in the thigh. In the month following, Lord Macartney and Thomas Sadleir contended in combat, the latter being wounded. In January 1786, Lieutenant Gamble and Lieutenant Mollison met as duellists at Chatham; and in June of the same year, Lord Macartney and Major-General Stewart met for the same purpose near Kensington, in which the former was severely wounded. In September 1787 Sir John Macpherson and Major Browne fought with pistols in Hyde Park, in which the former 'behaved with great gallantry, and much like a man of honour.' On May 17, 1789, the Duke of York and Colonel Lennox fought a duel on Wimbledon Common. His Royal Highness had chanced to let this expression fall from his lips: 'Colonel Lennox heard words spoken to him at Daubigny's, to which no gentleman ought to have submitted.' A dispute arose in consequence, and one sent the other a challenge, and both met as just stated, on Wimbledon Common, Colonel Lennox firing first, and grazing the duke's curl. During the course of the same year three other duels were fought; one between Captain Pellew and Lieutenant Northey, at Exeter, in June ; a second between Captain Tongue and Captain Paterson on the 19th of the same month; and a third, between Lieut.-Colonel Lennox and Theophilus Swift, in a field on the Oxford Road on July 1. Instances enough have been quoted, but it may be worth while to complete the list covered by the next ten years. Captain Aston and Lieutenant Fitzgerald, near Chalk Farm, June 25, 1790; Graham and Julius, upon Blackheath, July 19, 1791, the former being killed; Frizell and Clark, in Hyde Park, June 1792, in which the latter was killed. A dispute between Kemble and Atkin respecting certain arrangements at Drury Lane led to a duelling contest in March 1792, with pistols, in Marylebone Fields. Early on the morning of June 9, 1792, the Earl of Lonsdale and Captain Cuthbert fought at Hyde Park. The captain had issued orders that no vehicle of any kind or description should pass through Mount Street. Lord Lonsdale attempted to pass, but being foiled in his attempt, addressed Captain Cuthbert in Bland Burges Papers, ed. Hutton. this fashion :-'You rascal, do you know that I am a peer of the realm?' 'I don't know that you are a peer; but I know you are a scoundrel for applying such a term to an officer on duty; and I will make you answer for it,' and a brace of pistols was accordingly fired on either side. July 2, 1792, witnessed a meeting between Lord Lauderdale and General Arnold, near Kilburn Wells, but nothing came of it, which was quite the reverse in the duel which was fought in the vicinity of Cobham in Kent on January 12, 1796, between Major Sweetman and Captain Watson, wherein the former was killed, and the latter severely wounded. On April 30, 1796, the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Malden were engaged in an affair of honour in a field near Paddington. William Carpenter and John Pridi, both Americans, fought in Hyde Park on August 20, 1796, when Carpenter was killed. On May 4 in the year following Lieutenants Fitzgerald and Warrington quarrelled in the theatre at Plymouth, and subsequently exchanged shots. In the October following Colonels King and Fitzgerald fought a duel on a spot near the Magazine in Hyde Park. The former had challenged the latter by reason of his elopement with his second cousin, the Hon. Miss King. At the meeting in Hyde Park six shots were fired without effect, but at a second meeting in Ireland, Colonel Fitzgerald received a fatal wound. The last duel on English soil during the eighteenth century of which any record remains was that in May 1798, between the Right Hon. William Pitt, M.P. and Mr. George Tierney, M.P. Briefly. it originated thus. On the 25th, Pitt had introduced into Parliament a bill for the repeal of all protections from pressing for six months; and in bringing forward his motion had justified both the bill and his proposal to pass it through all its stages in one day, by the precedent of 1779, when a similar measure had met with complete success. Tierney's opposition to it arose in consequence of its having been 'brought in without previous notice,' and of his inability to see any necessity for celerity. 'After some transactions that have taken place,' he observed, 'I shall be extremely jealous of everything the right honourable gentleman proposes to do, and at present I GAMBLING AND DUELLING. REESE LIBRARY ( 6 UNIVEP LIFORNIA consider him as calling upon the House to surrender the few remaining liberties of the country.' Pitt, on rising, remarked that the honourable gentleman seemed to have something in his mind which it was to be wished that he had spoken out more distinctly, when he said that he entertained a jealousy in consequence of something which had recently taken place.' He then proceeded to assign certain reasons which rendered the speedy passing of the bill a necessity, and before he resumed his seat, remarked that if the honourable gentleman meant to oppose the measure, he should conclude that the only motive which actuated him to do so was that of impeding the service and defence of the country. Tierney on hearing this claimed the protection of the chair, whereupon the Speaker rose and said that if Mr. Pitt had made use of the language to which Mr. Tierney had taken exception, it certainly was disorderly and unparliamentary. It was, however, for the House to determine whether such was the language or not; and the House would wait for the right honourable gentleman's explanation.' Any explanation, however, Pitt declined to give, and maintained that although he had no right to impute any particular motives to any gentleman, he had a right to infer motives from arguments; and therefore if he were right in saying that no man could be justified in opposing the present measure, and that to oppose it was to impede the defence of the country, it was fair for him to state those arguments, which he believed to be conclusive, and which he would submit to the judgment of the House, but which he would not in the slightest degree retract. Later in the evening, this language was commented on by a member. Pitt declared 'that he would abide by his words and give no explanation.' There was no further interposition on the part of the Speaker. In the course of the following day, however, Tierney sent Pitt a challenge, which he accepted. On the 27th, accompanied each by seconds (Mr. Ryder for Pitt, and Sir G. Walpole for Tierney), they proceeded to Wimbledon Common, where having discharged their pistols they were reconciled. The greatest triumph of civilised man is that of 1 Lord Colchester's Diary, i. pp. 154-5. reason over impulse. 'Hates any man the thing he would not kill?' says Shylock. Hatred is often the cause of murder, and the reason why there are not more duels nowadays is to be found in the fact of the predominance of reason over impulse. That in political as well as in private matters, hatred does visit the breasts of the opponents is, of course, true enough, but reflection in most cases asserts itself, and extinguishes the sparks before they burst into the flames of physical opposition. 263 CHAPTER VIII. POPULAR CREDULITIES, SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES. The hold which credulity retained on the national character-Astrology, its professors and dupes-Isaac Bickerstaff and John Partridge--Astrological almanacs and their contents-Duncan Campbell-The Earthquakes of 1750 and 1756-Touching for the king's evil-Charms and medicinal recipes-Witchcraft: its believers and its victims- Belief in ghosts-Notable impostors of the century - Psalmanazar, the historian of Formosa-The Epworth mystery-Mary Tofts and her warren of rabbits-The case of Elizabeth Canning-The Cock Lane mysteryThe Stockwell ghost-Arch-quack Cagliostro. THE annals of English popular credulity and superstition, so far as the last century is concerned, will bear favourable comparison with any of those golden eras by which it had been preceded. Though the human mind had been stimulated by various concurring causes to extraordinary displays of strength and energy, it was still in a state which disposed it strongly to credulity and superstition. Men, to borrow the language of Butler in 'Hudibras,' still 'groped to anticipate the cabinet designs of fate,' still sought the invaluable aid of astrologers, wizards, wise women, and fortune-tellers in their eagerness to pierce the thick veil which concealed the weighty secrets of futurity from their prying gaze, still continued to swallow with avidity the most palpable deceptions and the most audacious impostures, still regarded with a veneration bordering almost upon idolatry, hundreds of nameless charlatans who made pretensions to augury, geomancy, hydromancy, oneiromancy, palmistry, and endless other forms of divination, manifesting their adherence thereto not only by consulting them When brass and pewter pots did stray |