PRIZE - FIGHTING — THE SADDLE ON THE WRONG HORSE.
Ar the Ilford Petty Sessions, on licensing-day, the Chairman very pro- perly admonished publicans of the impropriety of harbouring prize- -.fighters and quoted for their consideration the words of Chief Jus- tice BEST :=—
"There is but one description of persons that I detest more than prize- fighters; and that is those base, cruel, cowardly animals-who encourage them —who delight to look on danger which they do not share, and make bets which may be von and lost by murder."
In this sentiment we entirely concur, but not exactly in the worthy Chairman's interpretation of it :-
" Now, who were those persons designated by Lord Wynford base, cruel and cowardly ?' Why, certainly, the publican in the first instance, at whose houses those prize-fighters were trained; and next, those persons who resorted to those disgraceful exhibitions, by which murder might be, and in many instances, actually was committed."
n1EO.-persons guilty in the first instance are not the publicans, who merely supply the means to the end ; but the noble lords, and patrician patrons of the ring, who encourage the barbarism, and are the authors of the demand for prize-lighters. The training to which the publicans are party, is not the temptation to fighting, or the cause of throwing ruffians into the ring. The rewards, the sanction, all the motives of the mischief, are referable to the sporting men ; and on them, not on the mere caterers, should fall the full measure of the merited shame. We believe this vile taste has declined; but the slang men of ton were responsible for its encouragement, and are yet main causes of its sur- mare to its present extent, amidst the spread of the humanities.
Previous page
