a military force appears and compels the
garrison to surrender. A formal capitulation
ensues, and his majesty's ship, which might at
least have been permitted to bring home his troops
immediately, is detained in port twenty days and
her rudder forcibly taken away. This train of
facts carries no appearance of the rashness or
violence of a Spanish governor. Mr. Buccarelli is
not a pirate, nor has he been treated as such by
those who employed him. I feel for the honor of a
gentleman when I affirm that our king owes him a
signal reparation. When will the humility of this
country end? A king of Great Britain, not
contented with placing himself upon a level with a
Spanish governor, descends so low as to do a
notorious injustice to that governor. Thus it
happens in private life with a man who has no
spirit nor sense of honor. One of his equals
orders a servant to strike him: instead of
returning the blow to the master, his courage is
contented with throwing an aspertion equally false
and public upon the character of the
servant."--Let. 42.
The above parallel, like the preceding one, arises primarily in the mind
from the association of ideas. The definition of national honor is the
same, and arose out of the same transaction. Taking away the rudder from
an English frigate was a national insult, but instead of demanding
reparation of the king of Spain, the king of England would satisfy his
honor by attacking a king's servant, which furnishes the materials for
the censure of Junius, and Admiral Saunders would be satisfied to see
the city of Madrid laid in ashes, which furnishes the just ground for
the aspersions of Mr. Paine; and from thence they define national honor
to be that deportment which is best suited to an individual. They both
state the case, and then define; the method and figures are the same.
But there is another parallel in these two pieces, and in the same
connection. Mr. Paine and Junius both use very harsh language in
commenting on the facts in the case, and when they close their censure
they say:
_Paine._
"This, perhaps, may sound harsh and uncourtly, but
it is too t
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