Petition for incorporation to carry on a whale fishery.
On paving London Streets. Capital two million pounds.
For trading in human hair.
For the transmutation of quicksilver into malleable fine metal.
For changing lead into gold.
* * * * *
Duelling was very prevalent. Addison and Steele in the _Spectator_
were untiring in the reprobation of it. Steele constantly exposed
the absurdity of the practice and endeavored to bring his readers to
his way of thinking. His comedy, _The Conscious Lover_, contains an
admirable exposure of the abuse of the word honor, which led men to so
fanatic an absurdity. Swift, in his own savage way, remarked that he
could “see no harm in rogues and fools shooting one another.” Addison
summed up nearly all that could be said on the subject in the following
powerful paragraph:
“A Christian and a gentleman are made inconsistent appellations of
the same person. You are not to expect eternal life if you are not to
forgive injuries, and your mortal life is rendered uncomfortable if you
are not ready to commit a murder in resentment of an affront; for good
sense, as well as religion, is so utterly banished in the world that
men glory in their very passions, and pursue trifles with the utmost
vengeance, so little do they know that to forgive is the most arduous
pitch human nature can arrive at. A coward has often fought--a coward
has often conquered, but a coward never forgave.”
Again in No. 99, June 23, 1711, Addison writes:
“The placing the point of honor in this false kind of courage, has
given occasion to the very refuse of mankind, who have neither virtue
nor common sense, to set up for men of honor. An English peer who has
not long been dead, (this was William Cavendish, the first duke of
Devonshire, who died August 18, 1707) used to tell a pleasant story of
a French gentleman that visited him early one morning at Paris, and
after great professions of respect, let him know that he had it in his
power to oblige him; which in short, amounted to this--that he believed
that he could tell his lordship the person’s name who jostled him as he
came out from the opera: but before he would proceed, he begged his
lordship that he would not deny him the honor of making him his second.
The English Lord to avoid being drawn into a very foolish affair, told
him that he was under engagements for his two next duels to a couple
of particular friends; upon which the gentleman immediately withdrew,
hoping his lordship would not take it ill if he meddled no further in
an affair from whence he was to receive no advantage.
“The beating down of this false notion of honor in so vain and lively
a people as those of France, is deservedly looked upon as one of the
most glorious parts of their present king’s reign. It is a pity but
the punishment of these mischievous notions should have in it some
particular circumstance of shame or infamy: that those who are slaves
to them may see, that instead of advancing their reputations, they lead
them to ignominy and dishonor.
“Death is not sufficient to deter men who make it their glory to
despise it; but if every one that fought a duel were to stand in the
pillory, it would quickly lessen the number of these imaginary men of
honor, and put an end to so absurd a practice.
“When honor is to support virtue’s principles, and runs parallel to
the laws of God and our country, it cannot be too much cherished and
encouraged: but when the dictates of honor are contrary to those of
religion and equity, they are the greatest depravations of human
nature, by giving wrong ambitions and ideas of what is good and
laudable; and should therefore be exploded by all governments, and
driven out of the bane and plague of human society.”
* * * * *
The article was penned in consequence of an affair on the 8th of May,
1711, when Sir Cholmely Deering, M.P., for the county of Kent, was
slain in a duel by Mr. Richard Thornhill, also member of the House
of Commons. Three days after, by the efforts of Addison, Sir Peter
King brought the subject under the notice of the Legislature, and
after dwelling at considerable length on the alarming increase of the
practice, obtained leave to bring in a bill for the prevention and
punishment of duelling.
As an Irishman, fighting against duelling, Steele was going contrary
to all the traditions of his countrymen. In Ireland, not only military
men, but men of every profession had to work a way to eminence with
pistol or sword. Each political party had its regular corps of fire
eaters who qualified themselves for the position by spending their
whole time at target practice. They boasted that they could hit upon an
opponent in any part of his body they pleased, and made up their minds
before the encounter began whether they should kill him, disable him,
or disfigure him for life.
We have it on the authority of Sir Jonah Barrington in his “Personal
Sketches of His Own Time” that “no young fellow could finish his
education till he had exchanged shots with some of his acquaintances.
The first questions always asked as to a young man’s respectability
and qualifications, particularly when he proposed for a lady-wife
were--‘What family is he of?’ ‘Did he ever blaze?’”
