Even a judge of the present time doubts if his abolition was not a mistake.
On May 17, 1911, it is reported that at the dinner of the Union Society of London, Lord Justice Vaughan Williams said:
In recent years a statement that man is a liar does not bear the weight it used to do.
There were times when if one man called another a liar, that man was called to account for it, it might be even in a duel. But long since duels came to an end.
If a man called an Englishman a liar in a public place, that Englishman had a habit of knocking that man down; I am afraid that habit is dying out.
He said he was sorry he had come to that conclusion, that the “world in general, as it was accepted in England was coming to think that it did not matter very much if one’s neighbour called one a liar or not.
“One would smile, meet him in society, go out and play golf with him, and shake hands with him.
“He wished people would resent more this imputation of being liars.”
“Vanoc” in the Referee newspaper said:
For some reasons the abolition of duelling is a mistake. Insolent and offensive language is now too frequently indulged in with impunity ... the best rule of all is never to take liberties yourself, and never to allow liberties to be taken with you, and to remember that self-defence is still the noble art.