The hydraulic press., 1858-09-18
Chesterfield on Duellfng.

l773, is principally known to people
of the present day for his letters to
Lis son. These letters contain some
passages of such lax morality, and
treat the subject of female virtue with
a levity SO unbecoming father ad
dressing his son, that Chesterfield is
chiefly known for his immortality
which belonged 10 the age in which
he lived, when he deserves to be re-
membered for his talents and virtues
which belonged to himself. He was
a man of great ability, versatility and
extensive requirements, and of such
polished manners tina. his name has
given to the language of society
new word which serves as a criterion
of politeness. He wrote with great
elegance and wit, and his parliament
tary orations have been termed Cice
roman.
We have lying before US, while we
write, an old volume of his miscella-
MES which was printed in Dublin in
1777, only four years after his death.
This early publication of his works in
an Irish City. may be accounted for
by the fact Of the grea: popularity he
acquired in Ireland during the year
he resided there as Lord Lieutenant.
In common with all essayists of the
time, Chesterfield attacked the vices
and follies of society-not in the Sc
rious and stilted style of ] ohnson, nor
quite with the delicate grace and quiz
ct humor of Addison, but with pecu>
liar terseness, force and wit. His
hits at passing follies are amusing
even at the present day, and not the
least amusing article in the old vols
ume before US is an essay upon duel
ling-which was published February
27, 1856, as No. 113 of The World
In this paper Chesterfield declares
duelling to be "the manifest offspring
of barbarity and folly, monstrous
birth, and distinguished by the most
shocking and ridiculous marks of both
its parents"
After limiting at the repugnance Of
the custom "to instinct, reason, and
every moral and social Obligation"
and observing, that, "viewed on the
criminal side it excites horror; on the
absurd side, it is an inexhaustible
fund of ridicule;;" he proceeds to use
the last with infinite effect.
"The ancients must certainly have had
very imperfect notions Of HONOR, for they
had none of DUELLING. One reads, it is
true, of murders committed every now and
then omong the Greeks and Romans, promp-
ted only by interest or revenge, and perfor-
med without the least Attic politeness or Ro
man urbanity. No letters of gentle invita-
ton were sent to any man to come and have
his throat cut the next morning, and..we may
observe that Milo had not the common de-
eency to give Clodius, the most profiigate of
men, the most dangerous,of citizens, and his
own lnveterate enemy, an equal chance Of
destroying him.
This delicacy of sentiment, tn s rein ment
of manners, was reserved for the potter
Cloths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, sc. to
Introduce, cultivate, and establish. / must
confess that they have generally been consid
cred as barbarous nations; aud to be sure
there are some circumstances which seem to
favor that opinion. They made open war
upon learning, and gave no quarter even to
the monuments Of arts and sciences. But
then it must be owned, on the other hand,
that upon those ruins, they established the
honorable and noble science of HoMoCIDE,
digniged, exalted, and ascertained TRUE
HONOR, worshipped it as their Deity. and
sacrificed to it hecatombs of human victims
In those happy days, HoNoR, that is. single
combat, was the great and unerring test of
civil rights, moral actions and sound doc
trines. 1t was sanctifed by the church, and
the ehurchmen were occasionally allowed the
honor and pleasure of it !; for we read of
many instances Of duels between men and
priests. Nay, it was, without appeal, the in
fallible test of female chastity. Ii Princess,
or any lady of distinction, was suspected of
a little incontinency, some brave champion,
who was commonly privy to, or perhaps the
author of it, stood forth in her defense, and
asserted her innocence with the point Ut his
sword or lance. If, by his activity, skill,
strength and courage, he murdered the accu-
ser. the lady was spotless but, if her cham
pion fell, her guilt was manifest This hero
ic gallantry in defence of the fair, presume
eecasioned that association of ideas, other
wise seemingly unrelative to each other, of
the BRAVE and the FAIR: for indeed in
those days it beloved q lady. who had the
least regard for her reputation, to choose a
lover Of uncommon activity, strength and
courage"
In proof of the utility and justice Of
this method Chesterfield gives an ac-
count, from an old chronicler, of a
duel between a dog and a man of dis
tinction, which was fought before
Charles With. of France in 1911
This gentleman was supposed to have
murdered another who was missing.
from the fact of the missing persons
dog, large Irish greyhound. fercely