every advantage of wind and weather during the whole day. The weather had been foggy, at times, a great part of the morning; and very soon after we had brought them to action, the fog was so very thick at intervals, that we could, with great difficulty, see the ship a-head or a-stern of us; this rendered it impossible to take the advantages of the enemy by signals. I could have wished to have done; had the weather been more favourable, I am led to believe the victory would have been more complete.I have very great pleasure in saying, every ship was conducted in the most masterly style; and I beg leave here publicly to return every captain, officer, and man, whom I had the honour to command on that day, my most grateful thanks, for their conspicuously gallant and very judicious good conduct.The Hon. Captain Gardner, of the Hero, led the van squadron in a most masterly and officer-like manner, to whom I feel myself particularly indebted: as also to Captain Cuming for his assistance during the action. Enclosed is a list of the killed and wounded on board the different ships. If I may judge from the great slaughter on board the captured ships, the enemy must have suffered greatly. They are now in sight to windwardy and when I have secured the captured ships, and put the squadron to rights, I shall endeavour to avail myself of any opportunity that may offer to give you some further account of these combined squadrons.I have the honour to be, &c.- -R. CALDER. List of the ships of the squadron under the orders of Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder, Bart. on the 22d of July, 1805.-Hero, Hon. A. H. Gardner. 1 killed, 4 wounded. -Ajax, William Brown. 2 killed, 16 wounded.Triumph, Henry Inmann. 5 killed, 6 wounded.- -Barfleur, George Martin. 3 killed, 7 wounded.-Agamemnon, John Harvey. 3 wounded.-Windsor Castle, Charles Boyles. 10 killed, 35 wounded. -Defiance, P. C. Durham. 1 killed, 7 wounded.-Prince of Wales, Vice-Admiral Sir R. Calder and Capt. W. Cuming. 3 killed, 20 wounded.- Repulse, Hon. A. K. Legge. 4 wounded.-Raisonable, Josias Rowley. 1 killed, 1 wounded.-Dragon, Edward Griffiths. None.--Glory, RearAdm. Sir C. Stirling, and Capt. S. Warren. 1 killed, 1 wounded.- -Warrior, S. Hood Linzee. None.Thunderer, W. Lechmere. 7 killed, 11 wounded.-Malta, E. Buller. 5 killed, 40 wounded.- -Frigates. Egyptienne, Hon. C. E. Fleming. No re-Syrius, W. Prowse: 2 killed, 3 turn. wounded.- -Frisk Cutter, Lieut. J. Nicholson. None.Nile Lugger, Lieut. G. Fennel. None.- -Total. 41 killed, 158 wounded. -(Signed) R. CALDER. -Circular WAR IN THE WEST INDIES.Letter sent by Order of the Commander in Chief, to the Custos or Chief Magistrate of Kingston. Jamaica, June 14,1805. SIR, King's House, June 14.The Commander in Chief, having strong reasons to expect that the enemy will make an early and very serious attack upon this island, from the accounts he has just received, from the Governor of Barbadoes, of the great increase of their forces at Martinique, consisting then of thirty-one sail of the line, and probably a proportionate number of troops; his Excellency directs me to acquaint you therewith, and to desire that you will make it public in the parish of Kingston. I am also desired to inform you, that the whole of the militia are again ordered upon permanent duty until further orders, and that the Collectors and Comptrollers of the Customs have been directed to prevent even droggers and boats from passing along the coast at present. You will be pleased to communicate the contents of this letter to the officers commanding the corps of foot and horse militia in your parish, that they may act forthwith thereupon, in the event of their not having received orders through the general officer of the district. -I have the honour to be, Sir, &c.J. TYRRELL, Sec.- The Custos or Chief Magistrate of Kingston. PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES.The 4th Volume of the Parliamentary Debates, com prising the period between the 13th of March, and the 14th of May, 1805, will be ready for delivery on Thursday next. Every debate will be found given with the greatest accuracy; but particularly those relating to Lord Melville, and to the question respecting the Roman Catholics. The Appendix contains the Eleventh Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry, making, together with the Appendix of the preceding Volume, the collection of those Reports complete, as far as they have hitherto been laid before the House of Commons.-The 5th Volume, which is in great forwardness, which will close the Debates of the Session, will contain the Financial Accounts, and other documents connected with the most important of the proceedings in Parliament during the Session. Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Bow Street, Covent Gaiden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J, Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall Mall "Whereas divers cruel and barbarous outrages have been, of late, wickedly and wantonly cbnitted in "divers parts of England, upon the persons of divers of His Majesty's sabjects, either with an intent to "murder, or to main, disfigure, or disable, or to do other grievous bodily harm to such sobieds; and, "whereas the provisions, now by law male, for the prevention of such offences, have bee foundine d'ectual "for that purpose; be it therefore enacted, &c. &c."