ng nothing but their scorn and
their contempt!" It is society, and not the duellist, who is to blame.
Female influence too, which is so powerful in leading men either to good
or to evil, takes in this case the evil part. Mere animal bravery has,
unfortunately, such charms in the female eye, that a successful duellist
is but too often regarded as a sort of hero; and the man who refuses to
fight, though of truer courage, is thought a poltroon, who may be trampled
on. Mr. Graves, a member of the American legislature, who, early in 1838,
killed a Mr. Cilley in a duel, truly and eloquently said, on the floor of
the House of Representatives, when lamenting the unfortunate issue of that
encounter, that society was more to blame than he was. "Public opinion,"
said the repentant orator, "is practically the paramount law of the land.
Every other law, both human and divine, ceases to be observed; yea,
withers and perishes in contact with it. It was this paramount law of this
nation and of this House that forced me, under the penalty of dishonour,
to subject myself to the code, which impelled me unwillingly into this
tragical affair. Upon the heads of this nation, and at the doors of this
House, rests the blood with which my unfortunate hands have been stained!"

As long as society is in this mood; as long as it thinks that the man who
refuses to resent an insult, deserved that insult, and should be scouted
accordingly; so long, it is to be feared, will duelling exist, however
severe the laws may be. Men must have redress for injuries inflicted; and
when those injuries are of such a nature that no tribunal will take
cognisance of them, the injured will take the law into their own hands,
and right themselves in the opinion of their fellows, at the hazard of
their lives. Much as the sage may affect to despise the opinion of the
world, there are few who would not rather expose their lives a hundred
times than be condemned to live on, in society, but not of it--a by-word
of reproach to all who know their history, and a mark for scorn to point
his finger at.

The only practicable means for diminishing the force of a custom which is
the disgrace of civilisation, seems to be the establishment of a court of
honour, which should take cognisance of all those delicate and almost
intangible offences which yet wound so deeply. The court established by
Louis XIV. might be taken as a model. No man now fights a duel when a fit
apology has been off