urbanity of his manners) forms that useful link between the amateurs and the professors of pugilism, which when broken it will be difficult, if not wholly impossible, to replace."

In 1811 a sparring exhibition was got up at the Fives Court for the benefit of the Portuguese sufferers; and in 1812 a similar one took place (both instituted by Jackson) for the British prisoners in France. The receipts of the latter amounted to £130, which was forwarded by Mr. Jackson to the subscription fund. All the professionals gave their attendance gratuitously. The Court was crowded with noble amateurs. How different is the present state of the prize-fighter to what it was in the palmy days of Jackson! Occasionally now a benefit is got up at the house of some" professor," which turns out, as Shakspeare says, benefit forgot." See the ragamuffins that now grace these sparring exhibitions, and compare them to the time when the Fives Court flourished-when kings, emperors, field-marshalls, foreign potentates, and the cream of the English nobility, patronized this then popular gymnasium. Well do we remember the period when the late Duke of Norfolk (grandfather to the present), the late Duke of Gordon, Lord Hertford, poor Byron, the Honourable Berkeley Craven, the present Duke of Beaufort, Earls Fitzhardinge, Sefton, Harrington, Barclay of Ure, were the liberal patrons of the ring and sparring school, and when honest pugilists were treated as men well deserving the countenance and support of the highest classes; the dexterous use of the fist being looked upon as an exercise worthy the sturdy Englishman, and one which had raised his renown as the bravest of the brave. But we must "hark back" to the

deeds of former days, and as we were wont to say, "Arma virumque

cano."

Amongst the general games celebrated in honour of Patroclus, in Homer's Iliad, boxing is mentioned; and the combat of Ulysses with the beggar Trus is one of the most diverting incidents narrated in the Odyssey. Indeed, the king of Ithaca seems to have been well calculated for this heroic diversion, and, from his strength and courage, would have been no contemptible opponent for any of the pugilistic champions of England. He was also a generous antagonist, and fought rather for honour than revenge or lucre; for we are told that, when confident of victory, he

"Check'd half his might, yet rising to the stroke,

His jaw-bone dash'd-the crashing jaw-bone broke ;”

an instance of magnanimity that the pugilists and their backers of the present day would do well to imitate. Our limit and space will not permit us to enter into greater detail upon the "mills" of other days. Return we then to the doings of our own times.

Among the advantages and benefits which may be brought forward in support of self-defence, we will quote the words of a late highly respected judge. In Chief Justice Best's charge to the grand jury of Wiltshire, his lordship said: "The practice of boxing has often been a subject of discussion in this country. I must say that it seems to me a practice that may very advantageously be encouraged to a limited extent. It is in some sort a law of peace, for it discourages the use of unfair means of attack: it prevents malicious retaliation; it only enables men to employ the fair advantages they may naturally possess, and

in the use of which they are restrained by the point of honour; and while it encourages a proper English spirit, it prevents courage from degenerating into brutality, and secures men from the treachery and ma lignity of those whom they may have offended." This is precisely the view we have for many years taken of the fistic school. While human nature is constituted as it is, and ever has been, there will be brawls and fighting. And see the effects of such quarrels where boxing and the laws of the ring are not recognised: the knife and stiletto supply the place of the fists. Look at Italy, and the thousands of assassinations that annually take place in that highly eulogised land of song. Witness the bloody horrors that took place in France during the grand revolution, and that still disgrace that country, when private squabbles can only be settled by murderous weapons. Cross even to America-England's daughter-and, independent of their Lynch law, they still practise in their pugilistic encounters that abominable, unmanly, and thorough savage practice of gouging and biting, throttling, kicking, and jumping upon the disabled foe. Nay, we need not go out of our own country; for, to the disgrace of Britain be it said, there is one county in the northern part of England where " up and down" fights are still known, and where the most beastly and brutal exhibitions take place. Ireland, too, is a melancholy example for murder and burnings almost daily taking place in that distracted country. Enough, we think then, has been said to prove that man's natural weapons are better than the dagger to assuage his vindictive passions and unbridled rage. The fine old school-boy principle of "fighting a quarrel out" is far preferable to all waylayings, secret assaults, cutting, stabbing, maiming, or wounding; and the true English spirit of pugilism is to restrain those murderous practices, and to divest combatants of all savage means of vengeance. In another point of view, and that a national one, boxing may be defended I allude to the advantage it gives to the soldier and sailor. And to bear me out in that proposition, I have only to refer to the daring deeds of our red coats and blue jackets during the last war. The Honourable Frederick Berkeley, than whom a more gallant officer in Her Majesty's navy does not exist, records the prowess of seamen who had been brought up in those good old days when the art of "selfdefence" was supported by all the leading personages of England. The author of "Lalla Rookh," too, has immortalized Shaw the fighting life-guardsman, who certainly gave many a knock down argument at Waterloo in favour of this our national sport.

