battery committed upon a man in such a manner as not to endanger his
life is such a provocation as the law allows to reduce killing down
to the crime of manslaughter. Now, the law has been made on more
considerations than we are capable of making at present; the law
considers a man as capable of bearing anything and everything but
blows. I may reproach a man as much as I please; I may call him a
thief, robber, traitor, scoundrel, coward, lobster, bloody-back,
etc., and if he kill me it will be murder, if nothing else but words
precede; but if from giving him such kind of language I proceed to
take him by the nose, or fillip him on the forehead, that is an
assault; that is a blow. The law will not oblige a man to stand
still and bear it; there is the distinction. Hands off; touch me
not. As soon as you touch me, if I run you through the heart, it is
but manslaughter. The utility of this distinction, the more you
think of it the more you will be satisfied with it. It is an
assault whenever a blow is struck, let it be ever so slight, and
sometimes even without a blow. The law considers man as frail and
passionate. When his passions are touched, he will be thrown off
his guard, and therefore the law makes allowance for this frailty
--considers him as in a fit of passion, not having the possession of
his intellectual faculties, and therefore does not oblige him to
measure out his blows with a yard-stick, or weigh them in a scale.
Let him kill with a sword, gun, or hedge-stake, it is not murder,
but only manslaughter.

(Keyling's Report, 135. Regina _versus_ Mawgrige.) "Rules supported
by authority and general consent, showing what are always allowed to
be sufficient provocations. First, if one man upon any words shall
make an assault upon another, either by pulling him by the nose or
filliping him on the forehead, and he that is so assaulted shall