appreciate the dread significance of his opening. As soon as he had uttered the last two words, Captain Helsham's cheek was instantaneously blanched. We were eyeing him intently at the moment, and shall never forget it. He stood, however, with rigid erectness, gazing with mingled anger and fear at the judge, whom he felt to be uttering his death-warrant; and after a while bent his eyes on the jury, from whom they wandered scarce a moment during that momentous summing-up--one which, with every word, was letting fall around him, as he must have felt, the curtain of death. "The law of honour," said the judge, towards the close of his charge, "is an imposture--a wicked imposture, when set against the law of the land, and the law of God Almighty, claiming the right to take away human life. I tell you, who sit there to discharge a sworn duty, that a fatal duel is malicious homicide--and _that_ is wilful murder." The jury retired to consider their verdict; and the judge at the same time quitted the court till his presence should be required again. Captain Helsham, however, continued standing at the bar almost motionless as a statue. After a prolonged absence of an hour and forty minutes, the jury returned into court. The prisoner eyed them, as one by one they re-entered their box, with a solicitude dismal to behold, and the irrepressible quivering of his upper lip indicated mortal agitation. The verdict, however, was--Not Guilty; on which the prisoner heaved a heavy sigh, passed his hand slowly over his damp forehead, bowed slightly, but rather sternly to the jury, and was then removed from the bar and released from custody. When the verdict was a few minutes afterwards communicated to Baron Bayley, who had remained in attendance in an adjoining room, he remarked gravely, "I did _my_ duty! It is well for Captain Helsham that the verdict is as it is; had it been the other way, I should certainly have left him for execution." In that case, the duellist would have died on the gallows on the ensuing Monday morning. It is now, however, time to return to Mr Townsend's volumes, where we find two trials for duelling. One is that of the late Mr Stuart, who killed Sir Alexander Boswell, in Scotland, on the 26th March 1822, in a duel conducted with undisputed regularity and fairness. The other is that of the Earl of Cardigan, who fought and wounded Captain Harvey Tuckett, but not mortally, in a duel, on the 12th September 1840. This trial is one of remarkable interest, in every point of view; and we shall take some pains in bringing it distinctly and intelligibly before our readers.