The New Hampshire Gazette

The N. Y. Com. Advertiser contains a report of the trial of Jacob Barker (a quondam Quaker) for challenging David Rogers to fight a duel, of which the Jury found him GUILTY. The message, or challenge, was as follows:

"New York, January 29th, 1822. Sir, you have without the least provocation, grossly injured me—you are hereby required to make such reparation as is due from one gentleman to another. The friend that I expected to deliver this, being absent for the day, he will call on you to-morrow, or very soon thereafter for your answer, &c. Your obedient serv't, JACOB BARKER."

And afterwards the following:

"New York, 1st of February, 1822. Sir; Will you be pleased to send to me by the bearer, my friend, William H. Allen, a written answer to my note of the 29th ultimo. Your obedient serv't, JACOB BARKER."

Bank business seems to have been the cause of this warlike measure. Rogers in his testimony before the Court stated, that he was interested in the North River Bank as a stockholder and director; and on the 29th day of January, between 1 and 2 o'clock P. M. at the Coffee-House, spoke to one Charles Wright, in presence of the defendant, respecting a combination which had been got up against the Bank, of which opposition Barker was at the head. The witness, after some conversation with Wright, said to him these words: "We (the directors) know that Jacob Barker is at the head of that opposition; we have had fatal examples of his skill in banking: witness the Exchange Bank, and the Washington and Warren Bank. It is a lamentable fact, that a poor man, who commits a petty theft to satisfy the cravings of hunger, the law will reach and frequently punish severely, while others may rob the community at large, the fatherless and the widow, the sick and the afflicted, and unblushingly walk the streets, and laugh in your face, while there is no punishment to reach them."