is touched in a speech, or an huzza fet up where it is the voice of the people; you my conclude it is begun or joined by, SIR,

Ꭲ .

A

MONG the loofe papers which I have frequently spoken of heretofore, I find a converfation between Pharamond and Eucrate upon the subject of duels, and the copy of an edict iffued in confe quence of that discourse.

Eucrate argued, that nothing but the most severe and vindictive punishments, fuch as placing the bodies of the offenders in chains, and putting them. to death by the most exquifite torments, would be fufficient to extirpate a crime which had fo long prevailed and was fo firmly fixed in the opinion of the world as great and laudable; but the king anfwered, That indeed inftances of ignominy were neceffary in the cure of this evil; but confidering that it prevailed only among fuch as had a nicety in their sense of honour, and that it often happened that a duel was fought to fave appearances to the world, when both parties were in their hearts in amity and reconciliation to each other; it was evident that turning the mode another way would effectually put a stop to what had being only as a mode. That to fuch perfons, poverty and fhame were torments fufficient: That he would not go further in punishing in others crimes which he was fatisfied he himself was moft guilty of, in that he

might have prevented them by speaking his displea fure fooner. Befides which the king faid, he was in general averfe to tortures, which was putting human nature itself, rather than the criminal, to difgrace; and that he would be fure not to use this means where the crime was but an ill effect arifing from a laudable cause, the fear of fhame. The king, at the fame time, fpoke with much grace upon the subject of mercy; and repented of many acts of that kind which had a magnificent aspect in the doing, but dreadful confequences in the example. Mercy to particulars, he obferved, was cruelty in the general: That though a prince could not revive a dead man by taking the life of him who killed him, neither could he make reparation to the next that fhould die by the evil example; or answer to himself for the partiality, in not pardoning the next as well as the former offender.

'As

for me, fays Pharamond, I have conquer'd France, and yet have given laws to my people: The laws are my methods of life; they are not a diminuti. on but a direction to my power. I am ftill abfo'lue to diftinguifh the innocent and the virtuous, 'to give honours to the brave and generous: I am ⚫ abfolute in my good will; none can oppofe my 'bounty, or prefcribe rules for my favour. favour. While I can, as I pleafe, reward the good, I am under no pain that I cannot pardon the wicked: For which reason, continued Pharamond, I will effectually put a stop to this evil, by exposing no more the tenderness of my nature to the importunity of having the same respect to those who are miferable by their fault, and those who are fo by their misfortune. Flatterers (concluded the king fmiling) repeat to us princes, that we are hea'ven's vicegerents; let us be so, and let the only thing out of our power be to do ill.

Soon after the evening wherein Pharamond

' and

' and Eucrate had this converfation, the following 'edict was published.

Pharamond's Edict against Duels.

Pharamond, King of the Gauls, to all his loving Jubjects fendeth greeting.

"WHEREAS it has come to our royal notice and obfervation, that in contempt of all laws 'divine and human, it is of late become a custom among the nobility and gentry of this our king'dom, upon flight and trivial, as well as great and · urgent provocations, to invite each other into the 'field, there, by their own hands, and of their own authority, to decide their controverfies by 'combat: We have thought fit to take the faid 'cuftom into our royal confideration, and find, up' on inquiry into the ufual causes whereon fuch fatal 'decifions have arifen, that by this wicked cuftom, 'maugre all the precepts of our holy religion, and the rules of right reafon, the greatest act of the 'human mind, forgiveness of injuries, is become vile ' and fhameful; that the rules of good fociety and 'virtuous converfation are hereby inverted; that the loose, the vain, and the impudent, infult the 'careful, the discreet, and the modeft; that all virtue is fuppreffed, and all vice is fupported, in 'the one act of being capable to dare to the death. • We have also further, with great forrow of mind, • obferved that this dreadful action, by long impunity, (our royal attention being employed upon matters of more general concern) is become honourable, and the refufal to engage in it ignominious. In thefe our royal cares and enquiries we · are yet farther made to understand, that the perfons of moft eminent worth, and moft hopeful abilities, accompanied with the ftrongeft paffion for true glory, are fuch as are most liable to be • involved in the dangers, arifing from this licence. VOL. II. Now

G

Now taking the faid premiffes into our ferious confideration, and well weighing that all fuch emergencies (wherein the mind is incapable of 'commanding itself, and where the injury is too fudden or too exquifite to be born) are particularly provided for by laws heretofore enacted; and that the qualities of lefs injuries, like those of ingratitude, are too nice and delicate to come ◄ under general rules: We do refolve to blot this 'fashion, or wantonnefs of anger, out of the minds ' of our fubjects, by our royal refolutions declared in this edict as follow.

No perfon who either fends or accepts a chal< lenge, or the pofterity of either, though no death enfues thereupon, fhall be, after the publication of this our edict, capable of bearing office in thefe our dominions.

The perfon who fhall prove the fending or receiving a challenge, fhall receive to his own ufe and property, the whole perfonal estate of both ' parties; and their real estate shall be immediate. ly vefted in the next heir of the offenders in as " ample manner as if the faid offenders were actually deceased.

In cafes where the laws (which we have already 'granted to our fubjects) admit of an appeal for blood; when the criminal is condemned by the faid appeal, he fhall not only fuffer death, but his whole eftate, real, mixed, and perfonal, fhall from the hour of his death be vested in the next heir of the person whofe blood he fpilt.

That it fhall not hereafter be in our royal power, or that of our fucceffors, to pardon the 'faid offences, or reftore the offenders in their e'ftates, honour, or blood for ever.'

Given at our court at Blois, the 8th of February 420, in the fecond year of our reign.

T

FRIDAY,

TH

HERE is not fo variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress: Within my own memory I have known it rife and fall above thirty degrees. About ten years ago it fhot up to a very great height, infomuch that the female part of our fpecies were much taller than the men. The women were of fuch an enormous ftature, that we appeared as grafhoppers before them: At prefent the whole fex is in a manner dwarfed and fhrunk into a race of beauties that feems almost another fpecies. I remember feveral ladies, who were once very near feven feet high, that at prefent want fome inches of five: How they came to be thus curtailed I cannot learn; whether the whole fex be at prefent under any penance which we know nothing of, or whether they have caft their head-dreffes in order to furprise us with fomething in that kind which fhall be entirely new; or whether fome of the talleft of the fex, being too cunning for the reft, have contrived this method to make themselves appear fizeable, is still a fecret; though I find most are of opinion, they are at prefent like trees new lopped and pruned, that will certainly fprout up and flourish with greater heads than before. For my own part, as I do not love to be infulted by women who are taller than myfelf, I admire the fex much more in their prefent humiliation, which has reduced them to their natural dimenfions, than when they had extended their perfons, and lengthened themfelves out into formidable and gigantic figures. I