write, I am not in the habit of unsaying any thing I assert; you must therefore sign to all or none." "If it must be so, it must,' says Leontine with a sigh, and took the pen-Stop, Sir, if you please,' interposed the General, I would know of this gen tleman, if he has any thing to offer on your behalf, why you should not sign that paper.' I answered, that I had nothing to offer in the case; upon which Leontine put his name to the paper. Sir,' says the General, I am perfectly satisfied, and beg your pardon for the trouble I have given you; I am persuaded you are not a person who can injure my character, and this paper is of no further use.'-So saying, he threw it into the fire, having made his bow to Leontine, and wishing me a good morning, took his friend under the arm and coolly walked out of the house. As I was suspicious Leontine's courage might return after his departure, I thought it best to follow his example, and, taking up my hat, left the mortified bashaw to his meditations, well satisfied to find an example in confirmation of my opinion-That a bully at home is a coward abroad.

As I walked along, meditating on what had passed, a doubt for the first time arose in my mind as to the practice of duelling, and I began to think there might be certain advantages accruing to society, which, if the immorality of the action could be dispensed with, might possibly balance the evils so evidently to be set against them. On the one side I saw in all its horrors the untimely catastrophe of a father, husband, son, or brother, hurried out of life, and made the sacrifice of a savage fashion, which the world calls honour: On the other part I reflected within myself what the state of manners might probably be reduced to, and how much society would suffer, if such overbearing insolent characters as Leontine were not held in restraint by

those personal considerations, which owe their in, fluence to the practice of duelling. To their wives, servants, and dependent inferiors, from whom no resentment is to be apprehended, these tyrants are insupportable; to society in general they are offensive as far as they dare; it is not shame, nor a respect to good manners in any degree, nor the fear of the laws, which stop them, for none of these considerations affect them; neither is it the unarmed hand of man that can correct them, for these brutal natures are commonly endowed with brutal strength, and Leontine would no more have feared his puisny antagonist without a weapon than I should stand in awe of an infant. If these creatures, thought I, were let loose npon society, and we had nothing but our fists to keep them in order, the proverb would be literally made good, and the weakest must go to the wall; but that same lucky invention of gunpowder levels the strong with the feeble, and puts all who bear the character of a gentleman, upon the same line of defence: If blows were to be exchanged with impunity, and foul language was to be endured without account, we should be a nation of rabble. It seems therefore as if nothing more were to be wished, than for certain mitigations of this terrible resource, which must ultimately depend upon the voluntary magnanimity of those, who are compelled to resort to it: What I mean is, to express a wish that gentlemen would think it no derogation from their honour to acknowledge an error, or ask pardon for an offence ; and as it can very rarely happen, but that one party must to his own conviction be iu the fault, it seems to follow, that all those affairs of honour, that can be done away by an apology, might by manly and ingenuous characters be prevented from extremities As to injuries of that deep nature, which, ac cording to the infirmity of human ideas, we are apt

to call inexpiable, I presume not to give an opinion; and in the aggravating instance of a blow, I have only to lament, that the sufferer has to expose his person to equal danger with the offender. Though some unhappy instances of frivolous duels have lately occurred, I cannot think that it is the vice of the times to be fond of quarrelling; the manners of our young men of distinction are certainly not of that cast, and if it lies with any of the present age, it is with those half-made-up gentry, who force their way into half-price plays in boots and spurs, and are clamorous in the passages of the front boxes in a crowded theatre; I have with much concern observed this to be an increasing nuisance, and have often wished those turbulent spirits to be better employed, and that they had dismounted from their horses either a little sooner or not so soon: But it is not by reasoning these gentlemen will be taught to correct their behaviour.

I would seriously recommend to my readers of all descriptions, to keep a careful watch upon their tempers when they enter into argumentation and dispute; let them be assured that by their management of themselves on such occasions they are to decide their characters; and whether they are to pass as men of education, temper, and politeness, or as illiterate, hot, and ill-bred blockheads, will depend upon their conduct in this particular. If the following short and obvious maxims were attended to, I think animosities would be avoided and conversation amended.

Every man who enters into a dispute with another, (whether he starts it or only takes it up) should hear with patience what his opponent in the argument has to offer in support of the opinion he advances.

Every man who gives a controverted opinion, ought to lay it down with as much conciseness, temper, and precision, as he can.

'An argument once confuted, should never be re peated, nor tortured into any other shape by so. phistry and quibble.

No jest, pun, or witticism, tending to turn an opponent or his reasoning into ridicule, or raise a laugh at his expence, ought by any means to be attempted; for this is an attack upon the temper, not an address to the reason of a disputant. No two disputants should speak at the same time, nor any man overpower another by superiority of lungs, or the loudness of a laugh, or the sudden burst of an exclamation.

It is an indispensible preliminary to all disputes, that oaths are no arguments.

If any disputant slaps his hand upon the table, let him be informed that such an action does not clinch his argument, and is only pardonable in a blacksmith or a butcher.

If any disputant offers a wager, it is plain he has nothing else to offer, and there the dispute should end.

Any gentleman who speaks above the natural key of his voice casts an imputation on his own courage, for cowards are loudest, when they are out of danger.

Contradictions are no arguments, nor any expressions to be made use of, such as-That I deny― There you are mistaken-That is impossible—or any of the like blunt assertions, which only irritate, and do not elucidate.

The advantages of rank or fortune are no advan. tages in argumentation; neither is an inferior to offer, or a superior to extort the submission of the understanding on such occasions; for every

man's reason has the same pedigree; it begins and ends with himself.

If a man disputes in a provincial dialect, or trips. in his grammar, or, (being Scotch or Irish) uses national expressions, provided they convey his meaning to the understanding of his opponent, it is a foolish jest to turn them into ridicule, for a man can only express his ideas in such language as he is master of.

"Let the disputant who confutes another, forbear from triumph; forasmuch as he, who increases his knowledge by conviction, gains more in the contest, than he who converts another to his opinion; and the triumph more becomes the conquered, than the conqueror.

Let every disputant make truth the only object of his controversy, and whether it be of his own finding, or of any other man's bestowing, let him think it worth his acceptance, and entertain it accordingly.

NUMBER XIX.

THE following story is so extraordinary, that if I had not had it from good authority in the country where it happened, I should have considered it as the invention of some poet for the fable of a drama.

A Portuguese gentleman, whom I shall beg leave to describe no otherwise than by the name of Don Juan, was lately brought to trial for poisoning his half-sister by the same father, after she was with child by him. This gentleman had for some years