hat there
should be declared a constant and settled resolution in the state to
abolish it altogether; that care should be taken that the evil be no more
cockered, nor the humour of it fed, but that all persons found guilty
should be rigorously punished by the Star Chamber, and those of eminent
quality banished from the court.

In the succeeding reign, when Donald Mackay, the first Lord Reay, accused
David Ramsay of treason, in being concerned with the Marquis of Hamilton
in a design upon the crown of Scotland, he was challenged by the latter to
make good his assertion by single combat.[65] It had been at first the
intention of the government to try the case by the common law, but Ramsay
thought he would stand a better chance of escape by recurring to the old
and almost exploded custom, but which was still the right of every man in
appeals of treason. Lord Reay readily accepted the challenge, and both
were confined in the Tower until they found security that they would
appear on a certain day appointed by the court to determine the question.
The management of the affair was delegated to the Marischal Court of
Westminster, and the Earl of Lindsay was created Lord Constable of England
for the purpose. Shortly before the day appointed, Ramsay confessed in
substance all that Lord Reay had laid to his charge, upon which Charles I.
put a stop to the proceedings.

[65] See _History of the House and Clan of Mackay_.

But in England, about this period, sterner disputes arose among men than
those mere individual matters which generate duels. The men of the
Commonwealth encouraged no practice of the kind, and the subdued
aristocracy carried their habits and prejudices elsewhere, and fought
their duels at foreign courts. Cromwell's parliament, however--although
the evil at that time was not so crying--published an order in 1654 for
the prevention of duels, and the punishment of all concerned in them.
Charles II., on his restoration, also issued a proclamation upon the
subject. In his reign an infamous duel was fought--infamous not only from
its own circumstances, but from the lenity that was shewn to the principal
offenders.

The worthless Duke of Buckingham, having debauched the Countess of
Shrewsbury, was challenged by her husband to mortal combat in January
1668. Charles II. endeavoured to prevent the duel, not from any regard to
public morality, but from fear for the life of his favourite. He gave
commands to the Duke of