FRENCH DUELLING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1963, 5 February 1885, Page 4

FRENCH DUELLING.

(Bkloimvia.) Whkv it ceased to 1k» thn fashion to wear swords in the last century, pistols weu< M»->n | substituted for personal cnounter*. This made duelling fat lost am ising, more dan•jtous, and proportionally loss popul tr. Th * duel in England received practic illyits coup do giaee uitli the now Aiticlei, of W.vi of ISS4, which discredited the practice in the Tinny by offering gentlemen facilities foi jmbhc explanation, apology, or arbitrati vi in the pRMMic t>f their commanding olhcoi. Hut pre\ ions to thin " the duel of s.itiif.iction "' had assumed the most prupohtci ous furni-i. P.irties agreed to cli i\v lot* foi pistols and to fight, the one with a loaded, the other with an unloaded weapon. This affair of honour (?) was always at «hort distances and "point-blank," .uid the loser was usually killed. Another plan was to go into a d.irk loom together and commence hung. There '.s a beautiful antipathetic told two men, the one a " kind " man and tTO otlier <v " timid " man, who found themselves unhappily bounce! to light, and chose the duk room duel. The kind man had to (ire fir*t, and, not wishing to hurt his adveisuy, groped his way to the chimney-piece, and, placing the muzzle of Ins pistol .straight up tho chimney, pulled the tiigger, when, to his consternation, with n flight Fu l yell down eune his ad votary, the "timid" man, who liad selected tint fatal hiding place. Anothorgioto«que foi in was the " medical duel," ono .swallowing a pill made of bread, the other swallow in? ow 1 made of poison. When matters had leached this point, public opinion not unnaturally took a turn for the better, and resohed to stand by the old obsolete law against duell ing, whilst enacting new bye laws for the aimy, which of course reacted powerfully, with a sort of professional authority, upon the practice of bellicose civilians. The duel was originally a mere trial of might, like our prize fight ; it was ho used by armies and nations, as in the case of David and Goliath, or as when Charles Y. challenged Charlemagne to single combat. But in medi.eval time-, it got to be also used a* a te«t of right, the feeling of a judicial trial by ordeal entering into the struggle between two persons, each claiming right on his aide. Tho judicial trial by ordeal was abandoned in the reign of Elizabeth, but the piactice of private duelling has biirvhed in spite of adverse legislation, and is exceedingly populai in France down to the present diy. The law of civilised nation i has, howvvci, always been dead against it. Tn l.")!)i) the Parliament of Paris went m> far as to declare cv cry duellist a relvl to his Majesty : nevertheless, in the hn^t eighteen years of Henri (Juatre's i^ign no fewer than four thousand gentlemen are said to have perished in duels, and Henri himself rein irked, when Creyin challenged Don Phillip of Savoy : "If I had not b>en the king I would havo been your second." Our ainlussad-n, Loid Heibeit, at the com t of Louis XIII, wiote home that he hardly ever mot a, French gentleman of repute who had not either killed lin nun or meant to do so ! and this in i-pite of a law no severe that the two greatest duellists of tho age, the Count do ]Jouttj\illi' and the Marquis de Jieuron, weie both beheaded, lying taken in Hagrante delicti). Louis XVI published anothei scmtc edict in lf>7!>, and had th«" courage to enfoice it. The practice was checked for a tune, but it received a new impulse .ifti'r the close of the Napoleonic wars. Th' % dullness of King Phillippo's reign and the dissoluteness of Louis Napoleon's reign both fostered duelling. The present " opportunist' 1 Republic bids fair to outbid both. You can haidly take up a French newspaper without reading accounts of vanous duels. Like the suicides in Pai is and tho railway assaults in England, duels foun u legular and much nppieciated item of French daity news. It is difficult to thmk of M. de (tir.udi.i's «hootmg dead poor Arniind Caicll — the m >st brilliant young journalist in Fiance — without impatience and disgust, or to road of M. Rochefort's exploit the other day without a smile The shaking of hands m the most cordnl way with M. Rochefoit, the compliments on his swordsmauship, what tim* the blood flowed fiom an ugly wound inflicted by him while mopping his own neck are all so many little French points (of honour ?) which we are sure his challenger, Captain Fournies, was delighted to see noticed in the papers. No doubt eveiy billiard room and cafe in Paris gloated over tho details, and the heroes were duly feted and dined together as soon as their respective wounds weie siifficiontlv he iled. Meanwhile John Piull reads the tale and gi unts out loud, "the whole tiling is a brutal farce, and thi> ' piincipals ' aie no hotter than a couplo of asses. '

