e. I carried it on. I dined
some of the best men of our day. I seized the opportunity when our
choicest "emperor" was rolling on wheels to propound my system. I
mention the names of Bramham DeWitt, Colonel Hibbert Segrave, Lord
Alonzo Carr, Admiral Loftus, the Earl of Luton, the Marquis of
Hatchford, Jack Hippony, Monterez Williams,--I think you know him?--and
little Dick Phillimore, son of a big-wig, a fellow of a capital wit
and discretion; I mention them as present to convince you we are not
triflers, dear boy. My argument ran, it is absurd to fight; also it is
intolerable to be compelled to submit to insult. As the case stands, we
are under a summary edict of the citizens, to whom chivalry is unknown.
Well, well, I delivered a short speech. Fighting, I said, resembled
butting,--a performance proper to creatures that grow horns instead
of brains.. not to allude to a multitude of telling remarks; and the
question "Is man a fighting animal?" my answer being that he is not born
with spurs on his heels or horns to his head and that those who insisted
on fighting should be examined by competent anatomists, "ologists" of
some sort, to decide whether they have the excrescences, and proclaim
them... touching on these lighter parts of my theme with extreme
delicacy. But--and here I dwelt on my point: Man, if not a fighting
animal in his glorious--I forgot what--is a sensitive one, and has the
idea of honour. "Hear," from Colonel Segrave, and Sir Weeton Slaterhe
was one of the party. In fine, Richie, I found myself wafted into a
breathing oration. I cannot, I confess it humbly, hear your "hear,
hear," without going up and off, inflated like a balloon. "Shall the
arbitration of the magistracy, indemnifications in money awarded by the
Law-courts, succeed in satisfying,"--but I declare to you, Richie, it
was no platform speech. I know your term--"the chaincable sentence."
Nothing of the kind, I assure you. Plain sense, as from gentlemen to
gentlemen. We require, I said, a protection that the polite world of
Great Britain does not now afford us against the aggressions of the
knave, the fool, and the brute. We establish a Court. We do hereby--no,
no, not the "hereby"; quite simply, Richie--pledge ourselves--I said
some other word not "pledge" to use our utmost authority and influence
to exclude from our circles persons refusing to make the reparation of
an apology for wanton common insults: we renounce intercourse with
men declining