In this context a humorous story of the old duelling
days may afford a useful parable. It sometimes happened in duels that the seconds were a great deal more bellicose and more unwilling to come to any settlement than the principals. Neither of them would yield an inch. They preferred to fight on a punctilio rather than to settle on reasonable terms. On an occasion of this kind the seconds became so angry and so long-winded and so irascible in their controversy that the two principals strolled up to each other and began to talk. Neither could help noticing the evident determination of the seconds that there should be a fight. Then a happy thought occurred to one of them, and he remarked in a whisper to the other : "I say, if you'll shoot my second I'll shoot yours!" The suggestion is one which we recommend to Mr. Asquith and to Mr. Bonar Law.
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