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Celestial Empire. Then taking his pistol, and elevating himself into a majestic pose, he calmly awaited the word of c o m m a n d . Snodgrass fussed and fidgetted a good deal—not from the nervousness of fear, for he was as brave as an English bull-dog, but rather from a desire to have the thing over with as little ceremonial nonsense as possible, for he was Barry's antithesis as a student of the proprieties. It was his over-eagerness on such occasions that caused his duelling to eventuate more than once in a fiasco, and unfitted him for the tender handling of hair-trigger pistols. B y a laughable coincidence, the present "engagement" was terminated in a manner almost precisely similar to what happened at the duel of the year before, when a hair-trigger prematurely went off. T h e same kind offire-armwas now in use, and just as the shooting-signal was about to go forth, the pistol held by Snodgrass, getting the start, was by some inadvertence discharged too soon, whereat Barry at once magnanimously fired in the air. Little could either of the duellers foresee what futurity had in store for both. The one grew into the esteemed and popular forensic Advocate, and on to the eminent and universally-valued Judge; whilst the other, in the following year, was a gallant capturer of bushrangers, and ended his career as an active M e m b e r of Parliament, and a voluble if not eloquent Chairman of Committees in the Legislative Assembly. In 1842 Mr. F. A. Powlett, a Commissioner of Crown Lands, quarrelled with Mr. A Hogue, a merchant, concerning one of the m a n y entanglements into which the commercial affairs of the well-known M r . F. A. Rucker were involved, and there was a challenge in consequence. The well-known M r . C. H . Ebden was Hogue's second, and the meeting was held under the hill at Newmarket, near Flemington. There were two exchanges of shots, an evidence that mischief was meant; yet no injury was sustained by either side, if Hogue's coat be excepted, through which Powlett sent a ball each time. Mr. Skene Craig had charge for a time of thefirstbranch of the Commissariat Department established in Port Phillip. H e subsequently joined Mr. A. A. Broadfoot in mercantile pursuits, and the firm of Craig and Broadfoot occupied a displayed place in the old Directories. Once they happened to have quarrelled over a matter not immediately connected with the counting-house, and C. challenged B. They met at three o'clock on a fine s u m m e r morning on the northern slope of Batman's Hill, and at the urgent request of one of them, w h o firmly believed he should be winged or otherwise maimed, Dr. W . H . Campbell was in attendance for any surgical operations that might be impending; but luckily his services were not called into requisition. Craig discharged his pistol at the other without hitting him, and Broadfoot returned the fire by aiming at the moon, which happened to be quietly and sadly looking down on their harmless folly. A reconciliation was without much difficulty effected, and ratified at a champagne breakfast given by Broadfoot, which was shared in by the principals, seconds, half-a-dozen extra official friends, and of course " the doctor." " Putting on jam," a phrase of modern slang, and increasing in popularity, has a very different meaning from the manner in which that m u c h appreciated conserve was applied on the occasion of a duel professed to be fought forty-five years ago (1843). There was then in the colony the cadet of a noble Scotch family, known as "the Honourable Gilbert Kennedy," who, though afflicted with lameness, was nevertheless sufficiently " g a m e " to be in almost every mischief that happened within miles of his whereabouts. O n the occasion n o w written of he got up a "tiff" with a Mr. George Demoulin, more for fun than other reason, and lost no time in challenging him. Demoulin was something of the "softie," and it was arranged that he should be the subject of a soft practical joke, which would have no more disastrous effect than the loud laugh it would raise at the expense of the individual operated on. A harmless arrangement was entered into by Kennedy and the two seconds, that Demoulin's pistol should be charged with powder only, and Kennedy's with powder and jam, which was accordingly done. T h e meeting c a m e off soon after sunrise, on a wide open space, near the junction of Lonsdale and Spencer Streets, and all concerned, with half-a-dozen outsiders in the secret, put in a punctual appearance. So far as Demoulin was aware, it was to be a deadly struggle fought at close quarters, and consequently the warriors were stationed at only a few paces from each other. They were both accounted good shots, and one of them at least had but slight hope of either or both of them withdrawing from the strife without loss of