THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



character he was sure the jury would not allow themselves to 

 be made instrumental." ' 



' May I ask what was the result of the trial ? ' said the 

 Captain. 



' Why,' replied our hero, ' the chairman told the jury that the 

 learned counsel had given a wrong interpretation of the law, 

 and, commenting upon the evidence, considered it conclusive 

 against the defendants.' 



'Then, of course, they were found guilty,' observed the 

 Captain. 



'Certainly not,' answered Raby ; 'they were not only accjuitted 

 by the verdict of the jury that tried them on the first indict- 

 ment, but upon two other indictments arising out of the same 

 transaction it was thought expedient not to ofFer any evidence 

 against them, and verdicts of acquittal passed.' 



' And what were the principal objections to pugilistic 

 exhibitions urged by your father and uncle ? ' inquired the 

 Captain. 



'I do not, at this moment, recollect what my father said 

 on the subject,' replied Raby ; ' but my uncle drew on 

 antiquity for the arguments he made use of against any such 

 public displays, especially in cases wherein money is the 

 proffered reward. In the first place, he contended, that a 

 cold indifference to the sight of blood and wounds was no 

 characteristic of the true hero ; and, looking back to antiquity 

 pronounced the Athleta3, on the authority of Euripides, to 

 have been the worst soldiers in Greece — so much so, indeed, 

 as to induce Solon to persuade the Athenians to allot the 

 rewards bestowed upon them to the maintenance of poor 

 orphans, rather than to them. Neither did gladiatorial exhi- 

 bitions continue in the Roman state after it ceased to be pagan. 

 Secondly, although it might have been good policy in the 

 Romans to impress their soldiers with a just contempt of the 

 power of elephants, by having a considerable number of those 

 animals driven through the circus at Rome by a few slaves, 

 armed with blunted javelins ; and although, in Homer's time, 

 bodily strength met with the greatest honours, being necessary 

 to the subsistence of little governments — still, as our soldiei's 

 have no elephants to contend with, and as, since the invention 

 of gunpowder, physical strength and personal exertion, so 

 much depended upon by the ancients, are now not essential, 



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