only twenty feet, and pistols of nine, nine and a half, or ten inch barrels are requisite; for slighter ones the distance may be doubled, and a six or even five inch barrel will serve. Regard, moreover, is to be had to the size of the persons engaged; for every stone above eleven, the party of such weight may, with perfect honour, retire three feet.

I read, some time ago, certain addresses to the Jockey Club, by two gentlemen who had been engaged in an affair of honour; from which it appeared, that one of them had systematised the art of duelling to a wonderful degree. Among other things, he had brought his aim with a pistol to so much certainty, and made such improvements on the weapon, that he could lay a hundred guineas to ten on hitting at a considerable distance any part of his adversary's body. These arts, however, I by no means approve: they resemble, methinks, a loaded die, or a packed deal; and I am inclined to be of opinion, that a gentleman is no more obliged to fight against the first, than to play against the latter. They may, in the mildest construction, be compared to the sure play of a man who can take every ball at billiards; and therefore if it shall be judged that an ordinary marksman must fight with the person possessed of them, he is, at least, entitled to odds, and must be allowed three shots to one of his antagonist.

I have thus, with some labour, and I hope strict honour, settled certain articles in the matter of duelling, for such of my readers as may have occasion for them. It is but candid, however, to own, that there have been now and then brilliant things done quite without the line of my directions, to wit, by not fighting at all. The Abbé with whom I was disputing at Paris on this subject, concluded his arguments against duelling with a story, which,

though I did not think it much to the purpose, was a tolerable story notwithstanding. I shall give it in the very words of the abbé.

'A countryman of yours, a Captain Douglas, was playing at trictrac with a very intimate friend, here in this very coffee-house, amidst a circle of French officers who were looking on. Some dispute arising about a cast of the dice, Douglas said, in a gay thoughtless manner, 'Oh! what a story! A murmur arose among the by-standers; and his antagonist feeling the affront, as if the lie had been given him, in the violence of his passion, snatched up the tables and hit Douglas a blow on the head. The instant he had done it, the idea of his imprudence, and its probable consequences to himself and his friend, rushed upon his mind: he sat, stupified with shame and remorse, his eyes riveted on the ground, regardless of what the other's resentment might prompt him to act. Douglas, after a short pause, turned round to the spectators: You think,' said he, 'that I am now ready to cut the throat of that unfortunate young man; but I know that at this moment he feels anguish a thousand times more keen than any my sword could inflict.-I will embrace him-thus-and try to reconcile him to himself;but I will cut the throat of that man among you who shall dare to breathe a syllable against my honour." 'Bravo! Bravo!' cried an old Chevalier de St. Louis, who stood immediately behind him.--The sentiment of France overcame its habit, and Bravo! Bravo! echoed from every corner of the room. Who would not have cried Bravo! Would not you, sir?' 'Doubtless.' 'On other occasions, then, be governed by the same principle.' Why, to be sure, it were often better not to fight-if one had but the courage not to fight.'

No. 12. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1779.

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRROR.

SIR,

I AM a plain country-gentleman, with a small fortune and a large family. My boys, all except the youngest, I have contrived to set out into the world in tolerably promising situations. My two eldest girls are married; one to a clergyman, with a very comfortable living, and a respectable character; the other to a neighbour of my own, who farms most of his own estate, and is supposed to know countrybusiness as well as any man in this part of the kingdom. I have four other girls at home, whom I wish to make fit wives for men of equal rank with their brothers-in-law.

About three months ago, a lady in our neighbourhood (at least as neighbourhood is reckoned in our quarter) happened to meet the two eldest of my unmarried daughters at the house of a gentleman, a distant relation of mine, and, as well as myself, a freeholder in our county. The girls are tolerably handsome, and I have endeavoured to make them understand the common rules of good-breeding. My Lady

ran out to my kinsman, who happens to have no children of his own, in praise of their beauty and politeness, and, at parting, gave them a most pressing invitation to come and spend a week with her during the approaching Christmas holidays.

On my daughters' return from their kinsman's, I was not altogether pleased at hearing of this invitation; nor was I more satisfied with the very frequent quotations of my Lady's sayings and sentiments, and the description of the beauty of her complexion, the elegance of her dress, and the grandeur of her equipage. I opposed, therefore, their design of paying this Christmas visit pretty warmly. Upon this, the honour done them by the invitation, the advantages to be derived from an acquaintance with the great lady, and the benefit that might accrue to my family from the influence of her lord, were immediately rung in my ears, not only by my daughters, but also by their mother, whom they had already gained over to their side; and I must own to you, Mr. MIRROR, though I would not have think me you hen-pecked, that my wife, somehow or other, contrives to carry most points in our family; so my opposition was over-ruled; and to the girls

went; but not before they had made a journey to the metropolis of our country, and brought back a portmanteau full of necessaries, to qualify them for appearing decently, as my wife said, in the company they should meet there.

In about a month, for their visit was drawn out to that length, my daughters returned. But had you seen, Mr. MIRROR, what an alteration that month had made on them! Instead of the rosy complexions and sparkling eyes they had carried with them, they brought back cheeks as white as a curd, and eyes as dead as the beads in the face of a baby.

I could not help expressing my surprise at the sight; but the younger of the two ladies immediately cut me short, by telling me, that their complexion was the only one worn at

And no wonder, sir, it should, from the description which my daughter sometimes gives us of the life people lead there. Instead of rising at seven, break

fasting at nine, dining at three, supping at eight, and getting to bed by ten, as was their custom at home, my girls lay till twelve, breakfasted at one, dined at six, supped at eleven, and were never in bed till three in the morning. Their shapes had undergone as much alteration as their faces. From their bosoms (necks, they called them), which were squeezed up to their throats, their waists tapered down to a very extraordinary smallness; they resembled the upper half of an hour-glass. At this, also, I marvelled; but it was the only shape worn at Next day at dinner, after a long morning preparation, they appeared with heads of such a size, that my little parlour was not of height enough to let them stand upright in it. This was the most striking metamorphosis of all. Their mother stared; I ejaculated; my other children burst out a-laughing: the answer was the same as before: it was the only head worn

at

Nor is their behaviour less changed than their garb. Instead of joining in the good-humoured cheerfulness we used to have among us before, my two fine young ladies check every approach to mirth, by calling it vulgar. One of them chid their brother the other day for laughing, and told him it was monstrously ill-bred. In the evenings, when we were wont, if we had nothing else to do, to fall to blindman's-buff, or cross purposes, or sometimes to play at loo for cherry-stones, these two get a pack of cards to themselves, and sit down to play for any little money their visit has left them, at a game none of us know any thing about. It seems, indeed, the dullest of all amusements, as it consists in merely turning up the faces of the cards, and repeating their names from an ace upwards, as if the players were learning to speak, and had got only thirteen words in their vocabulary. But of this, and every other custom at nobody is allowed to judge but themselves.