Barry v. Ingles

Any immediate provocation giveir to the defendants may be shewn in evidence to mitigate damages ; but any remote provocation shall not, for then we should have to go into quarrels and disputes that existed perhaps for years before the fighting : such should not be considered as sti-inulating the defendants to fall upon the plaintiff at so late a period, after there was time for the passions to cool and for the parties to reflect.