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SigfiaHMaafc m 1855.] THE B E A D E B, 9...
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DUELS AND DUELLING. N&tea <<m Diuils,and...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Historical Commentary On The Old Testame...
„** , « - « ! ukenomena intensified ) , tlie argument that they fell upon Egypt at SSTorasaand < rf > Moses is worth very little . Moses was likely to recognise thpore ^ reer . of-such events , and to make use of his knowledge . When rolttmbus-des ired to awe into obedience the . Carib nation , he announced to * heir chiefe that if . they * resisted ; his desires he would darken the " sun , and by an aooroaehing eclipse : he was enabled to fulfil his threat . It may be that such an illustration will find no favour in the sig ht of a commentator so determined as . Ds . Kalisch ; but reviewing the phases of that unhappy period in their . historical sequence , it is not difficult to understand how the second was a natural consequence of the first , and so forth to the end The Nile—the Egyptian river of life—was corrupted , the fish died , swarms of & ogp were bred in the polluted channel . In the tainted air gnats
and other noxious insects were propagated , tormenting the flocks , and consuming the fruits of the land . The cattle became victims of the pestilence , which ^ spread to human beings' ; the grass was eaten up by locusts—thouglu , if we must be bound to a technical interpretation , " all the grass" had already been destroyed by hail ; a fearful gloom—Egyptian darkness—overspread the valley , and the people , with , their means of life poisoned or extirpated ,, were smitten with great mortality . Dr . Kalisch does not venture to explain how , with all these calamities occurring in one year , none but the first-born should have died of the final plague .
Indeed , while writing , upon the " miraculous character" of these visitations , Dr . Kaliseh does not satisfy us as to the meaning of the word miraculous . Evidently , he does not accept it as an infringement , for a special purpose , of a natural law , since the entire series ( including the transubstantiation of the Nile ) supposes in his view a conformity with circumstances belonging to the natural system of Egypt . What , in the Mosaic sense , is a miracle ? Hume would say , " a violation of the laws of nature . " Is it not rather— -the scriptural critics say—a variation from the general order of nature ? What , however , is the order of earthquakes , pestilences , great conflagrations ? What the order of the Nile's change of colour , of murrain among cattle , of locust swarms , or the multiplication of frogs in Egypt ? Is a fulfilled prophecy a miracle ? There- have been versions of this history which have represented the plague as types of seditions , conflicts , and social revolutions in Egypt , translatino- the destruction of the first-born into the abolition of the law of
primogeniture . Dr . * Kalisch , we have said , chooses a course between the extremes of literal arid figurative interpretation . It is difficult to comprehend , however , how a critic who insists' upon the absolute change of the Nile water into blood , can introduce modifications of the text in other passages of far less surprising import . If a river of water become a river of blood , why so much labour to identify the diseases or the vermin which afterwards afflicted the people ? Bats might become bulls as easily . Dr . Kalisch refers to but one authority for this tremendous assertion—ar text-in the Bible which he describes as dealing in poetical hyperbole . But when he has to prove that insects sting severely , or that the hot winds of the East bring darkness with them , he quotes historians , and travellers . By this ^ method we are to believe that which is inconceivable upon a vague statement , in a
highly-rhetorical narrative , while we are presented with accumulated evidence in proof of facts which are perfectly natural , and by no means miraculous . Without expounding any judgment upon the issue as it stands between the literal and the metaphorical translations , we are bound to say that Dr . Kalisch deserts bis logic with suspicious celerity . He has collected a prodigious mas * of useful and interesting illustrations ; he throws upon the scriptural history li ^ ht enough to render it clear and intelligible ; he then ridicules the logical results of that plain method , and affirms a proposition only to be enforced by the ecclesiastical dogma—* ' It is written "—in Hebrew , and translated into English : whether according to the intentions of Moses is another matter . Many scholars will agree with the commentator , that , " in general , the scientific interpretations must recur to miraculous expedients , only after all attempts at a rational interpretation have failed . " This course is followed with reference to the pillar of cloud and flame ; but when the Hebrew army traverses the Red Sea , Dr . Kalisch attempts only to mitigate the wonder . Were the waters parted by a miraculous agency ? " Yes , " writes Dr . Kalisoh . there was " a miraculous stand-still of the waves on both sides of
, the marching . Israelites . " Then why suggest natural circumstances , as if to render a divine miracle easy ! The sea at Kolsoum , near Suez , was only 757 double paces across ; its bed is sandy and free from weeds . Indeed , at that point , Christopher Foyer and Jacob Seyer , of Nurnberg , crossed it in lotio ; Niebuhr in 1762 , on horseback , though his Arab attendants accompanied him on foot ; Napoleon in 17 . 98 , and many others have done the same . Alexander once crossed the Pamphylian Sea with an army , and Arrian , Appian , and Menander exalted the feat as a miracle . Thus also Scipio Aifrioanusi forded with his troops a channel of the sea ; while in the Sea of Azof , the waters occasionally retire and leave a path from Taganrog to the opposite shore . Erom these analogies and from other facts and traditions , Dr . Kalisch . concludes that it was possible for the Jewish army to cross tko Gulf of Suez , " in a natural way . " Novertholess . though " all attempts at a . rational , interpretation" have not failed , his " scientific interpretation resorts to a miraculous expedient . " The Egyptians descended into the < hy channel in . pursuit of the fugitive army ; but the waters returned auu © . verwhoimed their ' host .
