effort should be made to find employment for
the intended emigrant for a time at home.
..............Direct emigration should be the
exception, not the rule ................ so that
discharged prisoners, emigrating, may be raised
first, as far as may be, to a level with other
persons of their class, from a degradation so deep,
that, without the aid of some such society as
this, they could never attain to honesty and
independence."

The Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society in
London is, as we have said, but in its infancy;
nor does it yet publish its first report, but
its elder sister in Birmingham has furnished
us with the following statement:

"The agent entered upon his duties on the
seventeenth of July, a few cases having been
previously relieved; in the short time he has
been engaged, (three months), work has been
found for thirteen discharged prisoners. He
reports that, in many cases, he cannot succeed till
he shows the circular of the society. The names
of the committee are necessary to give
confidence to employers. This is surely proof of
the necessity of such an agency; for if our
agent cannot promise work for discharged
prisoners, without difficulty, and if he
succeeds only by the influence of the society,
what chance would there be for the
unbefriended prisoner himself?

         DUELLING IN FRANCE.

IN thirteen hundred and seventy-one,
Charles the Fifth, and a grand company of
knights and nobles, assembled in the isle
Notre Dame to witness a combat between
Macaire, accused of the murder of Aubrey
de Montdidier, and Aubrey's hound, the
celebrated dog of Montargis. The man was
armed with a club; the beast had a tub,
into which he might retreat; and Macaire's
guilt or innocence was to be held proved
by the result. That result was the victory
of the dog of Montargis, the consequent
confession of Macaire that he had murdered
Montdidier, as accused, and his execution
as an assassin, by hanging. But this was
rather a judicial combat than a duel, as
we understand the word now; and this
character French combats retained even to
the time of Henry the Second, and that
famous duel between counts Jarnac and De
la Chasteneraye, which is recorded to this
day in the fencer's term, le coup de Jarnac.

La Chasteueraye accused Jarnac to Francis
the First of improper conduct with his
own mother-in-law. The king, who was
much attached to Jarnac, repeated this
accusation to him, willing to give him the power
of refuting it; for La Chasteneraye not only
maintained his assertion, but swore that
Jarnac himself had confessed the fact to him
a dozen times and more. Jarnac denied the
whole charge with much vehemence, entreating
the king's permission to try the truth
by single combat. Francis at first consented
to this; but afterwards withdrew his consent,
and in a short time he died. As soon as
his successor, Henry the Second, came to
the throne, Jarnac renewed his petition for a
single combat; which at last Henry granted
—he being on La Chasteneraye's side, as
Francis had been on Jarnac's; and, on the
tenth of June fifteen hundred and forty-seven
the king, the constable, the admiral,
and the marshals of France, together with
the court and nobility, assembled at
Saint-Germaiu-en-Laye to witness this judicial
combat. Jarnac, who had just recovered
from a sickness, was modest, calm, and
humble; La Chasterieraye was still somewhat
weak in his sword-arm from a wound lately
received, but was arrogant and insolent.
They attacked each other savagely, and were
soon both wounded. While La Chasteneraye
was making a furious lunge, Jarnac
gave him that fatal coup which cut the
ham of La Chasteneraye's left leg, and,
presently redoubling his stroke, cut also the
ham on the right. La Chasteneraye fell;
and Jarnac offered him his life, if he would
confess that he had lied, and restore him
his honour: the wounded man was silent.
Jarnac then turned to the king and besought
him to accept the other's life for God's
sake and love's: but the king refused. Poor
Jarnac, who did not wish to have the blood
of his enemy on his soul, and had only
fought to restore to himself his lost repute,
again entreated La Chasteneraye to confess
his error; but, for all answer, he raised
himself as well as he could and cut at his
generous adversary. At last, after further
painful entreaties, Henry condescended to
accept the boon of a favourite's life; but
it was too late now; the wretch bled to
death before he could be removed from the
field. Jarnac refused his right of triumphal
procession, saying that he had gained all
he fought for, namely the re-establishment
of his honour: whereupon Henry exclaimed,
"that he fought like Cæsar and spoke like
Aristotle ": though for all that, his kingly
love and affection lay with the dead man,
La Chasteneraye was only twenty-eight years
old; but he was the most expert swordsman
in France, the best wrestler and the cleverest
fencer; so skilled indeed in all these
exercises that no one would believe he could
be conquered, and several fatal duels were
fought between those who knew, and those
who would not credit the result of the
encounter.

The renowned Bayard had a fatal affair
with the Spaniard Don Alonzo de Soto
Mayor; whereby he got an infinitude of
praise, because he delivered up the dead
body to the seconds, and would not use it
in any way of ignominy and scoff. His
magnanimity was wonderfully belauded;
such savage, ruthless, uncivilised fellows were
even the heroes and nobles of those dark
and sanguinary times! But manners grew