Holidays are a wonderful institution!!
Apart from enjoying unbroken sunshine, temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s, warm seas and gentle Mediterranean breezes, I found myself, between meals, while slowly roasting on a flat rock off the north coast of Menorca, thinking about Justice.
Nothing abstract here, but it is a quality which means different things to different people and I just happened to stumble across a few thoughts while experiencing the relaxation for which an empty beach is the perfect accompaniment.
Being in Menorca, it was, I suppose, inevitable that I would be reminded of Admiral John Byng (1704-1757). He famously failed to recapture Menorca from the French in 1756 at the start of the Seven Years’ War and paid for his failure with his life, not heroically like Nelson half a century later but by firing squad.
Despite his protestations that he did not have enough time to prepare, his ships were unseaworthy and he had insufficient men, he was despatched from Gibraltar by an over eager Admiralty in London and after some preliminary skirmishes his ships were beaten at the Battle of Menorca.