n size who attacked me. The old
gentleman, however, made me promise never to be quarrelsome, nor to turn
his instructions to account, except in self-defence. I have always borne
in mind my promise, and have made it a point of conscience never to fight
unless absolutely compelled. Folks may rail against boxing if they
please, but being able to box may sometimes stand a quiet man in good
stead. How should I have fared to-day, but for the instructions of
Sergeant Broughton? But for them, the brutal ruffian who insulted me
must have passed unpunished. He will not soon forget the lesson which I
have just given him--the only lesson he could understand. What would
have been the use of reasoning with a fellow of that description? Brave
old Broughton! I owe him much."

"And your manner of fighting," said I, "was the manner employed by
Sergeant Broughton?"

"Yes," said my new acquaintance; "it was the manner in which he beat
every one who attempted to contend with him, till, in an evil hour he
entered the ring with Slack, without any training or preparation, and by
a chance blow lost the battle to a man who had been beaten with ease by
those who, in the hands of Broughton, appeared like so many children. It
was the way of fighting of him who first taught Englishmen to box
scientifically, who was the head and father of the fighters of what is
now called the old school, the last of which were Johnson and Big Ben."

"A wonderful man that Big Ben," said I.

"He was so," said the elderly individual; "but had it not been for
Broughton, I question whether Ben would have ever been the fighter he
was. Oh! there is no one like old Broughton; but for him I should at the
present moment be sneaking along the road, pursued by the hissings and
hootings of the dirty flatterers of that blackguard coachman."

"What did you mean," said I, "by those words of yours, that the coachmen
would speedily disappear from the roads?"

"I meant," said he, "that a new method of travelling is about to be
established, which will supersede the old. I am a poor engraver, as my
father was before me; but engraving is an intellectual trade, and by
following it, I have been brought in contact with some of the cleverest
men in England. It has even made me acquainted with the projector of the
scheme, which he has told me many of the wisest heads of England have
been dreaming of during a period of six hundred years, and which it seems
was alluded to by