The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-15 00:00:00

THE DUKE OF MONTPENSIER.

The Standard remarks that although the sentence
passed by a council of war, composed of one general and
five brigadiers, on the Duke of Montpensier, for killing
Don Enrique de Bourbon in a duel, is, in point of fact,
equivalent to an acquittal, we still consider that it is of a
severer nature than he merited, all the circumstances
preceding the meeting and on the ground being taken into
consideration. An exile from Madrid for a month is not
difficult to bear, particularly at this season of the year,
and an indemnification of k:1,000 to a distressed though
Royal family, his own relatives, is perhaps a less
sum than his conscience would have led the
Duke de Montpensier to have willingly and voluntarily
paid them for the loss of their unfortunate parent. Never-
theless, we think a wrong has been done him by even
the mitigated imputation conveyed by the sentence, for
never in the annals of duelling, in so far as persistent
abuse went, was there a man more justified in demand-
ing personal satisfaction from another, and perhaps
never before was there an instance of the person com-
pelled by his position and his wrongs to send a hostile
message to his traducer so marked by chivalrous mercy
towards his antagonist when upon the ground. When a
man is called upon to retract remarks which, although he
may regret to have used them on an occasion
when his challenger was bound to notice them
and cannot from his own honest convictions of
their truth comply with the demand, the only
means of extricating himself from so unpleasant a
situation is to stand his adversary's fire, and discharge
his own pistol in the air, when, except a deadly wrong
he inflicted, the matter must terminate. But the Duke
de Montpensier did much more than the law of duelling
would ever have exacted from him. He—the challenger
—stood the fire of the person from whom he sought re-
dress, and only fired at last when he found that it was
the deliberate intention of his adversary to kill or be
killed. No man before, we believe, ever acted on such
an occasion in a similar manner, and surely the humanity
which he displayed towards his irreconcileable enemy
should acquit him in the eyes of the world of all blame
for the lamentable consequences which ensued.

THE PROGRESS OF THE TIME,

The Telegraph thinks we need not go farther than the
actual business of our Parliament at this Easter time to
shew that the influence of the Martyr of Humanity is
more and more impressing His word, and " drawing all
men unto Him." Foremost among the tasks lately self-set
to the Empire is the education of all its little children—a
task so pre-eminently Christ-like, that to speak of it at
this holy season is to keep it well, and to bear in mind the
thief precepts of the Master. No task could better befit
the season, than that which has occupied, and after the
recess will again occupy, the most prominent place
among• the legislative schemes designed directly
for the benefit of England ; nor could any spirit
be more appropriate to the season, than that,
which has prompted a generous waiving of denomina-
tional differences, to facilitate a work conceived in the
higher spirit of true religion. The enterprise is worthy of
the nation, and the spectacle of this agreement upon
principles has been worthy of the task. Let no man and
no sect seek to prevent the little children coming to Him;
for such is the broad meaning of the change which shall
rescue the childhood of England from ignorance, and give.
them "eyes to see, and ears to hear." The great Educa-
tion Bill is, in very deed, to tens of thousands among our
population, a Gospel of intellectual truth, addressed not
to this generation of English children alone, but to all
coming generations of Englishmen.