1830.] Affairs in General. 333 



executioner. And the evil will be instantly at end. But we shall not 

 have the honour of setting the example of this wise and religious 

 measure. 



" A law has just been promulgated by the Elector of Hesse, against 

 duelling, and, if put into effect, it must inevitably abolish the practice in 

 the State which is subject to it. Whoever merely sends a challenge is 

 liable to imprisonment in a fortress, for not less than three years. If a 

 duel is fought in which neither party is killed, both parties are to be 

 expelled the service ; to be deprived of their letters patent of nobility, if 

 they possess them ; and to be imprisoned in a fortress for not less than 

 ten years." 



There seems no provision here for the case of either of the parties being 

 killed. But as the mere attempt to kill is to be punished by ten years 

 imprisonment and public exclusion from all honours, we must suppose 

 that death is the penalty. The Hessian law falls short in omitting the 

 seconds, and other stimulators of the duel ; who are generally much more 

 criminal than the actual combatants, and without whose interference, it 

 is obvious that no duel could be fought. 



We know that the English law at present declares duelling murder, 

 but the declaration is nullified by practice. The revival of the law, with 

 additional provisions for its being resolutely carried into effect, is a mat- 

 ter demanded by every consideration of principle, civil and religious. 

 Let the statute be, that the laws agaiust murder shall be applied without 

 palliative or evasion, on the simple proof, that men have gone out to 

 shed blood illegally ; and the law itself will never be called into action a 

 second time. No man will be mad enough to send a challenge, if he is 

 physically certain that the result of his sending that challenge will be 

 his own hanging at the door of Newgate. No man will feel himself 

 stigmatized in the general eye by refusing a challenge, when it is 

 literally a summons to stand in the Old Bailey dock, to be taken 

 thence only to be .hanged. An easy provision in the statute, making 

 duels, fought beyond seas by British subjects, equally criminal as when 

 fought at home, would put an end to the contrivance of running off to 

 Calais or Boulogne to commit this polished species of assassination ; and 

 the jurisdiction of England would be cleared from a stain, the religious 

 feeling of the country would be freed from a scandal, and society be 

 disburthened of a habit, offensive alike to the commands of Heaven, and 

 to the common understanding of man. 



We hear, about once a year, a terrible outcry from Westminster- 

 hall, touching the smallness of the judge's salaries. ~Yet we have no 

 bowels of compassion for even those dignitaries. We think every man 

 of them enormously overpaid. To take the favourite instance, the chief 

 justice of the King's Bench. He has a great deal to do ; but then he 

 has an enormous salary, namely, 8,000/. a year, with great present 

 patronage, and certain handsome reversions, which, of course, go into 

 the hands of his own family. His lordship's emoluments, thus on the 

 fair calculation of such things, are worth 12,000/. a year. Any mer- 

 chant on 'Change would give him an annuity to that amount for them. 

 Now, all this is enormous. True, he is a good lawyer, and a diligent 

 man, and sits in his court from nine till three the greater part of the 

 year. But the true question for those who pay is, what can the busi- 

 ness be done as well for ? We say, for a fourth of the money. We 



