appellant had persevered in the Trial by Battle, he had no doubt the legislature would have felt it their imperious duty at once to interfere, and pass _an ex post facto law to prevent so degrading a spectacle from taking place_."[54] [49] Selden, The Duello, or Single Combat, from Antiquity derived into this Kingdom of England; also, Table Talk, _Duel_: Works, Vol. III. col. 49-84, 2027. [50] Madox, Hist. of Exchequer, Vol. I. p. 349. [51] "Est autem magna Assisa regale quoddam beneficium, ... quo vitæ hominum et status integritati tam salubriter consulitur, ut in jure quod quis in libero soli tenemento possidet retinendo, duelli casum declinare possunt homines ambiguum.... Jus enim, _quod post mullas et longas dilationes vix evincitur per duellum_, per beneficium istius constitutionis commodius et acceleratius expeditur." (Glanville, Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Angliæ, Lib. II. cap. 7.) These pointed words are precisely applicable to our Arbitrament of War, with its many and long delays, so little productive of justice. [52] Robertson, Hist. Charles V., Vol. I. note 22. [53] Proceedings in the Court of Chivalry, on an Appeal of High Treason by Donald Lord Rea against Mr. David Ramsay, 7 Cha. I., 1631: Hargrave's State Trials, Vol. XI. pp. 124-131. [54] Hansard, Parl. Debates, XXXIX. 1104. Blackstone, Com., III. 337: Chitty's note. These words evince the disgust which Trial by Battle excites in our day. Its folly and wickedness are conspicuous to all. Reverting to that early period in which it prevailed, our minds are impressed by the general barbarism; we recoil with horror from the awful subjection of justice to brute force,--from the impious profanation of God in deeming him present at these outrages,--from the moral degradation out of which they sprang, and which they perpetuated; we enrobe ourselves in self-complacent virtue, and thank God that we are not as these men,--that ours is an age of light, while theirs was an age of darkness! * * * * *