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without success to most of the booksellers, when finally he discovered the only chance of its publication would be to engage in shares with Millar; this was at length agreed upon, but during the progress of printing, Millar became embarrassed, and the business having been transferred to John Murray, the friend of Byron, and of enviable reputation, his successor was solicited to become the purchaser of the work by a friend of the author, (who under these untoward circumstances would gladly have accepted £10 for it,) which was also agreed between the parties upon payment of £100. The work appeared, and no book perhaps took more rapidly with the public, edition after edition, till it became the all-engrossing theme of conversation. Such instantaneous and unlooked-for success proved too much for the health of the astonished author, and he repaired to Paris for a change of scene. While here and when making the tour of the Italian States, Murray, with a liberality hardly equalled but in his own subsequent dealings, sent to Mr. Irving, unsolicited by him, in three or four repeated instances, the additional sum of one hundred guineas.

Now, those who attach to publishers and booksellers the charge of mercenary dealing after this, must, we think, look at things through a strange mental obliquity. They imagine, we suppose, because Andrew Strahan died worth half a million sterling, Luke Hansard £80,000, or Edward Dilly nearly £100,000, who left it to charities, and was indulgent and fostering to many unfledged authors of his time; Tonson and Dunton, similar amounts; that this must have been the fruit of illiberality to authors; whereas the reverse of this is rendered more than probable. Some booksellers have acquired wealth through adventitious causes. One Thompson, of Long Lane, Smithfield, we remember, had actually amassed at his death, in 1826, £70,000, all out of ballads and the coarsely co

lored pictures! Thomas Tegg, who, by the way, is himself somewhat of an author, having written "The Young Man's Book of Knowledge," and others, is said to be the richest member of the bookselling profession at the present day. His establishment used to be technically called the "Book burying-ground,' from the circumstance of his staple commodity in business consisting in the purchase of remainders of editions considered dead, the original demand for them having ceased. Tegg performed the office of sexton and resurrectionist, and after the revivifying process had been administered, he sent them on the wings of the wind to all quarters of the globe, even the antipodes. By the way, this same gentleman, seven years since, perpetrated something of a comic extravaganza, described by the following title, "Spirit of Election Wit, or Middlesex Fun Box opened, by Thomas Tegg, the Bookseller, 1804." The wealthy occupant of the splendid mansion in Regent's Park, and the extensive warehouses of Whittington-house in Cheapside, may possibly have forgotten his early bantling in the multiplicity and magnitude of his subsequent engagements, but we feel convinced that we shall receive his thanks for thus revivifying the departed. Never having enjoyed the privilege of perusing this remarkable effusion, we cannot gratify our readers with a description of its characteristic features; nor are we able either to detect the possibility of plagiarism by a later writer of eminence who has, with inimitable effect, excited the risibilities of his numerous readers by his delectable pictures of an Election squabble in the two well known contests of the "Buffs and Blues" in "Pickwick." Mr. Tegg commenced his career as book-auctioneer on the smallest possible scale, in a shop in Cheapside of the smallest possible size, with a merchandize of the smallest possible reputation; and now he is probably the larg

gravely, and turned into an adjoining room, where Mrs. Walker, a prudent woman, had been listening to the conversation. Peter, aware of the feeling, paid a keen attention to the husband and wife, and heard the latter exclaim, " There now, didn't I tell you he wouldn't die? Fool that you've been! I knew he wouldn't die." Peter enjoyed the joke, and outlived both the parties, receiving the annuity for twenty-four years!

est dealer, as he is the wealthiest of the entire trade, if we except simply the Longmans.

While on this point we cannot refrain from a recollection or two of a somewhat similar character; we refer to two members of the brotherhood, both since consigned to that dreamless repose which no personal allusion of ours may disturb. One was named Nunn; he kept an old book establishment in Great Queen street, and although a singularly large and corpulent personage, was scarcely less remarkable for his activity in early life, than for his austerity and moroseness in its later stages. By his parsimony and patient application to business, he became ultimately possessed of considerable wealth; and although this was no secret, yet his two daughters, who were (if one may hazard gallantry for truth) remarkably ugly, lived in single blessedness to the very autumn of life; but, strange to add, immediately after the demise of their venerable parent at the advanced age of eighty, they each entered into matrimonial alliances. Old Nunn possessed many peculiarities, and although not particularly remarkable for indulging any "sudorous brain-toils" of his own, he yet never appeared so contented as when immersed among the musty tomes of those who have left us in no condition of doubt as to that matter. We well remember, too, his curious custom of cramming his capacious coat-pockets, which on one occasion actually yielded four-and-twenty large octavo volumes before their contents were exhausted. Another, of the name of D'Arcey, also a dealer in second-hand and black-letter books in Holborn, rendered himself conspicuous, among other eccentricities, for the whim of having female attendants in his establishment, some of whom were decidedly pretty; and what is certainly not less singular, he regulated their re muneration according to the ratio of their personal attractions. We have often been surprised how any stipulation could tempt the fair bibliopoles to

