Duelling—Code of Honour [pp. 542-560]

Duelling.
there he falls, and there expires, we are compelled to remember
the decision of Him who cannot lie: " No murderer hath eternal
life abiding in him." This is as true of a self murderer as of
any other murderer. Moreover, duelling is, in its very nature
murderous. The weapons chosen are the weapons of death.
The efforts of each are almost without exception for the destruction of his antagonist's life. The fact of a malignant animus is
proven by all the circumstances attending duels, and especially
by aiming a deadly weapon, with practised skill, at the person
of the adversary, intending to banish him from this world.
This aim is deliberate. Here is more than the guilt of manslaughter. Here is murderous intention and if life is taken,
here is MURDER.
This is indeed strong but not rash language. Sir Matthew
Hale says: "This is a plain case, and without any question.
If one kill another in fight, even upon the provocation of him
that is killed, this is murder." Judge Foster says: "Deliberate
duelling, if death ensue, is, in the eye of the law, murder." Sir
Edward Coke says: "Single combat between any of the king's
subjects is strictly prohibited by the laws of the realm, and on
this principle that in states governed by law, no maln, in consequence of any injury whatever, ought to indulge the principle
of private revenge." Blackstone, quoting from Coke, says:
"Murder is when a person, of sound memory and discretion,
unlawfully killeth ally reasonable creature in being, and under
the king's peace, with malice aforethought, either express or
implied."' The entire applicability of this definition to the crime
of killing in a duel will probably be granted by all, except so
much as relates to malice aforethought. Even a part of this
will not be denied, viz.: that if there be malice at all, it is malice
aforethought. Is there malice at all? The forbidden act of
shooting with intent to kill creates strong proof of malice. "This
malice aforethought," says the authority just quoted, "is the
grand criterion, which now distinguishes murder from other
killing; and this malice prepense is not so properly spite or
malevolence to the deceased in particular, as any evil design in
general: the dictate of a wicked, depraved and malignant heart:
and it may be either express or implied in law. Express malice
is when one, with a sedate, deliberate mind and formed design,
doth kill another, which formed design is evidenced by external
1848.]
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