"Oh! shade of the cheesemonger!* you who, alas!
Doubled up by the dozen those Mounseers in brass,
On that great day of milling, when blood lay in lakes,
When kings held the bottle, and Europe the stakes."

The late C. Apperley, Esq. (Nimrod), too, no mean a judge upon sporting affairs, gives the following views upon pugilism; and as it leads to the anecdote I have hinted to above, as connected with the Honourable Captain Berkeley's opinions, I will lay them before my readers. In Nimrod's visit to Berkeley Castle, the hospitable domain of one of England's noblest sportsmen, he writes as follows:-" Another

* A life-guardsman, one of The Fancy, who distinguished himself and was killed in the memorable set-to at Waterloo.

subject was then started, which, being one of very general interest, I may be allowed to revert to. It was the present unfortunate revolution in the manners and habits of John Bull, by the introduction of the foreign knife,'*-it is not inappropriately called-and which was introduced to our notice by a comment in the Globe' newspaper, and I believe these were the words :-Knives are unworthy of the national character, and associated with practices, on some parts of the continent, from which Englishmen recoil.' My opinion on the interdiction of prize-fighting, fairly and honourably conducted, has already been before the public; and that of Earl Fitzhardinge has been still more clearly avowed by the encouragement he has so often given to the ring and how forcibly is the correctness of our opinions at this moment displayed, not by the introduction of the knife only-not exactly by sentiments delivered from the bench--but in the case of a prosecution of a pugilist, for an assault by a straight-forward declaration by the counsel, Mr. Doane, retained for the prosecution, who, in his address to the court in aggravation, stated that to the absurd and mischievous interference of the country magistracy with the proceedings in the ring was the increase of the unmanly crime of stabbing, among Englishmen, to be attributed.' These sentiments, I say, have not been exactly delivered from the bench, but something closely approximating to them escaped the lips of Lord Wynford, when Chief Justice Best. Moreover, I could now name a judge who, only a short time since, when not on the bench, expressed his regret at prize-fighting, properly conducted, having fallen into disrepute, from a conviction that infinitely more good than harm was the result of it amongst the middle and lower classes of the people. His lordship was quite right in the expression of this sentiment. It has been our boast that the bowie-knife is unknown in the British dominions; but experience shews that by the almost total abolition of prize-fighting, in a fair and honourable manner, as heretofore conducted, the knife or the stiletto will be generally had recourse to, to avenge the quarrels of the vulgar.

"When on the subject of boxing, Captain Berkeley instanced a curious but powerful example of its imparting highly honourable and generous feelings to minds, if naturally not frequently impressed by them, whilst serving as a midshipman in the Blanche frigate, in the West Indies. The Blanche had an engagement with an enemy who would not strike her colours until she was boarded. Amongst her complement of marines was a private who had distinguished himself in the British ring. Whilst boarding the enemy he became opposed to a man who had nothing in his hand wherewith to defend himself. The marine at this time wounded by a shot in his leg-observing this, threw down his cutlass, and vanquished his opponent by a blow from his fist on his head!" Nimrod then concludes the subject, with the following short remark :"I am equally an advocate of all manly diversions, being aware that they have greatly contributed to the honour and credit of my country, and she will rue the day when they shall be supplanted by those of a frivolous and demoralizing character."

The foregoing observations may be said with truth to apply to pugi

*It is somewhat curious that the name of the man whose conviction of manslaughter, for stabbing a cabman with one of those knives, and very heavily sentenced, should be John Bull.

