Much good would result from making it the duty of the coroner to hold an inquest after every duel, whether the consequences had been fatal or not. When a pistol is discharged, accident alone determines what shall be the consequence. The guilt of the shooter is just the same, whether the ball take effect or not. It is true the parties might, according to the law as it now exists, be prosecuted, and since Lord Ellenborough’s Act they are liable to be capitally convicted; but it has not been made the particular duty of any public officer to see the law put into execution, and consequently nothing is done. Since, however, a great, and perhaps the greatest part of the efficacy of punishment results from the certainty of its infliction, it is evident that every temptation to violate the law, from the hope that accident will be favourable, ought to be cut off. In the present state of society, the total abolition of duels cannot, as experience abundantly shows, be effected. A speedy, certain, and reputable method of punishing insults must first be discovered and established. At present, with respect to those injuries, society is in a state of nature. The right of private war has only been surrendered, because the individual is better protected by the arm of the law than by his own strength. Whenever there shall be instituted a supreme court, to act as arbiter among nations, public war will, for the same reason, fall into disuse, or will only be made for the purpose of chastising a refractory member of this great community, just as the police officers may be said to carry on war against the criminals whom they apprehend. But as it would be preposterous to expect a nation to sit down quietly under its wrongs until such a court is appointed, so it is equally unreasonable to demand that private men should always refrain from redressing, by their own means, those grievances for which the law offers no remedy. By the plan which we have proposed the balance of pain would be fearfully against the aggressor; and that noxious animal, the bully, must soon become extinct. At present he stands on equal ground with his antagonist; or rather, from having made a just estimate of the worthlessness of his own life, he is aware that the stakes are in his favour. Add to this, he generally has no better occupation for his time than to become very expert at his weapons. In England, these creatures are happily become rare; but in Ireland, notwithstanding its boasted exemption from venomous animals, in France, in the United States, and in our own colonies, the breed still flourishes—at once the terror and the disgrace of civilized society. THE END. --------------------- LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, BANGOR HOUSE, SHOE LANE. FOOTNOTES ----- Footnote 1: See Spelman’s Glossary ad vocem “Campus.” Footnote 2: