HERE AND THERE.—No. XX.

Otago Witness, Issue 1248, 30 October 1875, Page 2

HERE AND THERE.— No. XX.

( Written for the Otago Daily Times.)

It is not long since we heard of a projected duel between a gentleman holding Her Majesty's commission and a member of the House of Commons, whereupon the Speaker had issued his warrant of arrest — an authority with regard to the special incidence so long in desuetude as to invite gossip. The minds of Englishmen seem to have arrived at the practical conclusion that the pistol and sword are not the most equitable arbitrators of which society is capable, and, while the custom meets social recognition in all continental countries, and has almost become an institution with our American cousins, the Colonies, in common with the mother country, have rejected a so-called means of redress, which in reality is no redress at all. It cannot, however, be altogether a matter of indifference to us, coming from a common stock, to con over what our ancestors said and did in the matter of affront ; and there is such a combination of grotesqueness, gravity, earnestness, and folly in the history of a century's duelling, that I feel justified in a short recount, and to say to my prized readers, in the words of an old poet,

Up into the tower get, And see these things despoiled of fallacies. Think, O Londoner, that only two centuries ago there stood just behind your favourite Olympic, and on the site of St. Clement's Danes Church, a May Pole — the famous May Pole of the Strand— and that at its foot, one bright morning in 1667, there was found by the city watch, a gallant-looking goaitleinau, lying ataik, in \j\vii\ly xuXUdo, »u<l j£?th a rapier thrust through his heart. A torn glove, and a gaily-ribboned cavalierish hat, beside his own, were all that told his tale. It was the body of Robert Percival — Jfcnotorioua duellist, a gamester, and gay bowler of the day — and the gaily- ribboned cavalierish hat had striking resemblance to one worn by a certain Beau Fielding ; but the law could not fix it on the Beau's head, and, to say truly, did not even try. When Lord Mohun was a night-raker, and a swashbuckler, and the teiror of every night tavern from Soho to Wrapping, he consorted with a bully and druken brawler, arcades ambo, named Captain Hill. Pope's friend, Mr Gay, will tell you, in his "Trivia," in what condition the London streets were when Queen Anne was on the throne, and you will readily understand how the3e desperadoes could do all the wickednesses laid to their charge. Not the least of these were the abduction of citizens' wives and daughters, and the slitting of citizens' ears, not to mention the defacement of signs, and the docking of horses' tails, and the impalement, spread-eagle- wise, of the rebellious watch. One night, in a tavern brawl, they raised an equivalent question to one which some of my readers may have heard in the good old tavern days of a quarter of a century ago in Ireland, " who dare say peas ?" and they fell upon a certain Captain Coote, and, because he said it, slew him, for which they were tried and acquitted. Then they planned the forcible abduction of one Anne Bracegirdla, the toast and belle of the day, and a charming actress, and whose personation by Mub Ellen Tree before she was Mistress CharJes Kean, dwells npon my stage memory as the scent of faded violets and the reminiscent snatches of old melodies, happily, are wont to with all of us. And one Mountfort, •• the most amiable actor of his time," venturing to interplead, as the lawyers say> ia behalt of the unguarded beauty, Hill, aided and abetted by my Lord, slew him, too, in the public street, and they were tried, and — if my memory does not serve me traitoracquitted. Then Lord Mohun promised reformation on hie word as a peer, aud sat as one, and was moral, and abjured night taverns and Captain Hill j but anon the leaven worked again, and at an agricultural meeting my Lord told the Duke of Hamilton, who impugned the honesty of his Lordship's steward, that the said steward was as honest a man as his (Grace, whereupon they retired to Hyde Park, and each slew the other. Lieutenant General Macartney had seen this bloody fray aa Mohun's second and fled — this was in 1712 — but returned in four years to stand his trial for murder, of which he waß acquitted, and discharged of manslaughter, " being burned in the hand with a cold iron to prevent an appeal of murder. " You know of Richard Brinaley Sheridan's two duels, about 1770, with Captain Matthews, who spoke disparagingly of Miss Linley, afterwards Mrs Sheridan, at Bath, and how they fought across a tavern table in Henrietta street, Coyent Garden, and how the brilliant comedist disarmed his antagonist, and made him sign a written retractation which Sheridan published in the papers, and how thereupon Matthews wanted more satisfaction, and they met at Kingstown and fought savagely, with pistolß first and swords next, and both (wounded) fell to the ground, and there — bleeding, savage, and murderously-minded — continued the struggle until separated. Of that funny provocative to duel between Lord Byron and Thomas Moore all readers of " English Barda and 3cotch Reviewers" are conversant. The two lines — When Little's leadloss pistol met his eyo, And Bow street myrmidons stood laughing by,

sent Tommy on a Continental cruise, frustrated by all sorts of funny accidents, to challenge his satirist, and it ended in the most agreeable, satisfactory, and mutually advantageous manner. But Lord Byron's duel with his friend Mr Chaworth (was not his daughter Byron's early love?) had a different complexion, and, indeed, overshadowed the poet's life. They met at a county agricultural club gathering and quarrelled about whose eßtato had the most game on it. And then, over a dining table, guided to the devil's work by one tallow candle, Childe Harold, "Lord of himself, that heritage of woe," sent his poor friend from the world.

