dium of the fisticuffs. It
was at one time the custom among these savage youths to prefer the
sword-combat, for the facility it gave them of cutting off the noses of
their opponents. To disfigure them in this manner was an object of
ambition, and the German duellists reckoned the number of these disgusting
trophies which they had borne away, with as much satisfaction as a
successful general the provinces he had reduced or the cities he had
taken.

But it would be wearisome to enter into the minute detail of all the duels
of modern times. If an examination were made into the general causes which
produced them, it would be found that in every case they had been either
of the most trivial or the most unworthy nature. Parliamentary duels were
at one time very common, and amongst the names of those who have soiled a
great reputation by conforming to the practice, may be mentioned those of
Warren Hastings, Sir Philip Francis, Wilkes, Pitt, Fox, Grattan, Curran,
Tierney, and Canning. So difficult is it even for the superior mind to
free itself from the trammels with which foolish opinion has enswathed
it--not one of these celebrated persons who did not in his secret soul
condemn the folly to which he lent himself. The bonds of reason, though
iron-strong, are easily burst through; but those of folly, though lithe
and frail as the rushes by a stream, defy the stoutest heart to snap them
asunder. Colonel Thomas, an officer in the Guards, who was killed in a
duel, added the following clause to his will the night before he
died:--"In the first place, I commit my soul to Almighty God, in hope of
his mercy and pardon for the irreligious step I now (in compliance with
the unwarrantable customs of this wicked world) put myself under the
necessity of taking." How many have been in the same state of mind as this
wise, foolish man! He knew his error, and abhorred it, but could not
resist it for fear of the opinion of the prejudiced and unthinking. No
other could have blamed him for refusing to fight a duel.

The list of duels that have sprung from the most degrading causes might be
stretched out to an almost indefinite extent. Sterne's father fought a
duel about a goose; and the great Raleigh about a tavern-bill.[68] Scores
of duels (many of them fatal) have been fought from disputes at cards, or
a place at a theatre; while hundreds of challenges, given and accepted
over-night, in a fit of drunkenness, have been fought out the next mornin