Note 95 — Chapter IV · FROM 1758 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.

“The effects [of the Provost’s duel] are already visible; scarce a week passes without a duel between some of the students; some of them have been slain, others maimed; the College Park is publicly made the place for learning the exercise of the pistol; shooting at marks by the gownsmen is everyday practice; the very chambers of the College frequently resound with explosions of pistols. The Provost has introduced a fencing-master into the College, and assigned him the Convocation or Senate House [over the gate] of the College as a school, to teach the gownsmen the use of the sword, though this is strictly forbidden by the Statutes.”—Lachrymæ, p. 109. Is the first part of this true? Surely the names of students killed or maimed in duels would have been paraded before us in the pamphlets of the time. The Provost’s duel with Mr. Wm. Doyle, arising from anonymous attacks attributed to the latter, is described at length in the Dublin papers of 17th and 19th January, 1775.