228 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



making them proud, rather than afraid of honourable 

 scars, whilst they beheld slaves thirsting after praise, 

 inflamed with the love of victory. What did Mr. 

 Wyndham say in reference to it, the other day, in the 

 House of Commons? and a more humane man than 

 himself does not at this time exist. ' It is thought,' said 

 he, ' that the prevention of conflicts between inferior 

 animals might prove prejudicial to the courage of the 

 people. In defence of this hypothesis, Britons have ever 

 been distinguished for what is called bottom, or pluck. 

 But conflicts between inferior animals, and those between 

 rational beings, such as men, bear no comparison, inasmuch 

 as, in the one case, the will of the combatant is not 

 consulted, and he may consequently be compelled to fight, 

 not only against his inclination, but likewise on unequal 

 terms.' Again, the picture he presented to the champion 

 of the British boxing ring, of the victim bleeding from 

 the assassin's knife, and the accompanying inscription, 

 written with his own hand, show his opinion in un- 

 equivocal terms. However, let me refer your father and 

 uncle to a recent charge to the grand jury by one of our 

 most distinguished judges, in my opinion highly charac- 

 teristic of the national character, and plainly intimating 

 that, if we do not encourage boxing, we must be prepared 

 for the viler practices of the stiletto, or the knife. ' I 

 cannot,' said his lordship, in allusion to a charge in the 

 calendar for cutting and maiming, ' but express my regret 

 that a knife should have been found in the hands of an 

 Englishman, as an instrument of offensive quarrel. It was 

 formerly the practice in this country, when men fell out, 

 to fight as long as they could, and possibly to do each 

 other as much injury as could be inflicted by the personal 

 strength of the combatants ; but they fought in an open, 

 fair, and honourable manner ; they took no mean advan- 

 tages ; they had no recourse to deadly instruments to 

 procure superiority, or to gratify revenge. I will take 

 care, so long as common assaults are punishable by the 

 law, to visit, with the utmost severity of that law, those 

 who dare to desert that mode of defence which nature has 

 given, and which time has almost sanctified in their own 

 country, and who have chosen to adopt that foreign 

 practice of employing instruments of this description 

 against an opponent. Gentlemen, the practice of boxing 

 has often been a subject of discussion in this country ; I 



