but because tres faciunt collegium*—to put the case to Engels and 
Lupus in Manchester and obtain their opinion. Since their views 
and my own coincide at every point, you may regard the following 
aS OUr UNANIMOUS OPINION. 

1. From the standpoint of the duel. It is as clear as day that by their 
despicable attack in the street the two gentlemen, the Intendantur- 
rat and the Assessor, have adopted in toto the standpoint of the 
bludgeon and that the only duel which one might engage in with 
such laddies has already taken place during the brawl itself. If 2 
chaps waylay a third and both of them set on him, we don’t believe 
that any duelling code in the world would permit a subsequent 
duel with such riff-raff. If, by flourishing a horse-whip, Mr 
Fabrice intended forcibly to provoke a duel, either Mr Bormann 
ought to have looked on purely passively as a witness, or his 
presence was altogether superfluous. But when two men simul- 
taneously set upon one, and one of them actually operates IN THE 
rear Of the person attacked, then we are dealing with canaille” who 
have given proof that 4 rar pueL cannot be fought with them. 

2. Principle of the duel. We don’t believe that, generally speaking, 
an affair as relative as a duel can be subsumed under the category 
good or bad. That duelling as such is not rational there can be no 
doubt. Nor that it is a relic of a bygone stage of civilisation. 
However, a concomitant of the one-sidedness of bourgeois society is 
that, in opposition to the latter, certain feudal forms maintain the 
rights of the individual. The most striking proof of this is to be 
found in the United States where duelling is a civil right. 
Individuals may become locked in a mutual conflict so insupporta- 
ble that a duel seems to them the only solution. However such 
deadly tension is not 1 racr possible vis-a-vis an indifferent person 
such as an Intendanturrat, an Assessor, or a lieutenant. This would 
demand a significant personal relationship. Otherwise a duel is an 
utter farce. It is invariably a farce when performed in deference to 
so-called ‘public opinion’. 

3. We therefore regard duelling as being purely dependent on 
circumstances; hence recourse may be had to it as an exceptional 
pis aller* in exceptional circumstances. In the case under discus- 
sion, however, all the circumstances argue quite emphatically 
against it, even if the attack in the street had not put it ALTOGETHER 
OUT OF THE QUESTION, 

4. The really decisive factor is that you are not only opposed to 
all duelling on principle but have proclaimed this principle, and in 

4 three constitute a panel - > rabble - ¢ exnedient 

Fabrice’s presence at that. So you would discredit yourself were 
you nevertheless to engage in a duel through fear of ‘public 
opinion’. 

5. In the case under discussion, a duel would have absolutely no 
meaning save as the observance of a conventional formality 
recognised by certain privileged classes. Our party must resolutely 
set its face against these class ceremonies and reject with the most 
cynical contempt the presumptuous demand that we submit to 
them. The present state of affairs is far too serious to permit of 
your consenting to such puerilities and it would be sheer puerility 
to engage in a duel with Mr Fabrice because he is an 
‘Intendanturrat’ and belongs to the clique qualified to fight duels, 
whereas if e.g. a tailor or cobbler were to set about you in the 
street, you would simply hand him over to the courts without any 
infringement of ‘honour’. In the case under consideration you 
would not be fighting a duel with Fabrice, an individual who is 
indifferent to you, but with the ‘Intendanturrat(—which would be 
an absurd manoeuvre. In general, the fellows’ insistence that 
differences with them must be settled by a duel as a privilege due 
to them—and all Fasnionasie duels fal] under this head—should be 
laughed to scorn. To acknowledge this claim would be altogether 
counter-revolutionary. 

I have given you our view in nuce.* We shall be interested to 
hear how the affair progresses. 

Salut. Meus 

K. M.