listic contests arising out of private cases of quarrel, and not to systematic prize-fights, where the combatants have had no cause of disagreement, and where the victor is rewarded by lucre. Independent of which the ring has too often been disgraced by disreputable and disorderly persons there assembled, who, when they find their man cannot win fairly, resort to every outrage and stratagem to defeat his antagonist by foul means. In answer to this, I must at once admit the difficulty of the question. If, upon the one hand, prize-fighting were abolished, the rules and regulations that govern the ring would fall into disrepute ; men would settle their differences without seconds; "up and down" fights would prevail, where the best man (if best can be applied to such a wretch) continues to kick, trample, and fall upon his vanquished foe, too feeble again to stand on his legs; or hundreds of huge bullies would arise, to vent their malice on those too weak to stand up against them. Now encounters in the ring in some degree get rid of these blemishes. On the other hand, the utmost butchery too often takes place within the ropes of the P. C.; men are brought to the scratch by their seconds, after having been primed with spirituous liquors, sometimes nearly blind, deaf, and often too weak to stand upright. Foul blows, foul play, foul cheating, too frequently characterize the proceedings of the prize-ring; and men are unblushingly sold to the best bidder, very much after the fashion of the beasts in Smithfield market. Both systems, then, being open to censure, and acting upon the principle of choosing the least of two evils, I should strongly urge the discontinuance of prize-fights for money; and in order to render pugilistic combats for the settlement of differences fair and manly, I should suggest a new code of laws. First and foremost, that seconds and an umpire should be selected, the authority of the latter to be, like that of the Medes and Persians, decisive. Secondly, that no spirituous or exciting liquors should be given to the combatants. Thirdly, that each man should, unassisted, leave his second's knee, and walk, unaided, some three or four yards to the scratch. That in the event of the breach of any of the above rules, or in case of a foul blow, a fall without a blow, or any other un-English proceeding, that the aggressor should be deemed vanquished. Strenuously, too, would I call upon the magistrates to inflict the most severe punishment upon those who should be found guilty of any foul conduct, or who should resort to that remnant of barbarism, before alluded to, of up and down fighting. That pugilists may be honourable men we have ample proofs-witness the late poor John Jackson; Mr. Gully, formerly member for Pontefract, than whom a more straightforward man does not exist; Tom Crib, Spring, with many others, that I will not enumerate, for fear of being looked upon as impartial. To show the opinion held of the prize-ring in 1821, I have only to remind my readers that at the coronation of George IV. the late Mr. Jackson was selected to organize a body of bruisers, to keep the peace within and at the entrance of Westminster Hall, and no men ever did their duty better, as was laid before the public, in the official thanks they received from the public authorities.

In conclusion, we sincerely hope that manly English fighting will ever hold its supremacy over the cowardly weapon of the assassin, and that if pugilistic encounters are to take place, that they will be divested of the brutality and dishonesty that has too often characterized them.

METROPOLITAN HORSES.

BY HARRY HIEOVER.

(Continued.)

THE POSTER.

Those who were men grown forty years since, or even at a later period, doubtless well recollect Swallow-street; and the name of Newman, as a postmaster, was about as well known as the street itself. But though the name of the postmaster still remains, the street that formerly showed itself from Piccadilly to Oxford-street has shared the fate that the immortal bard predicted for the solema temple, the gorgeous palace, and even the world that we inhabit.

True, there was a shade of difference between the Tuileries, the Louvre, Versailles, and Swallow-street, in the scale of magnificence; and the fragile street has preceded the palace in being rased to the ground. But nature will eventually do that for the latter that the hand of man has long since done by the former; and the time will come when, like the potentate and the peasant, the only difference will be, that the one may live longer in the memory of the multitude than the other; for time is as remorseless in his claims on the highly ornamented and elaborately chiselled column as on the simple brick and mortar that once formed the stable of the postmaster, and in sooth, makes still less difference in his estimation of the rights or claims of noble or ignoble blood.

There was, however, one peculiar circumstance connected with Swallow-street, that rescued it from that utter insignificence its general appearance denoted. There is a very small chubby gentleman who is always represented dressed, or rather undressed, after the fashion of our primitive ancestor Adam, and, in good truth, of our general mother Eve herself; to him is appropriated a pair of wings of the most delicate fabric, and eke a bow with a quiver full of missiles, that carry transport to the hearts of thousands; but occasionally dissertation, disputation, desperation, detestation, separation, and, of course, mortification to the hearts and hearths of no few hundredsbut here the chubby gentleman is not to blame. But there is one of more portly dimensions, and Plutus by name, who is; he, unless his insatiate appetite is satisfied, throws discord in the otherwise best regulated and disposed families; for families are by no means uncommon consequences of the unerring flight of one of the shafts from the aforementioned quiver. "Savage" I hear as an anathema hurled at my devoted head, by some of my fair readers (if any such I boast), we understand your vile and sordid inuendo; your detested pen indites matter of so unetherial, so common, so plebeian, and so earthly a caste, that we verily believe the extatic soul-inspiring idea of love in a cottage never warmed your cold and calculating soul."

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