Sir Jonah Barrington writes that "As many as 227 official and memorable duels were fought in my grand climacteric," and scarce one prominent politician of the day in either England or Ireland that had not been out. Uould you go to a country house in the west or south ot Ireland five and twenty years ago without finding the family sawhandled duelling irons ? and how proudly

j they were notchedj to show what deadly work they had done ! A newspaper of the last century recounting a duel wherein one of the combatants " bit the dust," speaks the temper of the times this wise :—": — " He Bought satisfaction for his wounded honour in a case where all men of honourable souls allow he had a perfect tight to demand it, and according to the rules fully sanctioned by the usages of all polished societies." In that time a meadow west of Holland House was a favourite rendezvous, but the most popular duels came off in Hyde Park, where Wilkes met Mr Adam in 1770, then Mr VVhately and George Temple. In 1780 the Earl of Shelburne and Colonel Fullerton essayed to settle their point of honour, and in the same year two Press men, the Rev. Mr Bate and the editor of the Morning Post. In 1797 Colonel King and Colonel Fitzgerald went there, and only one (Colonel King) returned, and the laat meeting 1 have any note of on this historic ground was in 1822, between the Dukes of Bedford and Buckingham, which had no tragic end. Political duels, as I have said, were of common occurrence. Charles James Fox went out with Mr Adam, and was wounded (1799). \ln this century the Duke of Wellington exchanged shots with Lord Winchelsea, in Battersea Fields : George Canning met Lord Castlereagh, and took a bullet in his leg away with him ; the great Pitt had been paraded, and did not Sir Robert Walpole cross blades with an adversary, even within the sacred precincts of che House. There was a memorable duel, which ended tragically, in 1813. between Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara, a distinguished officer of the British Navy. The Captain's dog fell foul of the Colonel's dog ; the Colone made a hasty remark : the Captain, hurt in his honour, albeit no fire-eater, nor shot, called him out. They met in Hyde Park, and the Colonel was shot through the head. The Captain was tried at the Old Bailey, and the trial is memorable, from the fact that Nelson and the Admirals of the day were examined as witnesses, to give Captain Macnamara a peaceable character, and in that the veteran Nelson expressed himself in Court to the effect that the Captain could not have done other than he did. It was a severe tussle, but the Captain was acquitted. O'Counell's sad conflict with Colonel Desterre touched the burly agitator to the core. They went out on the Colonel's challenge on some unimportant electioneering dispute, and O'Connell's bullet pierced the Colonel's brain. It was no want of pluck — Derrynane never wanted that — that led him to register a vow in Heaven that he would never again fight another duel ; but though the VOW occasioned many a pointless sneer during his political life, it Berved his purpose well. Without that inflexible resolution, how could ho have continued so long the irresponsible terror of the Commons ? A man who could adapt himself to any phase of temper in which he might find the House — from the delivery of classic Greek to the vituperation of the fish-stall. His graphic protesting speech on the official announcement of the exaltation of Mr Spring Rice to the dignity of Lord Monteagle. "Lord Mountaigle ! Bah ! Sthraddle Goose !" or to his fearful genealogical allusion to Mr Disraeli as "the lineal descendant of the impenitent thief ;" and the grotesqueness of that scene said to have occurred in the re-freshment-room of the House of Commons, when some political warrior, writhing under a recent flaying at his hands, asked Dan for satisfaction —

Don't ye know I can't, but See Morgan. I have outrun my space, or nearly so, and leave off to begin again.

matter as the fashion of an epaulette, and the cut of a coat. It seems to declare a human sympathy and brotherhood outgrowing the bounds of mere private acquaintance. It is a pity that all men should not adopt so good a custom ; we all wear the uniform oi flesh and blood, and our common nature is respectable enough for us to touch our hats to it. Only, the respect we pay to preserve its integrity, must be impersonal : % am Quaker enough to think that there exists no man who, in his private capacity, is entitled to the cap or knee of anybody. Into these subtelities, however, the simple soldier entereth not ; it is enough for him that he sees his officer, and knows his duty. The officer must salute in return, and, since he is greatly in the minority, he is sometimes kept at it pretty steadily. When, for instance, hundreds of soldiers are streaming across the bridge to their evening diversion, whatever pair of epaulettes, is unlucky enough to be going the other way has to run the gauntlet of them aIL The men glue their hands to their caps, and straighten their shoulders, and will not be denied. No doubt they enjoy forcing his acknowledgment — the confession, as it were, that despite his grave dignity he is but their fellow-soldier, after all. Sometimes the soldier has both hands occupied, and then he only bends a respectful glance, while the officer must still touch his cap, with however arrogant a dab. He is, however, very hard upon them from a domestic point of view.

They have a child-like theatricality of manner which is highly entertaining, and their courteous extravagances are charming to women used to the cold attentions of English and American men. The French do it better perhaps, but we cannot always be in Paris. It is something to have one's hand kissed without being obliged to consider it the first step towards a declaration. If only the Saxon officers would learn discretion at table, they would be the darlings of the foreign circle in Dresden, and I understand that they have considerablyreformed in this respect. But the table is their weak point, and they might sin far more grievously in other directions without incurring half the reproach which this peccadillo brings upon them. I will not attempt to describe their manner of putting food into their mouths, it would lose colour in description ; but in this connection a characteristic trait or two should not be omitted. The suppers given at the balls of our country-people soon began to acquire celebrity, being' altogether more sumptuous than it is the German custom to provide on such occasions. Now the officers, as has been intimated, are not a wealthy class, and it may be supposed that their ordinary fare is neither rich nor varied. Accordingly, they look forward to these repasts with no little eagerness ; and, it ia said, were in the habit of fasting on the day of a party, not only from motives of economy, but also by way of getting an appetite in every way befitting the good things provided.

The other papers of interest are " The Roman Catholic Marriage Laws," by Canon Todd; and "The Liberal Party and the Roman Catholics," by A. Arnold — an answer to Pope Henessey— a mad thing this without much reason in it ; " Notes of an Indian Journey " continue very good — Mr Duff has a pleasant vein of humour.