Popular Sports and Exercises. 209 



prize-f^ktiirg ought to be rigidly prohibited ; 

 nor should men ever be sufTered to prostitute 

 their strength and valour for the sordid purpose 

 of gain. 



^*It IS a singular though striking fact, that in 

 those parts of the kingdom where the ge- 

 nerous and manly system of pugilism is least 

 practised, and where, for the most part, all 

 personal disputes are decided by the exertion 

 of savage strength and ferocity — a fondness for 

 barbarous and bloody sports is found to prevail; 

 In some parts of Lancashire bull-btutijig and 

 ^lan-slmiiiig are common practices. The know- 

 ledge of pugilism as an art is, in these places, 

 neither understood nor practised. There is no 

 established rule of honour to save the weak 

 from the strong, but every man's life is at the 

 mercy of his successful antagonist. The object 

 of each combatant in these disgraceful con- 

 tests, is, to throw each other prostrate on the 

 ground, and then with hands and feet, teeth 

 and nails, to inflict, at random, every possible 

 degree of injury and * torment. — This is not 



♦ A disgusting instance of this ferocious mode ofde- 

 ciding quarrels, was not long since brought forward at the 

 Manchester sessions. — It appeared in evidence, that two 

 persons, upon some trifling dispute, at a public hou<e, 

 agreed to lock themselves up in a room with the landlord 

 and '* fii;ht it out'* according to the Bohon method. — 

 This contest lasted a long time, and was only tefbinated 

 D d 



