EXTRACTS FROM PUNCH. PUNCH'S DOGGREL ON DUELLING.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 546, 9 July 1851, Page 4

EXTRACTS FROM PUNCH. PUNCH'S DOGGREL ON DUELLING.

To light a duel is a very foolish action, Particularly with a view to satisfaction; A pretty soit of satisfaction it is to be/Jiot! I'or if you fight, of course you'ie as tflcely to be hit as not. Suppose you happen to have half-an-ounce of lead Driven, by a scruple of gunpowder, through your silly head, Then, there's an end of you —if what you behcv's vnt ti ue— Ami if it ii—Bo much the worse for you 1 Suppose the bullet lodges —as it may — luyour hip-joint, or knocks your jaw away, A nice satisfaction, indeed, you derive from the strife, Having to live in misery, a mutilated object, all your life. Or, in case the ball goes craving through your leg, Being forced to have your limb cut off, and hobble through the woild on a wooden peg. Take the other alternative; suppose you are missed, And instead of being hit yourself, kill your antagonist, A tleal of satisfaction, again, forsooth, you get thereTli© country, immediately, you me obliged to fly, And, like a thuf or a swindlci, go abroad and hide, Unless you choose to surrender ior. wilful rauidcr to be tried.

Ai.ri th»re you are, in the felons' deck, looking hko a tfoofcp ; And your satisfaction consists in having; run your nock into a noose ; Or, if you escape the gallows, getting imprisoned at least a year, Deprived, of every comfort, not even allowed a drop of beer ; Or, even if you are acquitted, having your lawyer's bill to pay ; And that is anything but satisfaction, I should say. Not to mention the reflection, which must be the revoi se of pleasant, That you have gone and shot a fellow-creature like a phon'-nnt, Or a piitndoje ; and here you are, with his blood on youi head,— Not a comioi table thing to think upon when you go to bed. Beside, it is childish, as well as savage, to want to shoot & man for " chaff," At winch if you 'ye any sort of a chaiacter, you can afford to lausjh, Instead ot foolishly calling him out, and risking your precious hide, And thus, peihaps, in attempting murder, committing suicide.