LAWS OF MARYLAND.— 1816.

651

CHAPTER 219.

AN ACT to suppress Duelling.

WHEREAS, experience has evinced that the existing remedy
for the suppression of the barbarous custom of duelling is inade-
quate to the purpose, and the progress and consequences of the
evil have become so destructive as to require an effort on the
part of the legislature to arrest a vice the result of ignorance
and barbarism, justified neither by the precepts of morality, nor
by the dictates of reason ; therefore,

Preamble.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That any person who shall hereafter wilfully and maliciously,
or by previous agreement, fight a duel, or single combat, with
any engine, instrument or weapon, the probable consequence of
which might be the death of either party, and in so doing shall
kill his antagonist, or any other person or persons, or inflict
such wound as that the person injured shall die thereof within
twelve months and a day thereafter, such offender, his aiders,
abettors and counsellors, being thereof duly convicted, shall be
sentenced to undergo a confinement in the penitentiary house
for a period not less than five nor more than eighteen years,
any law, custom or usage of this state, to the contrary notwith-
standing.

Persons
fighting
duels to be
confined in
peniten-
tiary.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That if any person whatsoever
shall challenge another to fight a duel with any weapon, or in
any manner whatsoever, the probable issue of which may or
might result in the death of the challenger or challenged, or if
any person shall accept a challenge, or fight a duel with any
weapon, or in any way whatsoever, the probable issue of which
may or might terminate in the death of the challenger or chal-
lenged, such person shall be incapable of holding or being
elected to any post of profit, trust or emolument, civil or mili-
tary in this state.
SEC. 3. Repealed by 1817, ch. 222.

Persons
challenging,
to be inca-
ble of hold-
ing any
office of
of profit or
trust.

SEC. 4. And be it enacted, That it shall be the duty of the
judges of the several county courts at their respective terms, to
give in charge expressly to the jury, all the laws in force to
suppress duelling, also to charge the jury to present all persons
concerned in carrying, sending, or accepting a challenge.

Judges to
give in
charge to
juries all
the laws to
suppress
duelling.

SEC. 5. And be it enacted, That when any judge or magistrate
of this state has good cause to suspect any person or persons are
about to be engaged in a duel, he may issue his warrant to
bring the parties before him, and if he shall think proper to
take of them a recognizance to keep the peace, he shall insert
in the condition, that the party or parties shall not, during the
time for which they were bound, directly or indirectly be con-

Any judge
or magis-
trate,
having
cause to
suspect any
person
about to be
engaged in
a duel, may
issue war-
rant, &c.