The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-08-05 00:00:00

THE PRESENT STATE OF DUELLING :

" With respect to duelling, military men are placed in
an awkward predicament. Fortunately, the practice is
creeping fast into disuse, and single combats are now as
rare as they were formerly frequent. half a century
ago, and even later, it was considered necessary to meet
your man before you could establish your character. It
was almost equivalent to taking out a diploma to legalise
regular practice. Many a trifling quarrel has been fo-
mented on this principle. The decline of duelling may,
in great part, be attributed to the abolition of long sit-
tings after dinner, with heavy potations, which led to
much intemperate language, usually winding up with a
challenge and a fight. This was the natural course of
things in the good old days, when four or five bottles per
man was the common allowance, and the last bottle not
unfrequently ended its existence against the heads of some
who h d assisted in its exhaustion. It is now generally
understood that rudeness addressed to an individual is re-
sented by the company in general as an offence against
the laws of good breeding; a sound maxim, well calcu-
lated to prevent quarrels, and to keep turbulent and tem-
pestuous spirits within the bounds of decorum."
Decidedly the best article is that on " The Line of the

Lakes," which vividly pourtrays the natural beauties of
those of America, and speculates on their future ad-
vantages to the human race. There is no doubt that the

New World is already vieing with, and will,
.if we do
notlook about us, soon surpass the Old in the develop-
ment of commerce ; indeed, we are but beginning to
see the era of its future greatness. The writer says, of

THE RIVER ST: LAWRENCE :
" On the whole, therefore, it appears certain that
the river St. Lawrence is destined ere long to become
a most important medium of intercourse between the
World, various sections of the New as well as between
the Old World and the New, and to give to the provinces
of Canada a far more extensive and commanding influence
over the commercial operations of North America than
any other state east of Louisiana can ever aspire to.
and the
outlet which it affords to the produce of Ohio,
other north-western districts of the Union, will becomeen
thoef
incalculable importance in case of any rupture between
the free and the slave states, as the mouth and keys of the
Mississippi are completely in the hands of the latter.
Such a rupture is not only inevitable, but at present ap-
pears close at hand ; and as the free States of the north,
and the Government, intend to oppose any secession from
the Union by force of arms, it cannot be doubted that at
least a temporary closing of the Mississippi will be re-
sorted to by the southern states. But by cultivating the
route of the St. Lawrence a hostile measure of this kind
would fall less heavily upon the states of the interior; and
most assuredly it would greatly benefit our British pro-
winces. Already, however, and independent of such con-
tingencies, the future greatness of the line of the St. Law-
. retina is secured; and all that is required of our brethren
in Canada is to be patient and bide their time."
Mak gavels, we still preserve our Canadian posses-

sions, notwithstanding the results *four "free-trade" po-
licy, and the treachery of colonial-dismemberment advo-
cates. They will no longer be an incumbrance or -a slur
on.the finances and policy of England, but will be one of
her most prosperous and valuable colonies. 'The writer
also views the Canadian empire through the •medium of a
'high spirit of Christian philosophy, in which we concur
and admire. He says, alluding to