Everywhere, as you see, there are coarse things, great and gross
sensuality, wild animality, unrestrained joy and not a little bestial
pleasure. Virtue had the semblance of puritanism and the memory of
the days under the rule of the kill-joys was a nightmare. So, men who
wrote the news sheets of the day saw nothing for it but to foster
that brutal bloody impulse that seemed to sway the masses of their
readers. If it was necessary to feed them, then the fare given was raw
flesh, violence, blood. This must be borne in mind in order to fully
appreciate the wonderful change brought about in five short years by
two men of fine tastes and delicate sensibilities. Steele in No. cxxxiv
of the _Tatler_, condemning the cruelty of the age, says he has “often
wondered that we do not lay outside a custom which makes us appear
barbarous to nations much more rude and unpolished than ourselves. Some
French writers have represented this diversion of the common people
much to our disadvantage, and imputed it to natural fierceness and
cruelty of temper, as they do some other entertainments peculiar to
our nation. I mean these elegant diversions and bull baiting and prize
fighting, with the like ingenious recreation of the Bear-garden. I wish
I knew how to answer this reproach that is cast upon us, and excuse the
death of many innocent cocks, bulls, dogs, and bears, as have been set
together by the ears, or died untimely deaths, only to make us sport.”
Bearing that in mind, I call your attention to an advertisement of the
time which I copy from the Harlean MSS. 5931,46. Here it is, word for
word:
At the Bear Garden in Hockley in the Hole, 1710. This is to give
notice to all Gentlemen, Gamesters, and Others, that on this present
Monday is a match to be fought by two dogs, one from Newgate Market
against one from Honey Lane Market, at a Bull, for a Guinea to be
spent. Five Let goes out off Hand, which goes fairest and farthest
in, wins all; likewise a Green Bull to be baited, which was never
baited before, and a Bull to be turned loose with fireworks all over
him; also a Mad Ass to be baited; with variety of Bull Baiting, and
Bear Baiting, and a dog to be drawn up with Fireworks.
One named Mission, a writer of the day, describes a bull fight as
follows:
They tie a rope to the foot of the ox or bull, and fasten the other
end of the cord to an iron ring fix’d to a stake driven into the
ground, so that this cord being 15 feet long, the bull is confined
to a sphere of about 30 foot diameter. Several butchers or other
gentlemen, that are desirous to exercise their dogs, stand round
about, each holding his own by the ears; and, when the sport begins,
they let loose one of the dogs; the dog runs at the bull. The bull
immovable, looks down upon the dog with an eye of scorn, and only
turns a horn to him to hinder him from coming under; the dog is not
daunted at this, he turns round him, and tries to get beneath his
belly, in order to seize him by the muzzle, or the dew lap or the
pendant glands; the bull then puts himself in a Posture of Defense;
he beats the ground with his feet, which he joins together as close
as possible, and his chief aim is not to gore the dog with the
point of his horn, but to slide one of them into the dog’s belly
(who creeps close to the ground to hinder it) and to throw him so
high in the air that he may break his neck in the fall. This often
happens; when the dog thinks he is sure of fixing his teeth, a turn
of the horn which seems to be done with all the negligence in the
world, gives him a sprawl thirty foot high, and puts him in danger
of a damnable squelch when he comes down. This danger would be
unavoidable, if the dog’s friends were not ready beneath him, some
with their backs to give him a soft reception, and others with long
poles which may offer him slant ways, to the intent that, sliding
down them, he may break the force of his fall. Notwithstanding all
this care a toss generally makes him sing to a very scurvy tune and
draw his phiz into a pitiful grimace; but, unless he is totally
stunned with the fall, he is sure to crawl again towards the bull,
with his old antipathy, come on’t what will. Some times a second
frisk into the air disables him forever from playing his old tricks;
but, some times, too, he fastens on his enemy, and when he has seized
him with his eye teeth, he sticks to him like a leech, and would
sooner die than leave his hold. The bull bellows and bounds, and
kicks about to shake off the dog; by his leaping, the dog seems to
be no matter of weight to him though in all appearances he puts him
to great pain. In the end, either the dog tears out the piece he
has laid hold of, and falls, or else remains fixed to him, with an
obstinacy that would never end, if they did not put him off. To call
him away would be in vain; to give him a hundred blows would be as
much so; you might cut him to pieces joint by joint before he would
let him loose. What is to be done then? While some hold the bull,
others thrust staves into the dog’s mouth and open it by main force.
That is the only way to part them.
* * * * *