-PREAMBLE TO THE ACT, 43 G.p. III, chap., $8, passed 24th June, 1803. 193] SUMMARY OF POLITICS. BOXING. The public attention having been called to a recent, an extraordinary, and somewhat alarming decision of a Coroner's jury upon a case wherein death was the consequence of a boxing match, I cannot, consistently with the opinions I have always entertained and frequently expressed upon the subject, omit, upon this occasion, to submit to my readers, some few of those reflections that press upen my mind. The case, here partie darly referred to, is, as stated in the Morning Chronicle of the 25th ultimo, as follows: "George Hodgson, "cumstance that had then place chiring "that affray that the dd came by his "death. The coroner repeated his admó-"nitions to parish officers in general, to provide a surgeon in sneh cases as the "present, but added, that it did not appear to him that in the instance then before "the jury, there appeared to have been any 66 66 66 thing of culpability in the officers. He "then acquainted the jury, that in his opi"nion where there was a premeditated de"sign between the parties to commit a "breach of the peace, and where that vio"lation of law terminated fatally to one of "them, with the additional consideration "that it was a prize fight, in which each "had money as an inducement to do an injury to the other; in such case re thought "the act of the one man who killed the "other, was clearly murder. If they thought otherwise, however, they would 66 66 say so. But of this the jury had not the "least doubt, and immediately gave a ver"dict of WILFUL MURDER, by Dennis "Dillon."-Such is the account given in the public prints. Upon inquiry I find, further, that the combatants were two journeymen in the same shop, who, having quarrelled at their shop-board, agreed to decide their quarrel by a boxing match. It is said, that the only pecuniary stake, for which they contended, was a bet of half a guinea, which bet, however, did not the place till the moment before the fight began. There was so little of what could be truly called malice, between them, that the deceased had proposed to make up their difference with out fighting; and, though this was not accepted, a similar proposition was made by the survivor, during the course of the battle.. There was, as, indeed, it clearly appears from the above-stated evidence, no reason to suppose the death to be occasioned by any partienlar blow, but merely by the effect of exertion, and the breaking of a blood-vessel, as might have happened in a race, a rowing i match, a jumping-match, a cricket-match, or in any otifer exercise requiring, either constantly or occasionally, any extraordinary exertion of bodily strength. These being the circumstances of the case, one may confidently, hope, that this will not be the instance, in which the last blow will be struck at that manly, that generous mode of terminating quarrels between the common people, a mode, by which the common people of England bave, for ages, been distinguished from those of all other countries. But, though we may safely rely upon the wisdom and justice of the courts, before one of which this unfortunate boxer must finally take his trial, the occasion calls for some remark upon those exertions, which, of late, have been, and which yet are, making in every part of the country, with the obvious, and, in many instances, with the declared, intention, of utterly eradicating the practice of boxing; than which, I am thoroughly persuaded, nothing could be more injurious, whether considered as to its effects in civil life, or in its higher and more important effects on the people regarded as the members of a state, and, of course, always opposed to some other state, and therefore always liable to be called upon to perform the duties of war. must be in the obtaining of personal satis- -As few persons will be inclined to believe it possible so far to work, by any humen laws, such a change in the hearts and minds of men as shall prevent all quarrelling amongst them, it is not necessary to insist, that, in spite of the law and the Gospel, in spite of the animadversions of the bench and the admonitions of the pulpit, there will still be practised some mode or other of terminating quarrels, some way in which the party injured, or offended, will seek for satisfaction, without waiting for the operation of the law, even in those cases where the law affords the means whereby satisfaction is to be obtained. If this be not denied, it will remain with the innovating foes of the pugil stick combat to show, that there are other modes of terminating quarrels amongst the common people less offensive to the principles of sound morality, less dangerous in their physical effects, better calculated to produce the restoration of harmony, to shorten the duration, and to prevent the extension, of resentment, together with all the evils attendant upon a long-harboured spirit of revenge, Without proceeding another step, I am confident, that the reflecting reader, though he may, for a moment, have been carried away by the cry of "brutality," latterly set up against boxing, will, from our thus simply stating what our opponents have to prove, have clearly per-lish heart in his bosom, will reflect with sorceived, that the proof is not within their power. He will have perceived, that, of all the ways in which violence can possibly be i und violence of some sort there row and with shame. What is