ADVERTISEMENT.

This Work is particularly recommended

TO THE

ATTENTION OF YOUNG OFFICERS, &c.

IN WHICH ARE CLEARLY POINTED OUT,

The Danger and Risks to which inexperienced Men are subject, and the Ways and Means of guarding against them.

The importance of a discreet Choice of SECONDS.

The Qualifications of a good one, and the Qualities of a bad one, exemplified.

General Grounds of CHALLENGES futile, and easily settled by prudent management.

Duty of SECONDS to interfere and accommodate.

A COURT of REFERENCE proposed,

The Rise and Progress of CHIVALRY, the JUDICIAL COMBAT, and DUELLING.

Some of the Laws, Edicts, and Opinions, of various Nations, at various Periods, for and against them.

Many of the most remarkable, COMBATS and DUELS of ancient and modern Times recounted, from correct Authorities.

A

TREATISE

ON

DUELLING.

As it is every man's duty to contribute to the general stock of information what may be useful, and not generally known, I think it incumbent upon me to add my mite on this subject, with which some experience has ultimately furnished me, and to which I am the more induced, in consequence of the unfortunate issue of many duels that might have been amicably settled. It is, at the same time, with some reluctance I confess, that I have myself been four times a Principal, and twenty-five times a Second, in this kind of conflict, and of course my experience must be pretty extensive; yet I have, notwithstanding, the greatest satisfaction in being able to aver, that life or honor were never lost in my hands; but am confident it would have been otherwise, on many occasions, had I not been concerned. Therefore, whoever values the one or the other, and thinks himself so aggrieved that there can be no other alternative than a challenge, cannot be too circumspect in the choice of a friend; particularly when it is considered, that all that a man most values, life and honor, are very much, if not wholly, at the disposal of the Seconds, in whom I have often witnessed, not only the most ignorant, but the most infamous and blood-thirsty conduct; such fellows I have ever found to be, at bottom, cowards and poltroons themselves. This I have been under the necessity of evincing more than once; having, not unfrequently, found it indispensably my duty to become a Principal with such Seconds, where they stood in the way of an honorable accommodation, or seemed determined to have a little blood drawn on the one side or the other. These VOL. XII. NO. XXIII. F

Pam.

gentlemen were, generally, as prone to make others fight, as they were backward to fight themselves when called to account.

Amongst the many instances of misconduct in Seconds, I shall mention a few. Two learned doctors, who had had a long paper war, met one evening in the pit of one of the Dublin Theatres, where their resentments burst out, with reciprocal violence, between each act. Both were men of abilities, and extremely eloquent, and afforded, by these interludes, much entertainment to the audience, who clapped the victors of the moment in proportion to the impression they had made. My friend, who sat near me, had rather the advantage; but, on the curtain dropping, was called upon by his adversary to meet him at an early hour next morning, at the four-mile stone on the north road, and immediately withdrew. This seemed to stun my friend a little, who had not before been concerned in an affair of honor of this nature. However, he determined to fight, finding it could not be avoided; the other having publicly declared, he would post him if he did not. In consequence of this, he requested me to be his Second, to which I consented, in the hope of being able to reconcile the parties; and if not, at least to protect him from any undue advantage that might be taken of him, he being an Englishman, a stranger, and quite a novice in the duelling art. I therefore brought him home with me, where I left him, and went, without his knowledge, to the house of his opponent; thinking, if I could see him, proceedings might be stayed; but he had immediately set off to Drogheda (twenty-four miles distant) to procure a friend, and of course no possibility of meeting till we came oir the ground. I suspected the man he went for, who was also hostile to my friend, and beside had some experience in tactics of this kind, and was in the capacity of both surgeon and Second. I therefore took my friend into training during the night, prepared the pistols, aired the powder, and gave him the necessary cautions and instructions, which should be accurately understood, both offensively and defensively, and which generally afford to the experienced duellist a decided advantage.

