THEIE MOEAL CREEP.

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" lionour" among gentlemen in the army; though, surely,honour, even in Prussia, cannot bc supposed to lie in drawinga sword upon a defenceless man.

In Prussia it is by no means uncommon to see the face ofgentlemen seamed with long white scars. These are generallythe inarks of " honourable" wounds obtained in duels tliatwere fought during the University life of the individuals ; andin the cemetery at Bonn tombstones may be seen bearingsome such tragic record of boy-murders (see ante, p. 130).

This species of sanguinary barbarism is winked at by theauthorities of Prussia, wbere it is still believed to bc noble totake life, and where the silly and savage custom of duellingto this day prevails— silly, because the trial by single combat,though, perhaps, justifiable amid the ignorance and super-stition of the Middle Ages (for in the wager of battle Godwas supposed to "defend the right"), becomes an idioticceremony, now that we no longer believe the Almighty pro-nounces his judgments at affairs of honour and savage ferocity;and silly, because in times of police, when personal defence isreudered unnecessary, the qualities of the bulldog cease to bea virtue.

The Prussians, moreover, are, as a nation, utterly ignorantof that kind of chivalrons equity which in England is denomi-nated "fair play"- —indeed, there is no word in German bywhich to express the idea. Hence, not oidy do we find officers tobelieve it to be honourable to draw their swords on defencelessinen, but almost every German carries a long knife, which thelaw alone restrains him from using at each insult. In illustra-tion of this custom we may remind the reader, that when theGerman Legion quarrelled with our Marines at Shorncliffe,the Deutschers drew their knives upon our men, though theMarines used only their belts against the Legion.

Hence it is idle to teil the reader that a Prussian neither

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