? Individuals are but the creatures of public opinion—they must conform to its mandates—they cannot withhold their allegiance from it. To resist, is to become an outlaw— to place one's self beyond the pale of sympathy. Duelling is one of the forms in which the wisdom of our ancestors delighted to display itself; and with the custom, we have inherited from them the tone of feeling which gave rise to it. Public opinion however, we are inclined to believe, is becoming more enlightened on this as on other points ; and the sanction which fashion has lately lent to duelling seems to us but an eddy in the cur- rent of general sentiment. But until these bloody appeals shall be universally reprobated, we have but an indifferent right to laugh at the fiery ordeals of an earlier age. The duel in which Mr. CLAYTON fell, is, according to one version, the result of a dispute about the Catholic Relief Bill. What a strange sequel to a controversy about religion! By what process of logic is such a corollary to be deduced from any proposition about points Of faith ?—By another account, Mr. LAMBRECHT had seen Mr. CLAY- TON horse-whipped—had reproached him with his meekness on the occasion—and been called out. A man may, it would seem, get horse- whipped without deeming it nrcessary to have recourse to cold lead ; while he will find himself called on to cut the throat of any good- natured friend who may recall the circumstance to his memory. There is, however, in addition to your duellists by compulsion, . class of men who, when the customs of society, - unreasonable as these are, do not call upon them for a display of manhood, delight to boast of their bottled-up valour. Such are your swaggerers in courts of law—your utterers of threats in public—your news- paper editors, who tell the world of their intention to deal in chal- lenges, and who, should the public authorities permit them to take the field, manifest their joy at escaping shot-free by a set of leading arti- cles of the nature of bulletins. These would-be- duellists are public nuisances ; but it is luckily in the power of the public to abate them by a simple process—by laughing at them. Two banisters have in the course of the week mooted, in a court of justice, sonic rather nice points on the courage and gentility of each other. How far either may be a man of courage, it may be difficult to decide : how far they have shown themselves gentlemen, is perfectly evident. ,
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