Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/149

Rh of the injury. A man of spirit does not measure the degree of an injury by the mere positive damage he has sustained. He considers the principle on which it is founded; he resents the superiority asserted over him; and rejects, with indignation the claim of right, which his adversary endeavours to establish, and would force him to acknowledge.

motives, on which the Catholic King makes restitution, are, if possible, more insolent and disgraceful to our sovereign, than even the declaratory condition annexed to it. After taking four months to consider, whether the expedition was undertaken by his own orders or not, he condescends to disavow the enterprise, and to restore the island;—not from any regard to justice, not from any regard he bears to his Britannic Majesty, but merely from the persuasion, in which he is, of the pacific sentiments of the King of Great Britain.—At this rate, if our King had discovered the spirit of a man,—if he had made a peremptory demand of satisfaction, the King of Spain would have given him a peremptory refusal. But why this unseasonable, this ridiculous mention of