now becom● of those manners which authorised the ho nest exultation of so many of our eminent writers, that, from the generous spirit of ALEP EN 8 Englishmen, acts of cruelty were rendered so rare in their country? Our travellers must new hold their tongues; for the world is told, and that too, by the legislature itself, who have placed the disgraceful truth upon the records of parliament, that the laws and statutes of the land, heretofore in force, are no longer sufficient to prevent us from committing" cruel and barbarous outrages, with But, the greater, n spite of all we can say, is our admiration of those who therein excel. Belcher has, by the sons of cant, in every class of life, been held up to us as a monster, a perfect ruffian; yet, there are very few persons, who would not wish to see Belcher; few from whom marks of admiration have not, at some time, been extorted by his combats; and scarcely a female Saint, perhaps, intent to murder, maim, disfigure, or dis- who would not, in her way to the conven"able, one another." It is not till " of ticle, or even during the shuffling there to *** late, certainly, that such a low has been be heard, take a peep at him from beneath necessary, and, it is not till of late, that such her hood. Can as much be said by any one a general desire to suppress the practice. of of those noblemen and gentlemen who have boxing has prevailed. The mere coexist- been spending the best years of their lives in 'ence of this desire (and of the measures pro- dancing by night and playing at cricket by ceeding from it) with the frequency of the day? The reason is, not that Belcher strikes commission of cruel and barbarous acts, may hard; not that he is strong; not that he is not, indeed, be regarded as a conclusive ar- an adept at his art; but, that he exposes him "gument in favour of the practice of boxing ; elf voluntarily to so much danger, and that but, no one can deny, that it strongly corro- he bears so many heavy blows. We are barates the conclusion, which reason, with- apt to laugh at the preference which women out the aid of experience, has taught us to openly give to soldiers (including, of course, draw; and, if this conclusion, thus fortified, all men of the military profession), a prebe legitimate, it follows, of course, that we ference which is always found, too, to be must either have cuttings and stabbings, or given by young persons of both sexes. horing the former of which, as being per- if we take time to consider, we shall find fectly compatible with "a godly conversa- this partiality to be no fit subject for ridicule “tion" and with the cant of humanity, it is or blame. It is a partiality naturally arising more than probable that the Saints and Phi- from the strongest of all feeling, the love of lanthropists would not hesitate to prefer life. The profession of arms is always the But, it is the political view of this subject most honourable. All kings and princes are which appears to me to be most worthy of soldiers. Renowned soldiers are never forattention; the view of the effect which may, gotten. We all talk of Alexander the Great by the contemplated change of manners, be and of Julius Cæsar; but very few of us, produced upon the people, considered as the ever heard, or ever thought of inquiring, who members of a state, always opposed to some were the statesmen of those days. There is other state; for, much as I abhor cuttings not, perhaps, a ploughman in England, who and stabbings, I have, as I hope most others has not a hundred times repeated the naines of my countrymen have, a still greater ab- of Drake and of Marlborough; and of the horrence of submission to a foreign yoke. hundreds of thousands of thein, there is not Commerce, Opulence, Luxury, Effeminacy, one, perhaps, who ever heard, or ever will Cowardice, Slavery: these are the stages of hear, pronounced, the name of Cecil or of national degradation. We are in the fourth; Godolphin. When princes are not renownand, I beg the reader to consider, to look into ed military commanders, they themselves, history, to trace states in their fall, and then though they leave so many and such various say how rapid is the latter part of the pro- traces behind them, are, amongst the mass gress! Of the symptoms of effeminacy none of the people, soon forgotten, except as is so certain as a change from athletic and having reigned during the victories of such hardy sports, or exercises, to those requiring or such a commander. Literary men have, less bodily strength, and exposing the per- almost uniformly, spoken with more or less sons engaged in them to less bodily suffer contempt of military fame; but, notwithing; and, when this change takes place, be standing the singular advantages which they assured that national cowardice is at no great have over soldiers, in perpetuating a knowdistance, the general admiration of deeds of ledge of their famous deeds, within how hardihood having already been considerably narrow a sphere, comparatively speaking, is lessened Bravery, as, indeed, the word their fame confined! Where is the man, woimports, consists not in a readiness and a man, or child, in this kingdom, who has not on capacity to kill or to hurt, but in a readiness lieard and talked of Nelson?, And, does not and a capacity to venture, and to bear the the reader believe, that there are many paoqasequences. As sports or exercises apri has, in either of which