tice
was confined to casual contests, and not extended to public combats and
stage fights. These, they say, induce the laborious men to quit their
occupations, and serve as a rendezvous for the disorderly and the
profligate; but is not the same objection to be made to all amusements
in which the lower orders are peculiarly interested, and where else
would men of this description practically learn, that the gratification
of their personal resentments must be limited by the laws of honour and
forbearance? Had Crib struck Gregson after the decision of the contest
in his favour, what would have been the indignant feelings of the
surrounding multitude, and what would he not have experienced from their
resentment? And are these feelings not worth inculcating? will they not
characterise a nation, and are they not the genuine sources of
generosity and honour? If it be admitted, which I think cannot be
denied, that any advantage be derived to society from individuals in
these combats being restrained from giving full scope to ferocity and
revenge, these advantages must be exclusively ascribed to the custom of
public exhibitions. It is from these that all regulations and
restrictions originate--it is from these they are propagated, and with
these they will be extinguished.

"I am not without apprehension, that from abhorrence of what some call
brutal and vulgar pursuits, the noble science of attack and defence
should be in future proscribed at the seminaries of Eton, Winchester,
and Westminster, and that little master should be enjoined by his mama,
in case of an affront, to resort to his master for redress and
protection. To the custom, indeed, as it now prevails, the English youth
are, in a great measure indebted for their nobleness and manliness of
character. Two boys quarrel, they agree to box it out--they begin and
they end by shaking hands; the enmity terminates with the contest--And
what is this but a lesson of courage, magnanimity, and forgiveness? the
principles of which are thus indelibly impressed on the mind of the boy,
and must ever after influence the character of the man.

"Away then with this effeminate cant about maintaining order and
decorum, by the suppression of the public exhibitions of manly
exercises. To them the individual Englishman owes his superiority to the
individual of every other country, in courage, strength, and agility:
and as a country is composed of individuals, to what other causes can
Engla