to his solicitor with some force, "If I give in in this, that ---- will
come into my kitchen, kick me, and ask what business I have there. No,
I'll fight him now." He brought his action and won, and found the
prediction as to costs was only too fully borne out, even though
judgment in the Court of Appeal was finally given in his favour. The man
who says he will not fight in any circumstances invites injuries, though
the man who fights when he could honourably avoid it is pretty sure to
rue his decision.

Where two high-spirited persons are engaged in a dispute, and each is
ready to maintain his cause with the sword, the intervention of a third
may save both from the disasters of a battle. The words of the Douglas
when intervening in a heated contest, "The first who strikes shall be my
foe," may sometimes be a model for the real peacemaker. But he would
certainly have resented the idea of agreeing to keep prepared, ready
armed to fight at the bidding of a number of other chiefs, anyone who
used force to prevent or punish some injury to himself.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The death of Lord Parker, which occurred soon after these
words were written, has deprived the country of the services of one of
the few great jurists at a time when they are most sorely needed. There
are many good lawyers, many judicial minds acute in seizing the really
relevant points in a complicated case, but very few, perhaps none, who
united to legal learning and judicial penetration so broad a grasp of
principle and appreciation of the larger issues involved in decisions
given.]