384 Manly and Athletic Exercises. 



these two systems have left nothing but the most unpleasant recol- 

 lections on my mind, especially as I had not the pleasure of stay- 

 ing there long enough to enjoy a little reign of tyranny myself. I 

 had my share of fighting, and came off sometimes the winner, 

 sometimes the loser 5 but the severest thrashing I ever got in a fair 

 stand-up fight left nothing more than a transient feeling of (what 

 shall I say ?) disappointment in my mind, certainly, nothing like 

 malice against my conqueror, whereas feelings of revenge at the 

 treatment I received from the bigger bullies of the school rankled 

 in my breast years after I had left it. As to the flogging part of the 

 business, that has certainly left its remembrance, and one not easily 

 effaced, for, like Mr. Foker in " Pendennis," I sometimes dream even 

 now " that the doctor is walking into me." I can certainly not 

 uphold the Saturnalian epochs alluded to in my opponent's letter, 

 but I fancy these must have been very harmless battles, if, as he 

 says, the master always allowed them to take place just before the 

 holidays, for, although a father may jokingly ask his son when he 

 comes home at Christmas, " Well, Charley, how many boys have 

 you thrashed this half?" I can scarcely fancy that an anxious mother 

 would be particularly well pleased at seeing a young son come home 

 with a black eye, especially if she knew that this academical polish 

 was reserved to the end of the half, so that there might be no mis- 

 take about the lad carrying his brand home with him. This, how- 

 ever, is neither here nor there, for I feel pretty certain that battles 

 at school, if fairly and manfully conducted, never did the boys who 

 fought the slightest harm in after life. 



If all disputes between gentlemen can be so easily settled 

 amicably, or by appeal to law courts, how is it that disputes between 

 nations cannot be settled in the same way ? When the time arrives 

 that standing armies can be safely dispensed with, then will I at 

 once retract every sentence I have written every syllable I have 

 uttered in defence of the prize-ring j but as long as it is absolutely 

 necessary for every nation to keep up bands of paid and trained 

 fighting men, who are bound to take the field armed with deadly 

 weapons, against they know not who, and in a cause of which 