Di*rtv<; the last three years the coinago of the United States has exceeded that of tne same number of jears previously, and has been larger than that of any other country in the woild. The amount is about £.")0,000,000 in gold, and £h">,000,000 in silver. The number of deaths last year by accidents in f.ictoiies in the United King dom was 401, and the number of poisons maimed in vaiious ways was — males 49b'7, and females 721 ; young peisons, ma)? I',1 ', 2314, and females 3GI ; and childien, males, 303, and females, 100. No country is s>o deeply interested in the forest economy of other lands as Eng^ land, forest in the payment for timber and the great foie l t products — such as baik, paper, tar, pitch, wood-oils, lesin, gum, &c. — she sends abroad something tike the large sum of £20,000,000 per annum. Tiih ff'o» Id says Lord Dclavel Beresford and Mr Corbet, «on of the well known M.F.H., are learning the i anchor's bnsi nest on Loid Watei fold's ranrhe in New Mexico. They set off every now and then on a .")00 mile ride— their kit, a few flannel shuts and a couple of Bix-shooteis, with cartridges galoie. A Nb\v York critic says Clara Morris studies her death scenes at the hospitals. If she wants to get up a real genuine gilt edged, cream laid, diamond pointed expression of agony and apprehension she «hotild study the race of a man reaching for a soft corn with the heel of his razor. Furrr R\w\<: in Camhjkmv.— Eleven thousand acres have been planted in fruit trees in Santa Clara County, California, this rp.isou. Other counties in the State are also planting laigely. In Napa and Sonama Counties alone 500,000 Fiencli prune tiecs have been planted since autumn. Tlicie arc 240,000 acres in giape vines in California, the selling \alue being quite 12 millions sterling. Besides such operations as these even the large purchase of the Hokianga Company fades into insignificance. A U.SKFITL Contrivance. — An ingenious Frenchman has applied indiarubber to glass bottles and other appurtenances of the table in such a fashion that they may be placed in a slanting position without falling off. He relies on the well-known scientific fact of the mutual adherence of a hard and soft body, and the result of his invention is certainly most curious. It is obvious it will be most valuable at sea wlren it is often most difficult to keep the bottles and di«hes on the table.

The Bad and Worthless. are never imiftfef or coimtoftitnl. This is especi.il'y true of a family medicine, ami it is pobitivp pi oof that the remedy iiinlntfd is of the highest \ alne. As soon as it had teen tested and proved by the whole worlrl that Hop Bitters was the purest, best and the most valuable family medicine on earth, many imitations sprung up and began to steal the notices in winch the press and the people of the country had expressed the merits of H Is , and in every way trying to induce suffenng invalids to use their stuff instead, expecting to make money on the credit and good namo of H. B. Many others started nostrums put up in similar style to H. 8., with vatiously devised names in which the word " Hop" or " Hops" were used in a way to induce people to hcheve they were the same as Hop Bittrr3. All such pretended remedies or cures, no matter what their style or name ir and especially those witli the word "Hop" or " Hops" in their name or in any way con nertttJ with them or their name, are imitations or countci feits, Beware of them. Touch none of them. Use notiling but genuine American Hop Bitters, with a bunch or cluster of green Hops on the white label, and Dr Soule's name blown in the gl.xss. Trust nothing else. Druggists and Chemists are warned against dealing in imitations or counterfeits.