the dry drudgery of his dingy shop and dusty books; or consent to the surveillance of a miserly old bachelor, as dirty and as dingy, too, as the objects of his vocation. He died wealthy, like his eccentric contemporary above alluded to. Luke White, of Dublin, who died in 1824 in great affluence, was also originally a pennyless itinerant hawker of pamphlets in the streets of Belfast. By energy and application he at length opened a shop, and, aided by successful speculations in the lotteries, he ultimately became possessor of nearly half a million sterling.

Booksellers, moreover, evince an affinity of feeling in more instances than one with the " genus irritabile." We remember an incident, among many others, to this effect, and with it we close our desultory chapter. Goldsmith, who was originally poor and unknown, after the publication of the Traveller became of much greater consequence; and one day, on learning that a scandalous attack had appeared against him in a paper published by Evans, he called at the shop of the offending bibliopolist, and announcing his errand, proceeded to administer summary chastisement. The pugilistic encounter, however, proved ultimately to the overwhelming disadvantage of the worthy "Vicar," who got well beaten himself and rolled upon the floor, to the amusement of the real offender, the author of the offensive article, who complaisantly stood by as bottle-holder on the occasion. A propos of which excellent example, we conclude our agreeable task of the vindication of this honorable fraternity, by avowing our own determination, as "One of the Craft," to perform, or at least attempt, the same feat on the person of the first individual, especially if he be an author, who in our presence, after all the contrary evidence we have herein above accumulated, shall so far cease to have the fear of God before his eyes, as ever again to repeat the old and abusive slanders, of which we have so long been the innocent and unresisting victims!

DUELLING.

IN our last number we found ourselves compelled by the pressure of our limits, to break off rather abruptly in the midst of a paper which we had prepared for the instruction and delectation of our readers, on this barbarous though interesting subject, à propos of the entertaining history of the practice recently published in England, by Dr. Millingen, of which, by the way, it is some matter of surprise that in this duelling country, it has not yet found an American republisher.

We have before shown the origin and rise of this detestable absurdity, how it grew out of the bloody brutality of the old Germanic barbarism, how it became consecrated by Religion into the Judicial Combat,-and how Chivalry supervened to give it a modified direction, by adding to it the new and powerful element of the

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point of honor;" and, in harmony with the fighting spirit which was the chief characteristic of the civilisation of the age, (such as it was), to make it fashionable and honorable. Foul and noxious growth as it was, it throve rankly in the congenial soil of the society where it was planted. In an age which placed the highest virtue in the greatest boldness and skill in the art of butchering-when the whole feudal organization of society was at the same time military and individual -when the contempt for the arts of industry and commerce, which was the inheritance of all gentle blood, threw these fighting gentry of necessity into the arms of idleness, the proverbial mother of mischief, the sanguinary game of the Duel rose to a frequency of indulgence, and a respectability of credit, that set all law and religion at equal defiance. France, as we have before stated, was its classic ground; and in French history the reign of the great Henri Quatre was the period in which it reached its highest luxuriance. The number of gentlemen slain in duels within that period, about eighteen years, was about four thousand, while the number of pardons granted by the King for this offence, was not

The case

less than fourteen thousand. of Balaguy was before referred to, spoken of in the Memoirs of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, upon whom every favor and the most assiduous attentions were lavished by all the ladies of the court, for no other merit than that of having killed eight or nine men in duels. The tendency of such a state of things to generate a most insolent and brutal ruffianism of character and deportment, need not be dwelt upon.

