The Sun. — 1841-03-08 (London, England)

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 circumstance 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 consequence 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 consequence. 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 according to any statute, but conformAly with ancient precedent, varying only in the statement of the circutnstances 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 language, 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 enacthavewhich 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 shooti 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 picture 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.