Mr Egan, our good friend, what can you possibly mean by publishing no fewer than three several sporting works, without sending us presentation copies? Have we offended you in any way? If so, believe that it was unintentionally, and see that you transmit to Messrs Cadell and Davies, on or before the 8th of April-in time for our Coach parcel-your book upon Bath-that inimitable panoramic view Going to a Fight"-and your Magnum Opus on Gymnastics. We shall make an amusing Article on each of them ; and be pleased to recollect, that we are the only Editor of a literary journal who has yet sported his canvass in the ring.

of "

We have extreme pleasure in writing the series "Boxiana"-and we know that it is excessively popular! It is true, that one elderly maiden lady has written us an expostulatory epistle on the subject, and expressed herself shocked by the indecency of the spectacle of two enormous porters, (such were her very words) exhibiting themselves stripped before twenty thousand spectators. We answered that letter privately-and assured the nun that Pugilists fight in flannel drawers-and that they are very little more exposed than young ladies in a ball-room. We also ventured to state it as our opinion, that it is less indelicate in such a man as Tom Belcher to give Cropley a cross buttock, than an officer of Hussars to put one hand on the bare neck of a virgin of eighteen years, another round her

VOL. VI.

waist, and thus to whirl her about for a quarter of an hour in his arms, till both parties are blind, and that too in presence of three hundred spectators. A waltzing match is, we humbly suggested, a more indecent exhibition than a boxing match. What can be more so, than to step, ready stripped, into the ring, and hug in succession a long series of military men, occasionally relieved by civilians? The amazon dismisses from her embrace captain, and colonel, and knight at arms, all panting and perspiring and reeling-while she stands victorious and unexhausted in the ring. And who compose the ring? Judges, senators, soldiers, grand-mothers, matrons, maids, and among them our own shrivelled correspond. ent. Go, Tabitha, to Moulsey Hurst, when Turner fights young Cabbage, and then, on your conscience, tell the Editor of Blackwood's Magazine, that their conduct is as indecent as that of Cornet Sabretache and Miss Julia Dyaway.

Well, well Mr North, no more about indecency, but think of the cruelty of boxing. Mr Leigh Hunt thinks it cruel-brutal-and unworthy of the pages of the Examiner. No doubt, Mr Leigh Hunt would be entitled to complain of the cruelty of boxing, were Little Puss to tip him a stomacher while meditating a crisp sonnet in some farmy field, in front of Hampstead. But who would talk of the cruelty of giving a facer to the champion of England? It would be

4 H

to the last degree cruel to force Mr Leigh Hunt out of his study into a smithy and insist upon his beating on an anvil for an hour, with a prodigious sledge-hammer, instead of fingering away on the piano-forte. This would be converting Apollo into Vulcan. But Elias Spray, the coppersmith, who fought the Chicken, worked at his profession, without exciting the pity of the tender-hearted. That game-pugilists enjoy intense pleasure in knocking and being knocked down. is obvious to the most careless observer-and there is not a sentiment of more universally acknowledged humanity, than" pleasure in the way we like it."

Boxing, therefore, being both decent and humane, why call it brutal? No brute animal of our acquaintance is a pugilist. Dogs do not boxcocks do not box-a bear is good at a close-but he is a round hitter, and * too much of a ruffian for the ring. Man, is in fact, distinguished from the brute creation by nothing so much as being a boxing animal. He shares the faculty of speech with the bullfinch, the starling, the magpie, and the parrot-and in the art of cookery he was excelled by Maculloch of the Royal Hotel-extinguish in his bosom the love of pugilism, and you reduce him to a level with the beasts that perish.

The philosophic observer of human nature perceives the connecting principles by which that human nature, multiform and multitudinous as it is, is yet blended into one grand and harmonious whole. There is a necessary connexion between all the fine arts. Richmond, the black, gives lessons in dancing every time he fights-Randal, as a statuary, is superior to Chantrey, Canova, and Thorvalsden. Crib is an admirable artist in body colours.Pollux was in his day a Painter. The society for the suppression of vice has done but little harm-but we do not like the idea of a society for the suppression of virtue and, therefore, hope, that the magistracy of England will at all times allow Bill Gibbons to form the ring undisturbed. We are persuaded that the Manchester Magistrates did their duty on the 16th of August-but may Pugilism flourish, and radicalism decay-so

" Let Dares beat Entellus black and blue." Nothing can be more good-humour

ed than an assemblage of Englishmen at a fight. No seditious banners-no orators-no occasion afterwards for the grand inquest of the nation to inte fere every thing is left to the u pires-and no Pope was ever so infan lible as Mr John Jackson. How nobly was this illustrated in the late disputed question respecting Belasco and the Birmingham Youth! The Whigs moved for a reference to the Jockey Club, for an inquiry into the behavior of the Jew. But Egan, Kent, Cra, and Jackson, supported the ministry; and, considering it altogether as a party question, by which the opposition expected to get a " turn out," all the most sound pugilists of the day rallied round the established authorities, and by their firmness, and deafness to popular clamour, vindicated and sustained the character of the British ring all over the world.

