According to our modern notions of duelling, in this curious transaction one might be disposed to think that neither of the parties was particularly anxious to fight. That Wilkes should have wished to sup in company with the person whom he had offended, the night before the duel, would lead one to fancy that he contemplated the possibility of a reconciliation. On the other hand, Lord Talbot, by his conduct, which was most ungentlemanly and outrageous, seemed disposed to bully Wilkes into a concession; and both parties talked of killing, with a view to terrify each other. From the well-known character of Wilkes, no one could doubt his courage; but his refusing to acknowledge himself the writer of the offensive article, which he after the duel admitted to have been his, was a shallow act, that nothing could have justified but the insulting manner in which Lord Talbot put the question to him; and most assuredly his Lordship had the worst of the affair, since he was satisfied with a shot returned, although Wilkes acknowledged himself the writer of the insulting paragraph. The frequency of the duels that occurred in those days does not appear to have given them, generally speaking, a character of much delicacy or punctilious honour; and they seem to have been the result of fashion more than of feeling. In 1763 Wilkes got involved in another duel, with Mr. Martin, Secretary to the Treasury. The North Briton, of which he was the editor, with its usual acrimony against the members of the administration, had introduced some characteristic sketches, supposed to allude to Samuel Martin, member of Parliament for Camelford, and Secretary to the Treasury, and afterwards the hero in Churchill’s poem, “The Duellist.” The following was the offensive paragraph:— “The secretary of a certain board, and a very apt tool of ministerial persecution, who, with a snout worthy of a Portuguese inquisitor, is hourly looking out for carrion in office, to feed the maw of the insatiable vulture, _imo, etiam in senatum venit, notat et designat unumquemque nostrûm_, he marks us, and all our innocent families, for beggary and ruin. Neither the tenderness of age, nor the sacredness of sex, is spared by the cruel Scot.” In a further number notice is again taken “of the most treacherous, base, selfish, mean, abject, low-lived, and dirty fellow, that ever wriggled himself into a secretaryship.” In consequence of that paragraph, which Mr. Martin applied to himself, he made use of very insulting language in the House of Commons, when speaking of the North Briton, upon which Wilkes sent him the following letter;— “Great George Street, Nov. 16, 1763. “SIR,