In 1834, when Brussels was in a state of great anarchy and confusion, duels were not unfrequent; a man was assassinated in coming out of the playhouse for having declined a challenge; and the minister assured the chamber, that he would adopt the most energetic means to repress these excesses. Notwithstanding the prohibitory laws, several fatal meetings took place without any judicial punishment. A captain of artillery, named Pariset, had reprimanded a M. Vanderstraeten, one of his lieutenants, for not having saluted him, observing, that “he was but a boy.” The lieutenant called out his captain, who declined the meeting; when another captain, of the name of Eenens, took up the quarrel, and obliged Pariset to give him satisfaction, by calling him a coward. The meeting took place in a pine-wood near Waterloo, when Pariset was killed at the first fire. The survivor was tried by a court-martial, but acquitted on the plea that there did not exist any law to punish duelling. More recently, at Luxemburg, a duel was fought between a Baron de Tornaco and a Dutch captain, when the latter was shot dead; but no judicial inquiry followed. The government of Belgium are at this moment preparing a law for the utter prohibition of this practice, which hitherto has been rarely visited with severity. In the Belgian army, as well as in that of France, duelling, even between officers of great disparity of rank, is only punished by cashiering the offender, as appears in the following order of the day of the minister of war, Count Maison, in 1835:-- “In breach of all subordination, a lieutenant-colonel has presumed to challenge his superior officer. Such a serious transgression, which might prove most injurious to the discipline of the corps, demands a prompt and severe punishment. The minister, therefore, orders, that the lieutenant-colonel shall be forthwith brought before a court-martial. In regard to the superior officer, who might and ought to have exercised the authority which his rank conferred on him, but who condescended to accept the challenge, he is cashiered. The seconds and the other officers who were present at, or who did not prevent the meeting, shall be placed under close arrest for a fortnight.” CHAPTER XXI. DUELS IN THE UNITED STATES. To record the duels that have taken place in the United States of America would require a ponderous work. They not only have been very frequent, but in general marked with a character of reckless ferocity, that clearly shows the very slow progress of civilization in that rising country, where we have every reason to expect and to hope that at some future period the practice of duelling will fall into as much disrepute as in more polished regions.