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 hes 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 solemn 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."

Gentle reader, you do me injustice. I trust I have neither a cold, nor calculating soul; but, on the contrary, one that fully appreciates les délices of love in a cottage; but the idea of a cottage is quoad the ideas of him or her who thinks about it. A cottage (a thatched one if you like) I in no shape object to; let it contain a decent dining room, wide enough, for they are mostly long enough for quite as many as one would wish to see at dinner; but I say wide enough, that a servant is not obliged to elbow our shoulders in carrying away the tureen; a drawing-room that does not suffocate one's friends; a breakfast room that the heat of the urn does not convert into a forcing house; and a small- I mean a small library, where a man may ensconce himself when he wishes to play sulky. This, with a four-stall stable, and two loose boxes, will do; and love will very probably go on in the cottage-cottage and thatched though it be. But one of those little coffins for the living, described as having coach-house and stabling, by which is meant a place where a pony phaeton under duty can be put in, with a pony also under duty stuck in behind it, is altogether a little abomination; a small horror, that no man fond of air and exercise would continue long to inhabit, while the Serpentine parades its broad expanse of water to receive him. Better be there, than inhale the puggy atmosphere of the detested baby-house. Babyhouse, I mean, from its dimensions; but if, under such circumstances and in such a place, a baby is added, the thing admits of no delaythe Serpentine, aye, the Serpentine, and "go at once."

It may be asked, "What has all this to do with post horses, Swallow-street, and Mr. Newman the post-master?" A great deal; the chubby gentleman having done his work, sent his victims or protegés (as the case may be) to Swallow-street; there they found Mr. Newman's office. He found the posters; and by their aid the loving pair (not of horses, for four were ordered) soon found themselves at Gretna Green and perhaps no man has sent more pairs of both bipeds and quadrupeds to that far-famed Green than Mr. Newman; and this, as I before said, made Swallow-street one of considerable importance.

Now we manage things in another manner; and the rail beats the poster, "Moulsey Hurst to an egg-shell." Cold indeed must be the flame that cannot keep the steam up at high pressure between London and Scotland; but yet it is somewhat extraordinary, that short as the transit is to and fro, the safety-valve is frequently much oftener resorted to on the journey from than it was in the journey to the north, and that a good deal depends upon whether the anticipated ménage is to be in the cottage with the four stalls and loose boxes, &c., or the detested turtle-dove cage with the under-duty phaeton and the still more detestable under-duty little beast of a pony.

Although personally I am a sporting writer, or, at all events, a writer on sporting matters, I trust my métier is not altogether so grovelling, distinct, and gross, as to render me incapable of appreciating, or occasionally writing on subjects of a higher caste than a horse or a hound. The time was, when all sporting men were Squire Westerns; and had the Sporting Magazine existed in those times, its readers would have been all of that class; consequently, anything that was not absolutely confined to horse and dog only, or written in

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anything but stable and kennel language, would have been passed over. But now, sporting periodicals, or books on sporting subjects, are read by men who do like a little occasional interlarding of something different; though, like variations composed on any favourite air, the original must not be lost sight of, but, on the contrary, pervade the whole, and be returned to in all its original simplicity. I mention this as an excuse for digression. Such little variations on horse matters I trust are not unpleasing to many readers, so I take the liberty of introducing another.

Doubtless the posters-and particularly Mr. Newman's postershave carried many an enamoured couple to the fulfilment of their wishes and the completion of their happiness; but I fear the odds always run heavily against so happy a result. Cerulean or hazel eyes, auburn or raven locks, are beauteous to look upon, whether the owner be the peeress or the peasant; and the smile may be radiant, and the heart beat warmly, whether the beauty be clothed in silk or serge; but this depends on whether the garb is such as the wearer has been accustomed to, for a trip to Gretna, that brings the wedded fair back to a seat in a nursing-chair, instead of the accustomed one in the chariot or britzska, is not usually recollected without wishes by no means in favour of the poster or his master. The railroads come in for their share also, no doubt; but they settle the matter in less time; so perhaps, like a beef-steak, or the "it" alluded to in Macbeth, if any lady contemplates this hazardous journey, "'twere well 'twere done quickly;" and then, to descend to stable language, the odds are, one or both of the happy couple are done.

The general characteristic of the poster, I should say, has probably undergone as little change during the last half or complete century than that of any other horse; for the poster was always used for fast purposes, and next to the express sent by single horse, the post-chaise was the fastest conveyance known to our ancestors. They were made light comparatively with other carriages; and the greatest dread of a post-boy was, and is now, in post-stable phrase, a bounder”—that is, a travelling chariot. It is indeed, when well loaded, with rumble and dicky full, and two and Bodkin as insides, a fearful weight for two light horses; but heavy as the bounder is, as posting was always expected to be something like fast work, nothing but well-bred horses were found equal to that work; so, thanks to the kindness and gratitude of man, the fate of the once-favourite hunter and the oncefavourite starter for a stakes or handicap was the post-chaise. Hundreds of such have breathed their last (from over-exertion) in the several post-stables on the Bath-road-some to gratify the cupidity of a post-master, who would send a pair at times four ten-mile stages-eighty miles-to get the four times fifteen shillings; others to gratify the impatience of travellers, who would bribe the boys to do a stage ten minutes within time, though probably, so far as regarded the importance or utility of some travellers to mankind, it mattered little whether he ever arrived at his destination or remained for life on the road. But what matters this? Is the favoured child of fortune to be baulked of his slightest wish? "Forbid it heaven! the hermit cried." What is the neck of a plebeian post-boy, what is the agony or death of a hundred animals (noble though they be), com