The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-08 00:00:00

LAW REGARDING DUELS.

The trial of Captain Douglas, the second of Lord
Cardigan, in the duel with Captain Tuckett, has had a
similar result at the Central Criminal Court, to that of
the Noble Earl in the House of Peers.
Oa this occasion, it may be said, the singular circum-
stance presented itself of the Judge being counsel both
for the prosecution and the prisoner, but not improperly
so in either case. We must mention the circumstance
only as a very remarkable one.
This is only the second trial that has ever taken place
for the slatutable offence of malicious shooting at the
person with intent, &c., in a duel. Lord Cardigan's
having been the.fiest, and both have failed, not in con-
sequence of any doubt thrown upon the sufficiency of
the law to punish the offence as le/ong, but because of
defective cvidence.
A beginning having been made in prosecutions under
this statute, nobody hereafter can plead ignorance of the
felonious nature of the act committed by fighting a
duel, even though neither death nor wound should
ensue.

It was natural enough that among persons not much
acquainted with the laws of their country, an opinion
should long have prevailed that a duel, unless it ended
in death, was no higher offence than merely a breach
of the peace. The circumstance of no person ever
having been prosecuted except for homicide connected
with a duel, as iu the cases of Bailey, Scott, Hennesey,
mblia, and others, did creme the popular error that
there was no law or statute against duelling (except as
a breach of the peace), unless when death was the con-
sequence. And then the act came under the general
law of murder, which it required no statute to punish,
because it is pnnishalle by the unwritten or common
lsw—the indictment for murder not being framed ac-
cording to any statute, but conformAly with ancient
precedent, varying only in the statement of the circutn-
stances which are descriptive of the offence.
During the controversy which we bad with some
daily journals respecting the acquittal of the Earl of
Cardigan, we explained the law of the Cass, divesting
the question as much as possible of the technical
lan-
guage, in order to make it clear to the popular
year of
We showed that at any time since
the(4 ninth
ueen Victoria,
any 1., down to the first year of
any person who unlawfully discharged a pistol or any
r
to
was liable to be
loaded arms at another, with intent
disfigure, or do grievous bodilyl
wrni murder, maim,
disfigure,
indicted for felony, and, if convicted, hanged. It is
present Sovereign that
only since the first y ear of the
of Cardigan and Captaiu
the act for which the Earl
Douglas have been tried, has ceased to be a capital
felony.
additional argument to the many
an time to time adduced, and which
This furnishes
others against capital enact-
havewhich we have from by.
beenp ards.of a century, the act of fight.ments. oardindr
uepdw
bloodless duel was an offence punishable
d
it was never prosecuted, but within
ins even
yearsan after the offence of maliciously shoot-
i with det;trat
wtwo or
with intent to murder, disable, &c.,
tag ~„ oceased to be
prosecutions for felony take place—that
coin having consisted in fighting a duel. where death
felony
did not ensue, though we cannot call it bloodless, as a
slight wound was received. Still the prosecutors
treated it as a bloodless duel in law, by not alleging the
:cootid in the indictment. This was done to avoid
charging the parties with a capital offence. For if the
charge had been shooting and wounding with intend
to murder, it would have put Lord Cardigan and his
second on trial for their lives, that offence being still
capital under Lord J. Russell's Act.—lierald.

It is a curious fact, that the first historical pic-
ture entered in England kiln° the Reformation, by a body
of me:, to atha....ce a public object by the moral influence
of the art, should comp from the Soclety of Friends. The
commission given 4.'r a memorial of the great meeting of
del'gates for the Abolition of Slavery all over the world,
held at the Fren,asons' Tavern, with Mr. Clarkson in the
chair, last year, is the pictute alluded to. May such an
example be followed by other bodies who have any great
principle in view, and the art of England will soon be felt
in its reel power by the people as a moral and intellectual
engine.
Merionethshire Assizes commence on the 11th
instant, as }et there is no prisoner.