BOXING. 117 



characterize a fair stand-up prize fight, must afford a useful 

 lesson to all who witness them ; and, moreover, teach all 

 classes to view with detestation, the cowardly practice of 

 kicking or striking a fallen foe, or setting two men upon 

 one, like dogs. 



Let the opponents of boxing at home, and foreigners 

 abroad, abuse the British prize-ring as an arena fit for no 

 others than blackguards and brutes. I am not here advocat- 

 ing the system of British boxing any further than that I 

 believe after all it is the best and fairest mode of settling a 

 dispute, and I am certain there is one thing which no one 

 can deny, that if a man, whether he be an Englishman or a 

 foreigner, happens to get into a row in England, he may be 

 licked on his merits, but in nine cases out of ten the by- 

 standers, although strangers to him, will take care that he 

 has at least fair play, and that no one shall interfere with 

 him, but the man that is matched against him ; and it is sin- 

 gular that this is the case in those countries only where 

 boxing is practised. 



I am not at all contending that there are not Englishmen 

 who would disgrace the worst penal settlement ; and, with 

 the brutal practices of the cowardly garotters fresh in their 

 minds, foreigners may well contend that all our boasted Eng- 

 lish fair play is nothing but an empty vaunt ; and so I grant 

 it is with some, but, thank God, these cowardly brutes do not 

 represent the British nation. 



Very much, however, to the credit of the Swedes, the 

 knife is now going fast out of fashion, for the laws are very 

 severe against its use. But this is only so very lately ; for when 

 I first came to Sweden, I have seen in Gothenburg a man's 

 face split open from the corner of his mouth to his ear ; and 

 I was then told by a friend that you never saw a good man 

 without three or four gashes across his face. The knife in 

 use for this cowardly practice is a short-bladed one, and not 

 used to stab, but to gash the face with. 



Far different, however, was it in the olden days of the 

 " Bait spannare," where the two combatants, armed with 

 knives, stripped to the skin, bound themselves together by 



