- Project Runeberg -  Problems confronting Russia and affecting Russo-British political and economic intercourse /
184

(1918) [MARC] Author: Alfons Heyking - Tema: Russia
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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA

ancient Greece and Rome. To the Greeks and Romans
duelling was unheard of, for the simple reason that the idea
of citizenship prevailed so much over considerations of a
purely personal nature that the possibility of avoiding the
law by a personal vindication of one’s honour was
unthinkable. And this is exactly the way in which all the
Anglo-Saxon world, the British Empire and the United
States of America, look upon this question at present.

An Englishman appreciates honour, but his idea of it is
bound up with the idea of citizenship. An Englishman
leaves it to the law and to public opinion to vindicate his
honour, because he recognises the law and public opinion as
paramount under all circumstances, just as it was in the days
of the Greeks and Romans. He does not admit personal
interference. If any one has been slandered and his good
reputation injured, he knows that his best course is to bring
the matter before the law courts, where he will receive
satisfaction by a judgment which will be publicly recognised.
If he has suffered through ill-treatment, provocation, or
bad behaviour, he knows that the rules of society and public
opinion are so strong that the offender and not himself will
be the sufferer, and in that way also he gets satisfaction, and
there is no need for a vindication of his honour by a duel.

If a man, through some act of aggression against him, is
not in danger of losing the esteem of his own class, his honour
cannot be involved. Only too often, when honour was
supposed to be the motive for settling a dispute by a duel, the
true motive was personal revenge. But personal revenge
by the use of deadly weapons cannot be admitted in a
civilised community, where the law must in all cases be the
weapon for redress. That is why an Englishman is always
ready to apologise if he has been found guilty of
transgressing against the rules of society and good form. If an
Englishman under such circumstances does not apologise,
he is not considered to be a true gentleman, and his position
in society is endangered. The power of public opinion is so
strong in this respect that the consequences are of great
importance to every Englishman, and he has to submit

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