No mistake is greater that that which ascribes to the restraint of the duel the forbearing courtesy of manners which is so essential to existence in society. The more frequent duels are, the more frequent are these abominations. Ruffians of the most sanguinary disposition became noted and respected under this popular Henri IV. Says our author:

"One of them named Lagarde Valois, was celebrated for his brutal deeds; another quarrelsome ruffian, named Bazanez, was determined to have a trial of skill with him, and for this purpose sent him a hat, ornamented with feathers, and accompanied with a message, stating that he would wear it at the peril of his life. Lagarde immediately put the hat upon his head, and set out in quest of Bazanez, who was also looking for him in every direction. Having at last met, after an exchange of mutual civilities the combat began. Lagarde inflicted a wound on the forehead of his antagonist; but, the head being harder than his steel, his sword was bent on the skull he was more fortunate in his next lounge, which penetrated his antagonist's body, when he exclaimed,‘This is for the hat!' Another thrust was equally successful, when he added, 'And here is for the feathers!' This purchase he did not deem sufficient, and he therefore gave him a third wound, exclaiming, lite conversation, seeing the blood of his "And this is for the loop!' During this poopponent streaming from his several wounds, he complimented him on the elegant fit of his hat, when Bazanez infuriated, rushed upon him, breaking through his guard, and, throwing him down, stabbed him in the throat with his dagger, and repeated his desperate blows

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fourteen times in his neck, chest, and stomach; while at each stab, as the wretched man roared out for mercy, the other replied at every reiterated thrust, "No! no! no! However, during this conflict, the prostrate Lagarde was not altogether idle; he bit off a portion of his adversary's chin, fractured his skull with the pommel of his sword, and only lost his courage with his life.' During this scene, the seconds were amusing themselves also in fencing, until one of them was laid dead on the field of honor. This Lagarde, it appears was as concise in his epistolary style as in his colloquial eloquence during a fight: the following is a copy of one of his letters to a man whom he was determined to despatch. "I have reduced your home to ashes; I have dishonored your wife, and hanged your children; and I now have the honor to be your mortal enemy,-LAGARDE.'

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Louis XIV. made the most strenuous efforts, so far as regards proclamations and decrees, for the suppression of the practice; which, during the violent agitations of the Fronde, had recovered from the slight temporary check imposed upon it by the energetic and vindictive severity of the administration of Richelieu, under, or rather over Louis XIII. During that period, even De Retz had fought two duels in person, though he had not only to lay aside the robe of a priest, but to doff the hat of a cardinal for the purpose. And he could refer to a sufficiently recent precedent for his justification, in the Cardinal de Guise, in the days of the League, who was ever equally ready to wield the sword and the crucifix. The following gives us a comprehensive glimpse of the manners and the morals of this pe

riod:

"It was during this reign that arose the celebrated quarrel between the beautiful Duchesse de Longueville, sister of the great Condé, and the Duchesse de Montbazon, the mother-in-law of Madame de Chevreuse; these three ladies being concerned in all the intrigues of the busy court of Anne of Austria, then Regent of the kingdom.

"The subject of this dispute arose from a love-letter, in a woman's hand-writing, having been found, which was supposed to have been dropped by the Comte de Coligny as he was leaving the apartments of Madame de Longueville, and which contained various reports unfavorable to

the reputation of Madame de Montbazon. This letter was attributed to Madame de Longueville, who insisted that Coligny, her acknowledged lover, should call out De Guise, the favorite of Madame de Montbazon. The parties met in open day in the Place Royale, where Coligny received a mortal wound; while the two seconds, D'Estrade and De Bridieu, were fighting, and the latter was severely wounded. This duel is worthy of record, from the singular fatality which attended it. Admiral de Coligny, the illustrious victim of the massacre of St. Barthélemi, was murdered by the orders of the Duke de Guise; and, seventy years after, the grandson of the admiral was killed by the grandson of the Duke!"

And the following is every way characteristic of its amiable hero, espeeially in the bonhommie of its finale:

"It was during this reign that a curious meeting took place between La Fontaine, the fabulist, whose meekness and apathy had acquired him the name of the Good,' and an officer. Although generally blind took it into his head to become jealous of to the irregularities of his wife, he once Poignant. La Fontaine had not himself a captain of dragoons, of the name of observed the intimacy with his wife, but some kind friends had drawn his attention to its impropriety, telling him that it was incumbent on him to demand satisfaction. La Fontaine, reluctantly persuaded, contrary to his usual habits, got up early one morning, took his sword, and went out to meet his antagonist. When the parties were in presence, the worthy poet said,

.