the knowledge of proach nearer and nearer te real combats, Pope or Johnson's having existed is con 2 fined to two or three persons? Such, too, is the nature of military fame, that it obliterates all the folly and all the crimes of the possessor. The discriminating few, the criticisers of character, will, indeed, take these into account; but, with the people in general, and particularly those of the nation, to which the renowned soldier belongs, his deeds of valour only are remembered.Whence, then, arises this universal suffrage of mankind in favour of military heroes? Why are their deeds prized above those of all other men? Not because their profession demands more skill than that of others; not because it supposes hard study or great labour of any sort; not because it is thought to require an extraordinary degree of genius or of wisdom. Some have ascribed it to the terror inspired by military combats; but, we often admire those heroes most at whose deeds it is impossible we can have felt any terror. Others have ascribed it to the signal and extensive consequences produced in the world by the deeds of military commanders; but, the deeds of statesmen produce much more signal and more extensive consequences; and yet, these latter sink silently to the grave, and rot there, without ever being named by the common people of only the very next generation. To what, therefore, can we ascribe this universal preference of military fame before all other fame, but to that all-pervading and ever-predominating principle, the love of life, and the consequent admiration of those who voluntarily place their lives in the most frequent and most imminent danger? This principle exists, naturally, in the same degree, in every human breast; and, bravery consists, as was before said, simply in the capacity of subduing the love of life so far as knowingly, deliberately, and voluntarily to put it to risk. Hence it is, that we cannot refrain from admiring the hardihood of miners, well-sinkers, and the like; but, in them we justly ascribe a good deal to habit, to hard necessity, and, besides, we do not, in their case, see where and what is the immediate cause of their danger; but, in the case of the soldier, we clearly perceive this cause; we see him voluntarily going forth and marching on till he comes within reach of those, who, on their side, are advancing for the sole purpose of taking his life. In proportion as the readiness to hazard life exists in a country, that country is brave, and, consequently, in proportion to its numbers, powerful. How deeply sensible of this does our rivi and enemy appear to have been! Amongst all the changes and chances of the French revolution, there has never been a single day, when the rulers were not careful to reward and to honour those who had distinguished themselves by putting their lives to risk. The consequences we have seen, and now but too sensibly feel. We, on the contrary, seem to be using our utmost endeavours to extirpate every habit that tended to prepare the minds of the common people for deeds of military bravery. Am I told, that there are no boxers in France? I answer, that there never were; that their exercises and their combats were of another description; I have seen peasants in France turn out into a field, and cut one another with their sabres. But, if you extirpate boxing in England, can you substitute any other mode of exercise or combat in its stead? No; and that is not the object; the professed object is, to cry down and to put an end to, every species of exercise or of combat, in which life shall at all be put to the risk, or, indeed, in which bodily opposition and great bodily strength and a great capacity of bearing bo dily pain are acquired. Not only boxing, but wrestling, quarter-staff, single-stick, bull-baiting, every exercise of the common people, that supposes the possible risk of life or limb, and, of course, that tends to prepare them for deeds of bravery. of a higher order, and, by the means of those deeds and of the character and consequence naturally growing out of them, to preserve the independence and the liberties of their country; every such exercise seems to be doomed to extirpation. Even the very animals, for the bravery of which the nation has long been renowned, are to be destroyed, as men would destroy savage and ferocious. beasts. Every thing calculated to keep alive the admiration, and even the idea, of hardihood, seems to have become offensive ard odious in the sight of but too many of those, whose duty it is to endeavour to arrest, and not to accelerate, the fatal progress of effeminacy. That many of the persons so zealously engaged in supporting the system: of effeminacy (for such it may properly be called), are actuated by motives of tenderness for the common people there can be no doubt; but, while I must think, that such persons act without due reflection, I hesitate not to declare my belief, that those with. whom the system originated, and who are, the principal instigators of all the measures adopted for effting the entirpation of boxig and other hardy exercises, are actuated by motives far other than those of compas sion for the persons who are in the babit of being therein engaged. Let, however, what will be the motives, the consequences are, some of them, already obvious, and others it is by no mears difficult to foresee. That cuttings and stabbings are more fatal tha |