116 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



odds than three to one against him. I should, however, care 

 very little in what fashion a man fought if I had only one to 

 deal with, for I will back any man who has a little knowledge 

 of sparring to lick fe a rough," even at his own game, by 

 straight knock-down blows. But the worst of it is, when 

 foreigners fight, they never let man to man fairly fight* it 

 out, but, as in an Irish row, three or four will set on one, and 

 it is no use for a poor devil to cry out that he has had enough, 

 with a mob of cowards on him, not one of whom has the 

 slightest notion of fair play. If ever they do hit here (for 

 in general they struggle), it is always open-handed, and with 

 a round hit on the ear. A box on the ear from a strong 

 Swede would, I dare say, be no trifle, if it reached home ; 

 but I should pity the poor fellow who tried such a game with 

 a good sparrer, who would wish for nothing better than 

 for his opponent to attempt such a blow, and leave his whole 

 face open. 



I do not complain of the manner in which foreigners fight. 

 I am quite willing to back a good Englishman with his fists, 

 who can fight, against any one man, and let that man use 

 what shifty tricks he pleases, so long as he sticks to his 

 naked hands, and stands up manfully himself without the aid 

 of another. It is true that man is little better than a brute 

 when his worst passions are roused, and every brute has its 

 own peculiar tactics ; but still, whatever a man's mode of 

 fighting may be, there should at least be that generous im- 

 pulse implanted in every human breast, which forbids a man 

 to trample on his fallen foe, and that honest, manly feeling 

 which will not allow him to use a knife or any weapon against 

 an unarmed adversary, or to continue punishing him when 

 he is disabled. 



It is for this reason that I always have, and always 

 shall uphold, as far as lies in my power, fair British 

 boxing ; not only because it teaches men a better and less 

 brutal mode of fighting, but because the rules of the prize- 

 ring, become, as it were, a law of the land when two men 

 quarrel (which I fear will always be the case as long as men 

 are men), and because the endurance and forbearance which 