The last objection urged against pugilism is, that it is dangerous-the argument of a coward. But, dangerous as it may be, is it not true, that any one doctor that ever administered a prescription, has killed more men than all the pugilists that ever fought, either with cestus or naked fist? The destruction of human life in the prize ring has been trifling. You may write all their names with a single drop of ink. Neither Jem Belcher, nor the Chicken, nor Crib, ever made a widow-but when the two former died. But supposing that a dozen pugilists were killed per annum, would such an allowance prove fatal to this country? Has not the population of Britain increased greatly these last twenty years, even in spite of the daily operation of many hundred stage-coaches?

This, we find, is likely to be a sort of rambling article, quite chitty-chatty and off-hand-the best sort of leading article, perhaps, after all, now that there are so many magazines at work all over the island. One hates to see scores of editors all hammering away at one and the same thing-Living Authors, No I. Scott-No II. Wordsworth-On the Cockney School of Poetry, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,-Letters from the Lakes-Comparison between Kemble and Kean, &c. &c. There is really something quite shocking in this everlasting ringing of bells, and this taratantararaing of trumpets. No sooner has one editor started a subject from some secret covert, than fifty others join full cry, with all their pack of contributors, in pursuit; and no wonder that the game is run down and hausted at last, though often not vorth the bagging, so wofully torn and mangled. It is a puzzling matter to know how to act at present; one request we have to make of our facetious friends, Bon-mots, and Janus Weathercock, that they do not seduce Mr P. Egan from our service, and that the leave us in possession of the 1.g. The truth is, that the world is not wide enough for all the present magazines, and some of them must be blown up. Our own private opinion is, (though it might be dangerous to express it) that three magazines are sufficient for Great Britain and Ireland-Baldwin, Blackwood, and Colbourn.*

To return to Boxiana. It is a book that we never tire of-take it up when we will it puts us into immediate spirits. It is a sufficient justification of pugilism to say, that Mr Egan is its historian for a better natured, more gentlemanly person, never wore a glove. On a former occasion we ventured to suggest a resemblance between Mr P. Egan and Mr Thomas Campbell, as the historians of pugilism and poetry. But, in truth, highly as we admire the abilities of the author of the Pleasures of Hope and the Specimens, we cannot affirm, that he has yet produced any such work as Boxiana. Mr Egan combines within himself, as the historian of British pugilism, all the qualifications possessed by all the historians of British poetry. He has all the elegance and feeling of a Percy-all the classical grace and inventive ingenuity of a Warton-all the enthusiasm and zeal of a Headley -all the acuteness and vigour

of a Rit

son-all the learning and wit of an Ellis-all the delicacy and discernment of a Campbell; and at the same time, his style is perfectly his own, and likely to remain so, for it is as inimitable as it is excellent. The man who has not read "Boxiana" is ignorant of the power of the English lanOur readers have already studied with us the history of two Eras of British pugilism. They have been initiated into the mysteries of the schools

guage.

of Broughton, and of Big Ben. We are now about to make them acquainted with a new school-that of Mendoza a school whose fame is in some measure gone by, but a school that will ever continue to be admired by every lover of correct taste, sound judgment, elegant execution, and good bottom. This was, indeed, the Augustan age of pugilism, though fortunately it did not precede the decline and fall of the art. There was indubitably a finished and perfect beauty in the finest performances of Mendoza, for which we may now look in vain. He was the Virgil-or, perhaps, the Addison of his time. His battle with Humphries was perhaps superior to any thing in the Æneid. It was a most elaborate performance; yet art was so blended with nature, that its striking merits were visible to the eyes even of the unscientific, and the name of Mendoza now rises up in our memory when we think of all that was most graceful in attitude, and correct in distance. He was indeed the great founder of the Jewish school,-nor has either Dutch Sam, Belasco, or Iky Pig, eclipsed the fame of their master.

Dan has fought upwards of thirty pitched battles, but of these eight only are on record-one with Martin, the celebrated Bath Butcher, three with Humphries, two with Ward, one with Jackson, and one with Lee. In his first contest with Humphries, he was beaten; but in his two others his superiority was immeasureable. The first fight is thus described by Mr Egan: