In the August of this year, the following most savage “affair of honour” took place near Philadelphia. A challenge was sent by a Dr. Smith to a Dr. Jeffries, and, being accepted, the parties met. The distance fixed upon was only eight paces; at which they exchanged shots, without either of them receiving any injury. Some efforts were then made by their friends to bring about an accommodation, but unavailingly; as Dr. Jeffries declared that he would not leave the ground until he had lost his own life or taken that of his antagonist. Pistols were then handed to them a second time, and at this fire the right arm of Dr. Smith was broken, which delayed the proceedings for a few moments, until he recovered from the exhaustion; when he declared, that, as he was wounded, he was ready to die, and requested the seconds to proceed. The pistols were then put into their hands a third time, Dr. Smith using his left hand. At this fire Dr. Jeffries was wounded in the thigh, and his loss of blood occasioned an exhaustion which again delayed the conflict for a few minutes. He, however, recovered, and both desired to shorten the distance. They now stood up for the fourth time, covered with blood, and at a distance of six feet. They were to fire between the words “one” and “five,” and the shot proved fatal to both parties. They fell to the earth. Dr. Smith was dead when he dropped, the ball having penetrated his heart. Dr. Jeffries was shot through the breast, and survived but four hours. They fought with perfect coolness. When Dr. Jeffries saw that his antagonist had fallen, he asked if he was dead; and being assured that he was, he declared his own willingness to die. Before he expired, he said he had been a schoolmate with Dr. Smith, and that they had been on terms of great intimacy and friendship for fifteen years; and he bore honourable testimony to his character as a man of science and a gentleman.
BETWEEN GENERAL SEBASTIANI AND GENERAL LAMARQUE.
August 1, 1831.
A hostile meeting took place in the Bois de Boulogne, between General Sebastiani, minister for foreign affairs, and General Lamarque, arising out of a speech made by the latter in the Chamber of Deputies, in which he represented M. Lebeau, Belgian minister for foreign affairs, as the Sebastiani of Belgium. The seconds present on this occasion, General Jacqueminot and M. de Rumigny, were chosen by General Sebastiani; whose adversary expressed himself satisfied with their presence, and declined appointing any on his own behalf. The affair having been arranged on the ground without an exchange of shots, a detailed account of the circumstances attendant upon the intended duel was published in the journal called the Tribune; the tenor of which betrayed, on the part of General Sebastiani’s seconds, more anxiety to settle the difference without fighting, than is usually considered consistent with the honour of the principal whom they are called upon to represent. A letter was, in consequence, addressed to the editor of the Tribune by General Jacqueminot and M. de Rumigny, in which they contradicted many of the circumstances stated in that journal, and entered into an explanation, which General Lamarque interpreted as being unfavourable to himself. Another meeting, in consequence, took place in the Bois de Boulogne; Admiral de Rigny acting as the second of General Sebastiani, and General Harispe for General Lamarque. Two pistol-shots having been exchanged without injury to either party, the seconds interfered, and the affair was amicably settled.
BETWEEN MAJOR-GENERAL MOORE AND MR. STAPYLTON.
February 13, 1832.
A duel was this day fought upon Wimbledon Common, between Major-General Lorenzo Moore, C.B., and Miles Stapylton, Esq. In the evening of the same day, the General was brought to Union Hall police office, on a charge of wounding Mr. Stapylton; when Mr. David Harris stated, that as he was proceeding to Godalming on the outside of the stage-coach, about four o’clock, in passing the road which crosses Wimbledon Common, he heard the report of a pistol, and on looking towards the spot observed a gentleman fall. He and Mr. Self alighted, and ran to the place. Seeing the gentleman lying on the ground, and blood upon the breast part of his shirt, they went towards the General, who had a pistol in his hand, and told him that he must consider himself in custody. The General offered no resistance, and immediately resigned his fire-arms. In the meanwhile, the seconds and some other persons carried the wounded gentleman off the field, placed him in a carriage, and drove towards town. The witness and Mr. Self conducted the General to Kingston, and gave him into the custody of a constable, who brought him to town. On the following day he was again brought up, and was much affected at hearing a certificate of the dangerous condition of Mr. Stapylton read. Bail to any amount was offered; but Mr. Chambers, the magistrate, said that while the wounded gentleman remained in a condition between life and death, it was his duty to retain the General in custody. He was again brought before Mr. Chambers on the 22nd; who said that he had received a certificate from Mr. Guthrie, the surgeon, who described Mr. Stapylton as being much better, and understood it was the decided wish of that gentleman and his friends that the whole matter should drop, and that no further proceedings should be instituted against the General. Under these circumstances, he and his colleague, Mr. Murray, had resolved to admit him to bail. They then decided, that he should find two securities of a thousand pounds each, and enter into his own recognizance in the sum of two thousand pounds, to appear at the next Surrey assizes; or, in the event of the fatal termination of Mr. Stapylton’s wound, to appear at the Old Bailey to take his trial. The required securities were immediately entered into, and the General was discharged.
BETWEEN GENERAL JACQUEMINOT AND M. BELMONTE.
March 23, 1832.
In consequence of some reflections made by the editor of the French journal, the Tribune, on Marshal Lobau, commandant of the Parisian National Guard, four officers on the staff of the Marshal paid a visit to the office of the Tribune, with, to use a homely expression, a very bullying message. Taken unawares, the principal editor refused to meet a body of persons; but expressed his readiness to give the Marshal himself personal satisfaction. The affair got wind; and, in the course of the day, many young men left their cards at the office of the Tribune, soliciting to be permitted, as assistant-editors of journals, to take off the odds; and accordingly the Tribune of March the 21st, intimated to the Etat-major, publicly in its columns, that sixty-seven editors were ready to go out with the sixty-seven officers of which the Etat-major is composed. Saturday, the 23rd, produced the first of the duels resulting from this challenge en masse. The principals in this affair were General Jacqueminot of the Etat-major, and M. Belmonte, the editor-in-chief of the Tribune. The former was attended by General Gourgaud and Colonel Taunton; the latter, by Colonel Bricqueville, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and M. Cartel, editor of the Nationel. After an exchange of shots, the seconds interfered, and that particular affair was made up.
BETWEEN M. COSTE AND M. BÉNOIT.
September, 1832.
In consequence of a paragraph which appeared in the French journal called “Le Temps,” reflecting on the manner in which orders had been distributed among the commissaries of police, a meeting took place in the Bois de Boulogne, between M. Coste, the editor of that paper, and M. Bénoit, commissary of police. M. Bénoit was attended by M. Nay, chief clerk of the private office of the prefecture of police, and M. Haymonet, another commissary. The seconds to M. Coste were Dr. Pasquier and M. V. Schoeler, a literary gentleman. The parties were placed at fifty paces from each other, with an understanding, that they were to advance to the distance of twenty paces. Both having arrived at this point, M. Bénoit desired M. Coste to fire first: this, however, he declined, and the seconds desired that they should fire together, at a signal. The two shots went off within a second of each other: the ball of M. Bénoit’s pistol went through the collar of the coat of M. Coste, while that of the latter entered the right side of his adversary, and passed through his body, coming out on the left side, about three inches higher. M. Bénoit was immediately conveyed to the infirmary of the King’s household, where he shortly after died.
The endeavour, on the part of the Parisians, to establish, at this time, a summary law of libel, by which the editor who ventured to animadvert on a particular class of public officers, was subjected to a most awful species of censorship, gave rise to many animadversions in the English journals; and amongst them, to the following:—“Truth is said to lie at the bottom of a well; at Paris they seek it at the bottom of a bullet wound. The ordeal, in the late case of the ‘Temps,’ however, ended in favour of the editor: the commissary of police,—one of the first of a numerous body of challengers for the same offence,—bit the dust, and is since dead. If editors are to have their errata thus corrected, they must either be very careful of what they print, or they must cast their old types into balls. Hitting a mark will be quite as necessary as pointing a period: reporters and paragraph-mongers must be as often seen at the shooting-gallery, as in the gallery of the House of Commons. It will be dangerous to enter a newspaper establishment on the leisure days; for, in the absence of rumours, the printers will amuse themselves with reports. The editors and sub-editors will stick up their unsold numbers for targets; and he who shall hole the stamp-mark will be considered to have hit the bull’s-eye, and be held to have so far broken up the taxes upon knowledge. Thus, editors will be as dangerous on days of ball-practice, as on days of publication; and a man whose character is shot through and through, if he goes to the office to complain, may chance to have his thorax perforated as well. Hostilities have, however, on this side the water, scarcely commenced; and where they have, it must be said, little resentment has been exhibited on the part of the beaten journalists. This affair of M. Coste and M. Bénoit demonstrates the greater freedom of the press in England than in Paris. Had the liberty of finding fault with the manner in which orders had been distributed among the commissaries of police been indulged in by an English paper on English magistrates, the remark would have been thought perfectly legitimate; and, so far from being fought about, would not have been even answered, unless by some paper in the opposite interest. This is, surely, far more rational than Mr. Roe, and Mr. Rawlinson, and Mr. Chambers, rushing into the offices of ‘The Morning Chronicle’ or ‘The Examiner,’ cursing the publisher, abusing the clerks, and challenging the editors to mortal combat. Where would be the use of Mr. Roe evading his own officers, and skulking to Chalk Farm, some dewy morning, in order to slaughter Mr. Black, because of the acrimony of his remarks on a police case? In this matter, at least, we order these things better than in France.”