Editing Duel (section)

===Enlightenment-era opposition===
By the late 18th century, [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment era]] values began to influence society with new self-conscious ideas about [[politeness]], [[Civil society|civil behavior]], and new attitudes toward [[violence]]. The cultivated art of politeness demanded that there should be no outward displays of anger or violence, and the concept of honor became more personalized.

By the 1770s, the practice of dueling was increasingly coming under attack from many sections of enlightened society, as a violent relic of Europe's medieval past unsuited for modern life. As England began to [[Industrial Revolution|industrialize]] and benefit from urban planning and more effective [[Metropolitan Police|police forces]], the culture of street violence in general began to slowly wane. The growing [[middle class]] maintained their reputation with recourse to either bringing charges of [[libel]], or to the fast-growing print media of the early 19th century, where they could defend their honor and resolve conflicts through correspondence in newspapers.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Death of Dueling |url=http://castle.eiu.edu/historia/archives/2004/Ellett.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107223937/http://castle.eiu.edu/historia/archives/2004/Ellett.pdf |archive-date=2014-01-07 |access-date=2014-01-07}}</ref>

Influential new intellectual trends at the turn of the 19th century bolstered the anti-dueling campaign; the [[Utilitarianism|utilitarian philosophy]] of [[Jeremy Bentham]] stressed that praiseworthy actions were exclusively restricted to those that maximize human welfare and happiness, and the [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] notion of the "Christian conscience" began to actively promote social activism. Individuals in the [[Clapham Sect]] and similar societies, who had successfully campaigned for the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]], condemned dueling as ungodly violence and as an egocentric culture of honor.<ref>David W. Bebbington, "The Evangelical Conscience," ''Welsh Journal of Religious History'' (2007) 2#1, pp 27–44.</ref>