The records of Parliament notice a challenge sent to Lord Chancellor Clarendon by Lord Ossory, son of the Duke of Ormond, for injurious words made use of in the House of Lords, on the debate upon a bill for prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle into England. The Chancellor submitted the message to the House. This bill was intended to protect English agriculture and the landed interest, and was chiefly supported by Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale; and in its provisions its framers appeared to have lost sight of the fact, that if the Irish were deprived of the means of selling their principal commodities, it was not in their power to apply the produce of the sale to the purchase of English goods. Buckingham supported it with all his powers; and indulging both in his national animosity towards Ireland and his present enmity to the Duke of Ormond, maintained with much vehemence, that no one could oppose it who had not an Irish interest and an Irish intellect. Lord Ossory immediately sent him a challenge, which Buckingham evaded, on the pretext that he had mistaken the place and hour of the rendezvous, during which time his opponent was apprehended. This Bill led to much violent recrimination, and also to personal conflict, Buckingham having had a scuffle with the Marquis of Dorchester, who tore off a handful of his hair, while the Duke pulled off his periwig. Pepys, in his notes, alludes to the sad prevalence of duels about this period, which he states to be “a kind of emblem of the general complexion of the whole kingdom” at the time; and he relates, in the following terms, the meeting that took place between Sir H. Bellasses and Mr. Porter in 1667:—“They two dined yesterday at Sir Robert Carr’s, where, it seems, people do drink high, all that come. It happened that these two, the greatest friends in the world, were talking together, and Sir H. Bellasses talked a little louder than ordinary to Tom Porter, giving him some advice. Some of the company standing by said, ‘What! are they quarrelling, that they talk so high?’ Sir H. Bellasses hearing it, said, ‘No, I would have you know, I never quarrel, but I strike; take that as a rule of mine!’—‘How?’ said Tom Porter, ‘strike! I would I could see the man in England that durst give me a blow?’ With that Sir H. Bellasses did give him a box on the ear; and so they were going out to fight, but were hindered. And by and by Tom Porter went out; and meeting Dryden the poet, told him of the business, and that he was resolved to fight Sir H. Bellasses presently, for he knew, if he did not, they would be friends to-morrow, and then the blow would rest upon him; and he desires Dryden to let him have his boy to bring him notice which way Sir H. Bellasses goes. By and by he is informed, that Sir H. Bellasses’s coach was coming; so Tom Porter went down out of the coffee-room, where he stayed for the tidings, and stopped the coach, and bade Sir H. Bellasses come out. ‘Why,’ said Sir H.