My dear sir, I must fight you, since I am assured that it is absolutely necessary. He then proceeded to acquaint call him out, and drew his pacific sword. The dragoon, thus obliged to defend himself, whipped the weapon out of the inexperienced hand of the fabulist, and having disarmed him, proceeded quietly to point out to him the absurdity of the reports circulated in regard to his wife, and the folly of his having thus exposed his valuable life; adding, that since his visits had occasioned scandal, he would from that hour cease to call at his house. Le Bon La Fontaine was so affected by this sincere explanation, that he not only insisted that the captain should pay more frequent visits than ever, but swore that he would fight him over again if he discontinued

him with the reasons that induced him to

them."

The softening manners of the time, far more than the ten successive edicts

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against the practice, issued during the long reign of Louis XIV., produced a sensible effect within that period, in diminishing the number of duels fought, and in mitigating the ferocity of the prevailing public sentiment in relation to them. Many disputes which at a former period must have led to bloodshed, were settled in other modes. Such, for instance, was the quarrel of the Dukes de Luxembourg and Richelieu about precedence; when, after a long and angry correspondence, Richelieu meeting Luxembourg in the palace, where he was captain of the guard, went up to him, and told him that he dared him on foot and on horseback, him or his followers, either at court or in city, or even in the army, should he proceed to it, or, in short, in any part of the world; notwithstanding which provocation, an apology was deemed sufficient. A "court of honor was instituted, composed of the constable and the marshals of France or rather it was revived, with a regular code of penalties and satisfaction, a similar enactment having taken place in 1566 in the reign of Charles IX., and having also been contained in the edict of Blois, in 1602, by Henri IV. A regular code was framed for the jurisdiction of these courts. A lawyer who insulted another was subjected to very severe penalties; giving the lie, striking with hand or stick, were acts that subjected the offender to imprisonment, with the obligation of making ample apology to the offended party on release; and not unfrequently the latter was allowed to inflict a castigation similar to the one he had received. In addition to the penalties of incarceration, fine, or banishment, such satisfaction was ordered by the judges as the case might require, according to the nature of the provocation; and in various instances guards were sent to the houses of the offenders guilty of a contempt of court, who were obliged for a considerable length of time to maintain their own domestic gaolers. However, it may be doubted whether much good proceeded from this court, which not only consisted of members who were themselves fighting men, but was also rarely willing to extend its jurisdiction beyond the cases of parties of high birth or distinguished rank. An instance of this, 53

VOL. XI.NO. LII.

which occurred under the regency of the Duke of Orleans, is thus related:

"An abbé of the name of D'Aydie had fought with a clerk in the provincial department, at an opera-dancer's house, and wounded him. The Duchesse de Berry, daughter of the Regent, immediately or dered that the Abbé d'Aydie should be deprived of his preferment, and obliged to become a knight of Malta. The scribe, stantly seeking his antagonist, who was on recovering from his wound, was concompelled to fight him four times, until the duchess brought the parties before the court of honor, presided over by Marshal de Chamilly, who, upon hearing of the condition of one of the parties, exclaimed, What the deuce does he come here for-a fellow who calls himself Boutondo you presume to think that we can be your judges ?-do you take us for bishops or keepers of the seals ?-and the fellow, too, dares to call us my lords !'

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"To understand these punctilious feelings, it must be remembered that the lords by the nobility, being considered the marshals of France were only called my judges of the higher orders; and such an appellation from a roturier was deemed an

affront.

"This D'Aydie, it should also be known, was the lover of the Duchesse de Berry, who naturally feared that the lowbred clerk might deprive her of her paramour by an untimely end. The tribunal recommended the Regent to imprison the lover of his daughter, as a punishment for having fought a low-born fellow, who, on account of his ignoble condition, was discharged as beneath their notice. The duchess, however, did not approve of this finding of the court; but, after procuring the liberation of her favorite, pursued the unfortunate clerk with such rancor that she at last got him hanged; thereby exciting, according to Madame de Crequi, the horror and animadversion of all Paris.' Strange to say, this despicable princess died a month after, on the very same day that the clerk was hanged: the execution took place on the 19th of June, and she breathed her last on the 19th of July!"

An honorable effort of a different character, to discourage the practice, took place in this reign, which is thus related:

"The inefficacy of the various edicts to restrain duels was at last acknowledged, and various means were adopted to en

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