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ceived a pleasure from witnessing the happiness of two virtuous parents in their rising offspring, that would have much overbalanced any uneasiness arising from the errors in their conduct.

Neither, but for this excessive refinement, would Mr. Fleetwood have been hurt by the behaviour of Mr. Johnson. Though he might not have considered him as a man of taste, he would, nevertheless, have regarded him as a good and inoffensive man; and he would have received pleasure from the reflection, that neither goodness nor happiness are confined to those minds, which are fitted for feeling and enjoying all the pleasures of nature or of art.-A.

N° 11. TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1779.

SINCE the commencement of the late levies, I understand that not only drill serjeants have had daily access to the lobbies and parlours of many decent and peaceable houses in this metropolis, but that professors of the noble science of defence have been so constantly occupied in attending grown gentlemen, and ungrown officers, that the former scholars have found great difficulty in procuring masters to push with them, and have frequently been obliged to have recourse to the less edifying opposition of

one another.

The purpose of the serjeant's instructions, every lover of his country must approve. The last-mentioned art, that of fencing, I formerly took great delight in myself, and still account one of the healthiest of all house exercises; insomuch that when I am in the country, where I make it a rule to spend

a certain part of every day in exercise of some kind, I generally take up my foil in rainy mornings, and push with great success against the figure of Herod, in a piece of old arras that was taken down from my grandmother's room, and is now pasted up on the wall of the laundry.

When those two sciences, however, go upon actual service, they are to be considered in different lights, that of the serjeant, as it teaches a man to stand well on his legs, to carry his body firm, and to move it alertly, is much the same as the fencing-master's; but in their last stage they depart somewhat from each other; the serjeant proposes to qualify a man for encountering his enemy in battle, the other to fit him for meeting his companion, or friend it may be, in a duel.

My readers will, I hope, give me credit for the Mirror being always in a very polite paper; I am not, therefore, at all disposed to bestow on a practice so gentleman-like as duelling, those severe reprehensions, equally trite and unjust, in which some of my predecessors have indulged themselves. During my residence abroad I was made perfectly acquainted with the arguments drawn in its favour, from the influence it has on the manners of the gentleman and the honour of the soldier. It is my intention only to point out those bounds within which the most punctilious valour may be contented to restrain itself; and in this I shall be the more guarded, as I mean the present paper principally for the use of the new-raised regiments above alluded to, whose honour I dearly prize, and would preserve as scrupulously inviolate as possible. I hold such an essay peculiarly proper at this juncture, when some of them are about to embark on long voyages, in which even goodnatured people, being tacked together like man 'and

wife, are somewhat apt to grow peevish and quarrel

some.

In the first place, I will make one general observation, that, at this busy time, when our country has need of men, lives are of more value to the community than at other periods. In time of peace, so many regiments are reduced, and the duties of an officer so easily performed, that if one fall, and another be hanged for killing him, there will speedily be found two proper young men ready to mount guard, and shew a good leg on the parade, in their room. But, at present, from the great increase of the establishment, there is rather a scarcity in proportion to the demand of men of military talents, and military figure, especially when we consider that the war is now to be carried against so genteel a people as the French, to whom it will be necessary to shew officers of the most soldier-like appearance and address.

This patriotic consideration will tend to relax the etiquette formerly established, for every officer to fight a duel within a few weeks of the date of his commission, and that, too, without the purpose of resenting any affront, or vindicating his honour from any aspersion, but merely to shew that he could fight. Now, this practice, being unnecessary at present, as preferment goes on briskly enough by the fall of officers in the course of their duty, may very properly, and without disparagement to the valour of the British army, be dispensed with; so, it is to be agreed and understood, that every officer in the new-raised regiments, whose commission bears date on or posterior to the first of January 1778, is, ipso facto, to be held and deemed of unquestionable courage and immaculate honour.

As to the measure of affront which may justify a

challenge, it is to be remembered, that the officers of the above-mentioned corps have been obliged, in levying their respective quotas, to engage in scenes of a very particular kind; at markets, fairs, countryweddings, and city-brawls, amongst a set of men and women, not remarkable for delicacy of language, or politeness of behaviour. We are not, therefore, to wonder, if the smooth enamel of the gentleman has received some little injury from the collision of such coarse materials; and a certain time may fairly be allowed for unlearning the blunt manners and rough phraseology which an officer in such situations was forced to assume. Therefore the identical words which, a campaign or two hence, are to be held expiable only by blood, may, at present, be done away by an explanation; and those which an officer must then explain and account for at the peril of a challenge, are now to be considered as mere colloquial expletives acquired by associating with such company as frequent the places above described.

As, notwithstanding all these allowances, some duels may be expected to take place, it is proper to mention certain regulations for the conduct of the parties, in the construction of which I have paid infinitely more regard to their honour than to their safety.

In fighting with the sword, a blow, or the lie direct, can scarcely be expiated but by a thrust through the body; but any lesser affront may be wiped off by a wound in the sword arm; or, if the injury be very slight, any wound will be sufficient. In all this it is to be noted, that the receiving of such a wound by either party constitutes a reparation for the affront; as it is a rule of justice peculiar to the code of duelling, that the blood of the injured atones for the offence he has received, as well as that of the injurer for the offence he has given.

In affairs decided with pistols, the distance is, in like manner, to be regulated by the nature of the injury. For those of an atrocious sort, a distance of only twenty feet, and pistols of nine, nine and a half, or ten-inch barrels are requisite; for slighter ones the distance may be doubled, and a six or even fiveinch barrel will serve. Regard, moreover, is to be had to the size of the persons engaged; for every stone above eleven, the party of such weight may, with perfect honour, retire three feet.

I read, some time ago, certain addresses to the Jockey Club, by two gentlemen who had been engaged in an affair of honour; from which it appeared, that one of them had systematized the art of duelling to a wonderfnl degree. Among other things, he had brought his aim with a pistol to so much certainty, and made such improvements on the weapon, that he could lay a hundred guineas to ten on hitting at a considerable distance, any part of his adversary's body. These arts, however, I by no means approve they resemble, methinks, a loaded die, or a packed deal; and I am inclined to be of opinion, that a gentleman is no more obliged to fight against the first, than to play against the latter. They may, in the mildest construction, be compared to the sure play of a man who can take every ball at billiards; and therefore if it shall be judged that an ordinary marksman must fight with the person possessed of them, he is, at least, entitled to odds, and must be allowed three shots to one of his antagonist.

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I have thus, with some labour, and I hope strict honour, settled certain articles in the matter of duelling, for such of my readers as may have occasion for them. It is but candid, however, to own, that there have been now and then brilliant things done quite without the line of my directions, to wit, by not

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