Manly and Athletic Exercises. 379 



This letter drew down upon my head a tremendous philippic from 

 one of the old school, like myself, but no friend to the ring, in 

 which he stated that letters such as mine should never be admitted 

 into a paper like The Field ; and after a column's abuse of the prize- 

 ring, and all who had anything to do with it, he wound up by ob- 

 serving, that it was a disgrace to the country that prize-fighting was 

 not made criminal like cock-fighting and bull-baiting. 



Of course I was bound to defend my position as best I could ; 

 and as I still adhere to my original opinion, and am not the least 

 ashamed of repeating anything I have ever yet written in the defence 

 of the practice of fair British boxing, properly carried out, I trust 

 I shall be excused if I recapitulate in these little Sporting 

 Sketches what I then wrote, merely observing, that I am far from 

 expecting that all my readers will be of the same opinion as myself; 

 and as every one can see by reading the heading of this chapter upon 

 what subject it treats, no one is obliged to read it unless he pleases, 

 but can skip it and go on to the next. I shall, however, hope that 

 it will interest some. It is needless here to quote my opponent's 

 letter at full length, but I must at starting set forth the gist of his 

 arguments and observations, because my reply to them forms the 

 groundwork of this present article. 



He first begged to know what I was asking for, and how far I 

 should wish to go ? 



He told us that he was old enough to recollect the time when 

 cock-fighting and bull-baiting had as many advocates as the ring 

 has now, adding that the same innate cruelty of our nature is at the 

 root of all these barbarous amusements. 



He then asked me, did I wish those days to return when (quoting 

 my words in a previous letter) " the rules of fair fighting, as exem- 

 plified in the prize-ring, became, as it were, the law of the land," 

 when a dispute had to be settled by an appeal to the arms ? 



Did I wish milling to return ? or would I, while gentlemen are 

 content to settle their disputes amicably, or by an appeal to law 

 courts, encourage those whose passions are fierce to have recourse to 

 violence ? 



