The Sun. — 1854-01-03 (London, England)

KING." It was reserved for the reign of VICTORIA to abolish the infamous practice, and, calling things by their right names, to declare that every participator in a fatal duel, every man who went to the ground with a knowledge of what was about to take place, would, on the death of either party, be guilty of wilful and deliberate murder ; nay more, we believe that if it could be shown that if the pistols were loaded with ball, and that the parties intended to fire at each other, and not merely to scare the pheasants or minor game of the vicinity, they would be guilty of firing at each other with intent to murder, or at least to do grievous bodily harm, and would, according to the circumstances, be liable to the extreme penalty of the law, or to banishment for life, or for a prolonged term of years, from their native land.  And yet this is the practice which is about to be regenerated under the auspices of the representatives of England, Franee, and America to the court of Spain, and of a Spanish grandee of the first class. All parties in any degree implicated in the transaction are deserving of grave censure. Even those who were aggrieved by the gross misconduct of the diplomatic bullies, who should rather have been encountered with the cudgel and the horsepond, or even the cesspool, than a duel with really distinguished and honourable men.  It is impossible to find the slightest excuse fog the behaviour of the Messrs. Sou Ls. Father and son were equally reprehensible. The rawness of youth could not even extenuate the folly of the boy, who, with the nervous sensitiveness of a parvenu, sought to resent the ridicule which he fancied he heard cast on a female relative. The very complaint proved his degradation, and showed that he was unworthy of " gentlemanly satisfaction." Evenin the heyday of duelling no person would take a message for the man who avowed that it was by the most unpardonable eavesdropping, by listening to the private conver cation of strangers, that he received the offence which he desired to resent. Mr. SOUL; junior, should have been quietly kicked out of society, in place of receiving any explanation from the Duke of ALBA, and a summary expulsion should have been awarded to his messengers.  It is said, however, that " one fool makes many," and, in the present instance, the adage received a new and powerful illustration. The " old fool" was decidedly the worst of any. The elder SOtTLE has shown that he is totally unfitted for any situation requiring temper and discretion. It is to be regretted that the Marquis DE TITRGOT should have forgotten himself so far as to accept such a challenge, or that Lord HOWDEN, the English Ambassador, should have permitted himself to be mixed up in a transaction in every respect so discreditable. We cannot conceive that the Government of the United States will lend any the  slightest sanction to such proceedings, and we trust that all the diplomatists, in any degree mixed up in the transaction, may learn that such conduct is, to say the least of it, highly reprehensible, and merits a severe reprimand from those by whom they were accredited to the Spanish Court.