was brought to the bar by the deputy-governor of the Tower, having the axe carried before him by the gentleman gaoler, who stood with it on the left hand of the prisoner, with the edge turned from him. Lord Byron's defence was reduced by him into writing, and read by the clerk. The Peers present, including the High Steward, declared Lord Byron, on their honour, to be not guilty of murder, but of manslaughter; with the exception of four Peers, who found him not guilty generally. On this verdict being given, Lord Byron was called upon to say why judgment of manslaughter should not be pronounced upon him. His Lordship immediately claimed the benefit of the 1st Edward VI. cap. 12, a statute, by which, whenever a Peer was convicted of any felony for which a commoner might have Benefit of Clergy, such Peer on praying the benefit of that Act was always to be discharged without burning in the hand, or any penal consequence whatever. The claim of Lord Byron being accordingly allowed, he was forthwith discharged on payment of his fees. This singular privilege was supposed to be abrogated by the 7 & 8 Geo. IV. cap. 28, s. 6, which abolished Benefit of Clergy; but some doubt arising on the subject, it was positively put an end to by the 4 & 5 Vict. cap. 22. (Celebrated Trials connected with the Aristocracy. By Mr. Serjeant Burke.)

Mr. Chaworth was the descendant of one of the oldest houses in England, a branch of which obtained an Irish peerage. His grandniece, the eventual heiress of the family, was Mary Chaworth, the object of the early unrequited love of Lord Byron, the poet. Singularly enough, there was the same degree of relationship between that nobleman and the Lord Byron who

killed Mr. Chaworth, as existed between the latter unfortunate gentleman and Miss Chaworth.

Lord Byron survived the above trial thirty-three years, and dying in 1798, leaving no surviving issue, the title devolved on his grandnephew, the Poet, who, in a letter, thus refers to the fatal rencontre : "As to the Lord Byron who killed Mr. Chaworth in a duel, so far from retiring from the world, he made the tour of Europe, and was appointed Master of the Staghounds, after that event; and did not give up society until his son had offended him by marrying in a manner contrary to his duty. So far from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr. Chaworth, who was a 'spadassin,' and celebrated for his quarrelsome disposition, he always kept the sword which he used on that occasion in his bedchamber, and there it still was when he died."

DUEL BETWEEN THE DUKE OF YORK AND

COLONEL LENOX.

IN the year 1789, the Duke of York said, or was reported to have said, that Colonel Lenox (afterwards Duke of Richmond), of the Coldstream Guards, had submitted to language at D'Aubigny's Club, to which no gentleman ought to submit; and on the Colonel's requesting to be informed to what language His Royal Highness alluded, the Duke replied by ordering the Colonel to his post. After parade, the conversation was renewed in the orderly room. The Duke declined to give his authority for the alleged words at D'Aubigny's, but expressed his readiness to answer for what he had said, observing that he wished to derive no protection from his rank:

when not on duty, he wore a brown coat, and hoped that Colonel Lenox would consider him merely an officer of the regiment. To which the Colonel replied that he could not consider His Royal Highness as any other than the son of his King. Colonel Lenox then addressed a circular to the members of the Club, and failing to receive the required information, again applied to His Royal Highness to withdraw the offensive words, or afford the means of verifying them.

On a renewed refusal of explanation, a hostile message was delivered, and the parties met at Wimbledon Common; His Royal Highness attended by Lord Rawdon, and Colonel Lenox by the Earl of Winchilsea. The ground was measured at twelve paces: Lenox fired first, and the ball grazed His Royal Highness' side curl; the Duke of York did not fire. Lord Rawdon then interfered, and said that he thought enough had been done. Lenox observed that His Royal Highness had not fired. Lord Rawdon said it was not the Duke's intention to fire; His Royal Highness had come out, upon Colonel Lenox's desire, to give him satisfaction, and had no animosity against him. Lenox pressed that the Duke should fire, which was declined, with a repetition of the reason. Lord Winchilsea then expressed his hope that the Duke of York would have no objection to say, he considered Colonel Lenox a man of honour and courage. The Duke replied that he should only say that he had come out to give Colonel Lenox satisfaction, and did not mean to fire at him if Colonel Lenox was not satisfied, he might fire again. Lenox said, he could not possibly fire again at the Duke, as His Royal Highness did not mean to fire at him. On this, both parties left the ground. The affair led to a prolonged discussion

among the officers of the Coldstream Guards, who at length passed a resolution that Colonel Lenox had behaved with courage, but not (under very trying circumstances) with judgment.

The Prince of Wales (George IV.), however, took up the matter with a high hand, as an insult to his family. The 4th of June, being the King's birthday, a State ball was given at St. James's Palace, which came to an abrupt conclusion, as thus described in a magazine of the period: "There was but one dance, occasioned, it is said, by the following circumstance:-Colonel Lenox, who had not danced a minuet, stood up with Lady Catherine Barnard. The Prince of Wales did not see this until he and his partner, the Princess Royal, came to Colonel Lenox's place in the dance, when, struck with the incongruity, he took the Princess' hand, just as she was about to be turned by Colonel Lenox, and led her to the bottom of the dance. The Duke of York and the Princess Augusta came next, and they turned the Colonel without the least particularity or exception. The Duke of Clarence, with the Princess Elizabeth, came next, and His Royal Highness followed the example of the Prince of Wales. The dance proceeded, however, and Lenox and his partner danced down. When they came to the Prince and Princess, His Royal Highness took his sister, and led her to her chair by the Queen. Her Majesty, addressing herself to the Prince of Wales, said: You seem heated, sir, and tired!' 'I am heated and tired, madam,' said the Prince, 'not with the dance, but with dancing in such company.' Then, sir,' said the Queen, it will be better for me to withdraw, and put an end to the ball!' 'It certainly will be so,' replied the Prince, for I never will countenance insults given to my family, however

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they may be treated by others.' Accordingly, at the end of the dance, Her Majesty and the princesses withdrew, and the ball concluded."

A person named Swift wrote a pamphlet on the affair, taking the Duke's side of the question. This occasioned another duel, in which Swift was shot in the body by Colonel Lenox. The wound, however, was not mortal, for there is another pamphlet extant, written by Swift on his own duel.

Colonel Lenox immediately after exchanged into the 35th Regiment, then quartered at Edinburgh, where he became very popular; it was suspected from his quarrel with the Duke being attributed to a lurking feeling of Jacobitism-Lenox being a left-handed descendant of the Stuart race.

"FIGHTING FITZGERALD.”

THE records of Tyburn, or of Newgate, do not yield a parallel to the worthlessness of the individual who, in the last century, was infamously known as "Fighting Fitzgerald." By birth and fortune a gentleman, by profession a soldier, he possessed not a single attribute of either character: in manners offensively low and vulgar, in language vituperative; in habits a gamester and a brawler; the most noted duellist on record, yet a coward at heart--was this ferocious impostor.

In the course of his wicked life, he fought upwards of twenty duels, killing or wounding eighteen of his antagonists, and except a severe wound in the head, received in his first rencontre, never meeting with a scratch. At one period of his career, he came in collision with Captain Scawen, of the Guards. From that gentleman having