We got to the ground at six, the hour appointed, and shortly after the others arrived; the Second was the same I expected. After a distant salute I took him aside, and observed, that it was rather unfortunate that we had not had an opportunity of talking the affair over before we came there; but that, as it was not of a desperate nature, a mere war of words, I conceived it might be as much to their honor to make a mutual apology as to fight; when he immediately vociferated, that he would not consent that his friend should either give or take any apology; that they came there to fight, and that whilst a ball remained (pulling out a handful

of bullets) or until one or the other fell, they would not quit the field. In this, however, his Principal did not second him. Whilst charging the pistols, our opponent's Second addressed himself to my friend in these words: Sir, I am glad to meet you here; I have an affair to settle with you the moment this is over, if you survive my friend ;”—whom I immediately called forward, and told him the unmanly and infamous declarations his Second had made, whom, as it seemed, he had brought there with a view either to intimidate or assassinate my friend; but that, as I came there to protect him at all points, he must instantly take the ground with me, or immediately withdraw his declaration and apologise ; the latter, by the advice of his Principal, who disapproved his conduct, he preferred.

We then proceeded to measure the ground, which he proposed to be seven yards, (vulgarly but incorrectly called paces.)' In this, however, I over-ruled him, after much resistance, and placed them at twelve yards asunder. By agreement, they fired at the same moment, my friend's ball passing through the hat of his opponent, and his grazing the left jaw of my friend, and would certainly have broken both jaws, had he not given a full front face. After the first fire I interfered again, and having made an impression, reconciled them, much to the visible dissatisfaction of my opponent, who had put the second pistol into the hands of his friend, exclaiming, that the town would call it a shabby business if they did not proceed. They made, notwithstanding, mutual apologies, shook hands, and ever after lived on a friendly and intimate footing.

Of this species of Seconds, I have seen not a few, very little inferior in atrocity to the above.

It has been known, that by injudiciously overloading, the Principal has been killed by his own pistol bursting, a part of the barrel having entered the temple; and it has frequently happened, through the same cause, that the pistol-hand has been shattered to pieces. I was present on an occasion when the Principal shot his own Second through the cheek, knocking in one of his double teeth, not by the ball, but by a part of the pistol barrel, that was blown out near the muzzle. I was also on the ground when a Principal shot himself through his foot, at the instep, which nearly cost him his life, but put an end to farther proceedings at the moment; his Second had given him his pistol at full cock, with a hair trigger, which he held dangling at his side, before the word was given, and in that position it went off. On another occasion the Second had charged his friend's pistol so carelessly, that the ball and powder had fallen out before he presented; when,

'A pace is five feet, a yard but three.

but not till after receiving the opposite fire, snapping, and burning prime, (the matter being then accommodated,) he discovered, on making several attempts to discharge his pistol in the air, that it was unloaded.

It frequently occurs also that the flints are so badly adjusted, and so bad in themselves, through the ignorance or inattention of the Seconds, and the pistols so much out of order, that the Principal, who is subject to such remissness in his friend, often stands in a very awkward and precarious state. I have known a pistol snapped a dozen times before it went off, though the flint was often chipped; this was putting a man in serious apprehensions of his life, eleven times oftener than he expected. It is no unusual case that a pistol hangs fire, due to the dampness of the powder, or foulness of the touch-hole, by which you always lose your aim, and of course, your fire, and it may be your life. Having the first fire, I always considered a very great advantage, in as much, as it gives you the chance of disabling your adversary from returning it.

But there are yet other very important points, highly proper to be attended to, both by the Second and the Principal, lest your adversary may possess more address and experience than you are aware of, which too frequently happens. Therefore, it is of great moment to know your pistols well, that you may, at all events, be on a fair level with, and have as good a chance as the man you are to fight. It has been almost an invariable maxim with men who are prone to duelling, to ascertain the dispart, or throw, of their pistols, which, by repeated trials with the same charge, at a stated distance, a point blank shot, pretty nearly, may be made on every occasion, with a steady hand and quick eye. To come at a precise knowledge of due accuracy in your pistol, it should, in the first instance, be screwed into a vice, or fired repeatedly from a steady hand at the same distance, and with the same quantity of powder; aiming at the center of a circle, of about a foot in diameter, divided by transverse parallel lines, an inch asunder, forming the whole area of the circle into diamonds, or compartments of an inch square; then making your aim precisely at the center, the ball shows its deviation from the right or true visual line, and which being always the same, or very nearly so, with the same quantity of powder, the same ball, at the same distance, the true point blank of your pistol will be found, and by which you will ascertain what angle of the area to level at, when you mean to hit the center;-th refore the man who knows his pistols, has a deadly advantage against him who does not.

A flash in the pan is accounted a shot.