THE POINT OF HONOUR. [From the Times, June 23.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 769, 15 December 1852, Page 4

THE POINT OF HONOUR. [From the Times, June 23.]

A cause, which was tried the day before yesterday in the Court of Common Pleas, affords us a pleasing opportunity of contrasting the conduct of professional warriors with that of civilians, where what is called " the point of honour " is concerned. As long as evil passions retain their hold upon the human breast, so long will there be causes of offence. Brutality of temper — orerweening self-conceit — contempt for the feelings and opinions of others, will occasionally display themselves in action — however much the tone of society may be refined. Collisiou must of necessity ensue, if such a term be lightly applied to the one-sided strife in which one man inflicts and the other tolerates injury. In such a state of things it is idle to pour forth jeremiads upon the evil tendencies of human nature, or to suppose that by any social contrivance we can

altogether extinguish tbe smouldering fire of envy, resentment, and other petty passions of the same class. We cannot get rid of the offence, but we can so arrange the manner in Which that offence shall be resented that all consequent inconvenience shall fall upon the head of the transgressor. In bygone dayt such a thing was impossible. No matter how grievous might have been tbe offender'! guilt, no matter how blameless the offended party, he had no option but to meet his adversary in the field. The admonitions' of religion, the suggestions of prudence afad right reason, were all thrown away. If the professional duellist, or social bully, could not in strictness be said to have the opinion of the world with him, at least the man whom he had affronted or attacked without provocation was well-nigh banished from society if he did not offer himself as a mark to his opponent's pistol. There were instances in former times where men have displayed such saint-like heroism as to refuse the combat even when the consequences were so terrible as we have described ; but the instances were rare indeed. It was not until within tbe last ten or fifteen years that the views of society upon this matter can be said-to have undergone any effective change. Now-o'-days, let a man have right on his side; and he can afford to smile at the efforts of an unmannerly assailant to engage him in personal conflict. Indeed, some instances of private feud, which have lately been carried to extremity; would seem to show that 'the heroism of one century has become the bombast" of the next. If a man would hold himself, up as an object of public ridicule, there would be" few surer ways of attaining so unenviable a notoriety than to engage . himself in a private squabble — to invoke the aid of a second,- who should countenance him in his folly — and to push matters to extremities, — in other words, to discbarge one of two pistols in the air, while his opponent performed the like feat with another. Causes of offence will arise, and it is probably wei! in such cases to call for the intervention and invoke the judgment of mutual friends ; but let the result be an award which shall decide on which side lies the offence, and by whom reparation and apology should be cuade. If the first arbitrators cannot agree, others may, and so let the matter be decided without a formal recourse to deadly weapons, which neither party has the slightest intention of using with effect. A gallant officer in the navy, who has been honourably distinguished through a service extending over well-nigh half-a-century, has shown us that recourse may be had to a still more prosaic tribunal ; that those whose very social existence depends upon the opinion which their countrymen may entertain of their courage and manly bearing under the most trying circumstances, in place of going out in the gray of tbe morning to disturb cock pheasants, may come before a court of law, state their difference, and submit to the award. Tbe gentleman who has so honourably distinguished himself as to set the example of submission to the laws of his country in such a case is Captain Naas, who is now in command of the St. George, a 120-gun ship lying at Devonport. Captain "Naas, it would seem, is a member of the Senior United Service Club, to which society Captain Scott, of the Royal Navy, also belongs. Captain Naas had proposed an officer as a member of the club, who when the election came on was blackballed. The oubject naturally came under discussion in tbe club, and Captain Scott had some conversation upon the matter, among others, with General M'Donald. In the course of this conversation Captain Scott said that the blackballing " arose ' entirely from the unpopularity of Capt. Naas in the navy, and also tbat there was a blemish attached to his character from his not having obeyed in China the signal made to him to come into action." The speech was repeated by Gen. M'Donald to Captain Cuppage ; from him it passed to Capt. B&ynes ; and he, very properly, informed Captain Naas of it. This gentleman; greatly aggrieved as he no doubt was, seems never to have thought of. anticipating the Ist of October, but quietly invited his assailant to make good the truth of bis words before a court of law. Before the united testimony of Sir Thomas Herbert, who had the command of the squadron on the day and at tbe place in question, and of Sir Thomas Maitland, who was then Flag-Cap-tain of the Wellesley, the charge utterly broke down. There was not the faintest shadow of foundaiion for the terrible imputation of cowardice against Captain Naas ; and an apology sufficient to satisfy the most punctilious honour was extorted from the defendant. This apology ought, indeed, to have been freely tendered. The explanations given by Sir Thomas Herbert and Sir Thomas Maitland had cut away every pretext for sustaining the charge. It should have been tbe first feeling of a gentleman — of a man sensitive about bis own honour, to regret that he had, in an unguarded moment, given cause of offence to another withont any reasonable cause. It was a paltry shift to withdraw the imputation, and to endeavour to escape • without a fair and handsome expression of regret. But, as it was, a complete withdrawal of the imputation was obtained — a result infinitely more satisfactory than the bald announcement tbat a brace of -pistols had been harmlessly discharged, and that therefore the ".honour" of the parties was established. ' *■• "* Tbe conduct of Captain Naas affords a sound example to all aspiring legislators, linendrapers,' and others who may be inclined to take the law into their own hands. After the little . affair" down on the Southampton Railway, it will require at least half-a-dozen murders to restore; the* credit of our English duellists. Let there be an end of this folly. If tbe offence has been great, society knows well how to exercise tbe preroga-, tive of ostracism,' and to drive the offending, member forth from all social intercourse. Surely a policeman is a fitter antagonist for any ruffian who may venture upon an abuse of physical strength than a gentleman, jSurely it is sufficient, when words derogatory to a man's character have been spoken, that he should _ come j forward publicly before his countrymen and prov e ■ that his character is without ttain, and his name without reproach. English society is indebted to Captain Naas for setting his face against a custom which was barbarous a few years back, but now is : simply snobbish; ' ' ""