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END OF DUELLING

subjects. She was married to a singularly earnest young Prince, and the Court atmosphere was soon cleansed and purified, till Lord Melbourne was heard p exclaim: "This damned morality will ruin everything." The excessive drinking, gambling, scandal, and loud swagger of the Georgian ages disappeared as by magic, and a somewhat superior respectability pervaded Court life. "No one dined here last night," comments a maid of honour at the new Court, "so we played vingt-et-un and I won 8d." If gambling was no longer the fashion, duelling too was coming to an end. The last public duel took place in 1841, when two well-known officers—brothers-in-law—fought till one was killed. Public opinion cried aloud for some other way of settling "affairs of honour," and a society for the abolition of duelling brought about the desired effect For all this, manners were still rough: men and women talked in loud voices, they made ostentatious and vulgar display of their wealth, jokes were made in bad taste, personalities amounted to impertinence, and it was not uncommon in a crowd of well-born people to find many men and women with the very clothes torn off their backs. All these matters are within the memory of many. Within the memory of a