Without tracing , further the criticul investigations of Dr . Kalisch , wo will "hand over his volumes to " the Btudious roader . " They contain an encyclopeedic mass of illustrations , collected with Gorman industry , and systematised with German care . Sometimes , as wo have indicated , the commentator declines the results of his own researches ^ and reverts from a plain proof to a bewildering hypotbeaia ., Thorbody of his work , however , is composed of facts , drawn from aUaoMroea ) which testify to the diameter of the Hebrew commonwealth , And itfli influence , upon external nations . Dr . Kalisch ia a scholar , if not a logician ,, and < whenever his commentary is free from the disturbing agency ofl miracles , appreciates , in the spirit of a philosopher the ovente of that eingultur history * contained in the- second book of the Pentateuch . His dili * gonccamak' -ba * integrity deserve , the respect of those who arc the least inclined to adopt Jim opinions .
Sigfiahmaafc M 1855.] The B E A D E B, 9...
SigfiaHMaafc m 1855 . ] THE B E A D E B , 943
Duels And Duelling. N&Tea <<M Diuils,And...
DUELS AND DUELLING . N & tea << m Diuils , and Duelling . B y Lorenzo Sabine . Sampson Low , Son * and iOou American writers have a talent for compilation ; and some good colleetiems of scraps and trifles " unconsidered" here have been sent'to us from-the other side , the " right of piracy" coming in aid of the literary chiffonnter ; Mr . Sabine writes with clearness and without verbiage ; but ' the book bears evident marks of imperfect materials . Some duels ° of little or no general interest are amply narrated , some of the most celebrated duels of modern times are unnoticed or recorded in a few lines . Thus the duel between Colonel Fawcett and Lieutenant Munro , the latest affair of any note in England , is not recorded ; and the still more " interesting" duel between Emile
de Girardto and Armand Carrel is disposed of in three lines . On the ; , other band , some silly American duels , which neither " point a moral nor adorn a tale , " swell out in narratives twenty pages long . To these defects we must add many errors of fact . We _ do not , however , attribute the general deficiency of the book solely to the faults of the author ; there are inherent difficulties in the subject . Many of the facts are the materiel of that chancemedley composition— " contemporary history , " and to that " no-man ' s-land , " entitled " twenty or thirty years ago ; " a domain not yet seized by any responsible historian , and still haunted by the ghosts of penny-a-liners "lying" for their bread . We therefore thank the author for what is good in what he sends .
