J 06 ATHLETIC EXERCISES. 



cise, combined with exposure to a pure air, persisted in, 

 during a time given, all remarks on the moral effects of 

 pugilistic exhibitions, to which such a course of training, 

 forms a necessary prelude, have been intentionally 

 ^have b&en avoided. This siibji3ct has lately been discussed with 

 bv Dr. Bards- t^'l^a^ ^-cuteness and ))ropriety by Dr. Bardsley. in " A 

 ley. Dissertation on the Use and Abuse of popular Sports and 



Exercises," published in the last volume of the jMemoirs 

 of a Literary and Philosophical Society at Manchester, 

 which, had it fallen into my hands before this account of 

 the mode of training the antient Alhletce was transmitted- 

 to you, w ould have saved me considerable trouble. The 

 readtn- will there find the ditierent effects produced on the 

 public mind by the exhibitions of human prowess, dis- 

 played in the practice of boxing, well discriminated from 

 the consequences of committing acts of cruelty oj\ the 

 inferior animals, such as bull-baiting, throwing at cocks, 

 and other execrable practices of a similar kind, which 

 have been most improperly denominated sports. Fero- 

 city of manners, and brutality of conduct, are the invari- 

 able consequences of indulging a propensity to witness 

 Fair combat such exhibitions. In England, where the art of boxing 

 produces gene- \^ particularly exercised, the number of persons who fall 

 niiscixlcf sacrifices to personal quarrels, or become *he victims of 



resentment, are few indeed; whereas, it has been calcu- 

 lated, that at Rome a thousand persons are annually mur- 

 dered by the stiletto of the assassin, and the proportion 

 ^ is j5robably not less in Spain and Portugal. In the south- 

 ern counties of England, where the mode of deciding 

 private quarrels among the common people, by an appeal 

 to manual combat, is peculiarly prevalent, instances of 

 —than vindic- their terminating in death are very rare. In the northern 

 tive struggles, counties, on the contrary, where, when men fight, they 

 take every unfair advantage, the loss of life is by no 

 means uncommon, and the verdicts of man-slaughter occur 

 80 frequently as to have repeatedly excited the indignation 

 of the judges. It is even stated, that since the practice 

 of fair boxing has been in some measure introduced into 

 t\iCi northern parts of this country," by the example of 

 the itinerant teachers of the pugilistic art, instance* af 

 luurder have become less frequent, 



I Th^ 



