Social England under the Regency, Vol. 1 (of 2)Ashton, John
History
Social England under the Regency, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Ashton, John
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Regency -- England
"The most distressing scene that we observed arose from the
suffocation of a child about a twelvemonth old, in the arms of
its mother; who, with others, had been involved in the crowd. The
wretched mother did not discover the state of her infant until she
reached Giltspur Street, when she rent the air with her shrieks
of self-reproach: while her husband, who accompanied her, and who
had the appearance of a decent tradesman, stood mute with the dead
body of his child in his arms, which he regarded with a look of
indescribable agony. Such are the heartrending and melancholy scenes
which were exhibited, and yet this forms but a faint picture of the
enormities and miseries attendant upon this disgraceful festival."
Duelling was dying out, and if anything would help its decline in
public opinion, it would be something like the following remarks of
Lord Ellenborough. They arose from an application to the Court of
King's Bench, for a criminal information against two persons, for
posting a Merchant at Lloyd's as a coward for refusing a Challenge.
These are the learned judge's remarks on the case:--
"Really it is high time to put a stop to this spurious chivalry of
the counting-house, and the counter. The Court has been for these
two days occupied with cases of this sort: yesterday it was an angry
linendraper of Bristol, who had been a little time in the local
militia, long enough to imbibe all the worst prejudices of the army,
that thought proper to post a practising surgeon for not accepting
a challenge; and, to-day, we have a mercantile man in the same
predicament; instead of posting their books, these tradesmen are
posting one another. The Court desires it to be understood, that it
is not necessary for the party applying for a remedy against such an
outrage as this, to come perfectly unblemished before them: and that
if it shall be shown to be necessary for public quiet and justice,
they will interpose the remedy sought for. If the challenge in this
case had been sent _eo instanti_ upon the defendant's quitting the
Coffee-house, the Court would have contemplated it as emanating from
the venial irritation of the moment; but it appears that he at first
applied to the prosecutor for an apology, upon the refusal of which,
his friend, the other defendant, was sent upon this mischievous
and malignant mission to the prosecutor, in the country; and then,
because a man refuses to be hunted down when dining out at a friend's
house, and challenged at six o'clock in the evening, he is to be
posted for a Coward at Lloyd's Coffee-house the next morning! _Rule
Absolute._"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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