In a historical essay prefixed to the alphabetical account of the duellists of all ages , we find some passages that bear repeating . The following brings down to a late date that remarkable institution , the "judicial duel : " In 1818 we hear again of the judicial duel in England . William Ashford accused Abraham Thornton of the murder of his sister . Thornton threw down his glove , ao cording to ancient custom , and . claimed to disprove his innocence by combat . A case so remarkable in the nineteenth century attracted universal attention , and in due time it was carried before Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough , and the other judges of the highest tribunal of the realm , for decision . At the hearing , the judges were in their robes , the lawyers in their gowns and wigs . The court affirmed Thornton ' s right -, but Ashford was a boy , and declined the challenge . The year following ( 1819 ) the Wager , of Battle was abolished by an Act of Parliament . The following extracts give some idea of the Americanisms , both * ln time and style , of the book : —
It will suffice to remark here , that during the reign of George III . ( nearly sixty years ) , about one hundred and seventy duels are known to have been fought in the British Isles , or by British subjects who were absent in , or repaired to , other countries ^ Harrington numbers two hundred and twenty-seven " during his grand climacteric . " Our English brethren are very careful to remind us of our sins in this behalf , and are constantly commenting upon the quarrels of our statesmen in Congress and elsewhere ; forgetting , in their anxiety to reproach us , that the D ukes of York , Norfolk , Richmond , and Wellington , Lords Shelburne , Talbot , Lauderdale , Townshend , Camelford , Maiden , Paget , Londonderry , Castlereagh , Belgrave , and Thurlow , and Fox , Pitt , Sheridan , Canning , Wyndham , Tiernay , Hastings , Francis , Grattan , Curran , Burditt , and many other orators and statesmen , are among their own duellists .
The measures of the British Government claim a passing notice . Queen Elizabeth attacked duelling by restricting fencing schools . James , her successor , relied ' principally upon proclamations , Cromwell's Parliament , proceeding a step—on parchment , enacted a law . Charles II . proclaimed that the survivor of a duel should not receive the royal pardon . And Qneen Anne mentioned the " impious practice of duelling" in a speech from the throne . In 1719 , in the following year , Sir Joseph Jekyll made an effort to procure efficient legislation , but was opposed in the House of Lords , and failed . To kill in a duel had been a capital offence for centuries ; but , with two or three exceptions , the penalty has never been enforced .
In 1844 , Mr . Turner moved a resolution ia the House of Commons , in the fceope of inducing the repeal of the existing enactments , which are practically obsolete , and substituting a provision that the survivor of a duel should be liable to pay the . debts of a deceased antagonist . He was opposed by several members of influence , and the movement was unsuccessful . Sir Robert Peel , according to Wade , distrusted : the efficacy of legislative changes , —relied rather on the state of public opinion , —and especially objected at that moment , in consequence of the recent formation of an association of distinguished naval . and military officers to discountenance duelling ; while Sir Henry Hardingo would not disturb the statute book , because , a few days previously , the articles of war had been amended in a manner to provide a remedy in the military arms of the service .
There is perhaps an undue proportion of Irish duels , which may be accounted for partly by the fertility of Ireland in that produce , and partly by the fact that the descendants of actors in the encounters have carried the stories across the Atlantic without any diminution by the way . The tales are told in a dry style , and even the old jokes connected with the Hibernian duels , appear matter-of-fact enough when , related in the unscrupulous assertion of tho transatlantic artist ' s manner . The preliminary disquisition on the morale of duelling at the commencement , is meagre enough . Wo encounter many of tho old arguments against tho practice , such as that honour is not satisfied , nor delicate feeling soothed by placing two men opposite each other with deadly tubes . The same kind of argument may be applied against tho highest of our feelings , and a moral atheism might be justified if we accepted this fragmentary logic . Falataff oaks " CunTionour set a leg ?"—and if wo limit the consideration solely to the
surgical question respecting tho leg , tlio query is final . So the bravery of Windham in the Redan , the other day , mig ht be characterised by Mr . Gladstone as tho courage of tho burglar . But where logic and law see only straight lines , and cutting of throats , Honour and Patriotism see tho bravery of the gcntloinan who leaves his carpeted home to rush with flushed chcok und boating heart on a parapet bristling with death . A duel may bo nothin " but an organised murder ; but it may be the act of a superior man , driven to this primitive mode of retribution . That which looks the mosc direct , is not always truest : tho lino of beauty is not always « "g £ ' *"" But tho fact ia , that the duel is justified not on tho score that » fc «'" £ g question logically , still loss on tho ground that it determines tl o < tow ? J ™ " £ oV a dispute What it does , is to place disputants upon •^^ ^ gPJ rativo equality , and to substitute a de / iued position ^ Btma o t which , from Boine circumstance or other , is intoIor « b c ' "" < d bulfy a mate termination . A very feeble man opposed by a hrg tiamoa o y ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 29, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29091855/page/19/
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