The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-24 00:00:00

How COLD IT HAS BEEN.—NEGRETTI
and ZAMBRA'A reltbrated TiIIiRMOURTERB will oor
rectly register the lowest temperature. Price Ja. —l, Ration-
s mien . 59, Cornh ; 153, Ytret-street : and ltt, Regent-street.
Agents wanted.

Vie entreoo.

TO cOILEIIISPONDKNTS.

,dvertilemassta Intended i fee /tie Urea • Leaden llealag
Payer, mast be at tbe dim to, Beaveetewtreee, by Two
o'clock oa Ile day of pabbosetas.

HAYkLUtiCET.

ON •A'NOLDBY vurneTbri AIISRICAN COTNIN. Melon
hotherd Buckstone, Chippendale, Gordon, Rogers, Callenford,
Clark; Mesdames Angel end Also ordon.—And KI NG AR MCP.
Mr. Compton , Mesdames L Keeley, Leary, landle), Brongh.

EXCWIL

O SiTCRDAT Emir% Slit Coil. CHILD. Mr. Wlddicomb
aid Moe P. leeletcq.—BllL DM MONIO. • Love Story. Moors.
Pee Met, Bream, Desert Merles. and Jordan ; Maus
Terry. LITMII4I,-1124 sad Mom. Lee.

aniTmorm,,

try SOVITAT MORIIIIIIO-11i72711nd in the Evening. the Nen
PAntomime If ICKOSY, DICHORY, DOCK. Kra S. Lane and
tirit rate rantom mista—The Marvels of Peru. THE GREAT
GUUST k:lPECT.—lrtlitu and Bertrand.—The Fairy Fountain.

HIGH WA AT LONDON BILIDGIL
22111 DAT leauleg, lb. Ms_ .Araressa. 112. On.
fo4KODON..Msavibt& lb 7m Wassersa. Th. Va.

LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24.

KING and Elms; the principals in the prize
fight at Wadhurst, with their seconds and other
eiders and abettors in that encounter, have been
taken before a Bench of Sussex Magistrates, who,
after hearing the testimony of a number of
wittiness of the fight, have bound them over
to appear to answer any indictment that may
be preferred against them at the next Quarter
Sessions. As the law on the subject of
prize fights is very stringent, and as the evi-
dence taken last Tuesday was very clear, it may
seem at a first glance that the accused parties are
in some peril. A slight examination of the pro-
ceedings before the magistrates is sufficient to re-
move this impression, and to show that nothing
more than a formal homage to the law has been
paid. Even in the act of committing the de-
fendants, Mr. DONALD BARCLAY, the presiding
magistrate, observed that he would not say that
there was anything particularly reprehensible
in what the men had done, but that persons were
not to commit illegal acts with impunity. We
confess we do not quite understand the proceedings
of the Sussex Bench as they stand in the light of
this remark. If it is meant that the law which
condemns prize-fighting is to be put in motion
simply because it is law, just as we sometimes see
busybodies put some obsolete statute in force to
the distress of harmless people, it is a great pity
that the magistrates cannot perceive that the dig-
nity of the law is lowered when it is employed to
vex individuals without any corresponding good to
society. It is only upon the supposition that the
purpose of the crowd of persons which assembled
at Wadhurst on the 10th inst. was reprehensible,
that Kum and Haessrl and their friends could
properly be subjected to the trouble and annoy-
ance of being made to appear before the Bench.

But in truth, no amount of real and sincerity
in the promoters would save this prosecution
from the reproach of futility and unfairness.
No one, however disposed to condemn the
recent fight, can desire to see the offence
visited upon the poor men who on that occasion
beat and bruised one another for the amusement
of their betters. As KING'S advocate unanswer-
ably urged : " Whatever the feeling of the Sussex
" magistrates might be in the matter, it was quite
" clear that great favour and countenance was
" given in certain high quarters to men in the
" position of the defendants, and some allowance
" ought, therefore, to be made for those who,
" rising invariably from a most humble and
" obscure position in life, were made so much of
"by those who so largely supported them. No
" one could fail to see that persona of rank and
" position did attend such fights, and that was an
" additional reason which should induce the Bench
" to deal lightly with those who had been 'elected
" for punishment." This is notoriously true, It
is not merely that people of exalted social rank
sanction prize fights, but that persons of high
authority in the State countenance them by their
language if not by their presence. Lord Per,
maxerroN, replying in the House of Commons to a
member who had spoken of a prize fight as if it
were something which all acknowledge to be
wrong, observed that the spectacle was no more
immoral than a balloon ascent. The House
answered with approving laughter. Probably not
one of the laughers valued Lord Par.mmurrox'a
opinion on a point of morality, but it was instantly
felt that • valve had been opened, and that the
pressure of public opinion which bad so long kept
prize-fighting down, had been sensibly weakened.
In like manner the influence of some of our
cleverest public writers has been carried over to
the prize ring. Some of these advocate it in plain
terms as an institution deserving of the encou-
ragement of society and the protection of the law.
Advocacy of this order perhaps does more to
arouse opposition than to make converts. Still,
the sanction thus given to • sport which is de-
scribed by one not unfriendly critic as more
revolting than • bull fight, and having
less excuse than • duel, ia welcome to those who
want an excuse for what they suspect to be wrong.
A far more effectual way of encouraging the
prize ring has been followed by a contemporary
of great influence. This consists in kindling the
largest amount of public interest in it by publishing
conspicuously, and in disregard of a long-standing
tacit convention of the respectable newspaper press,
elaborate and exciting descriptions of every battle
in which first-class men are engaged. Of course
the decent ending of each report is a confident pre-
diction that the battle described is the last of the
kind that can ever take place, a strong opinion that
a prize fight is a disgusting and debasing exhibition,
and a stereotyped exclamation Vast it would be
easier to restore the sports of the arena than to
revive the prize ring. And there can be no doubt
that for many readers this cheap tribute to shallow
sentimentis all that is necessary to entitle reports
of prize fights to • place among edifying and
improving literature.

Let us indulge no illusions on this subject. There
is no need to revive the prize ring. That institu-
tion enjoys an amount and kind of support such
as it has never before known in England. The
Prime Minister pleads for it. The House of
Commons smiles oa it. The Chief Commissioner
of Police sends his men to facilitate its arrange-
ments. The Railways are at its service. The
Press supports it. Above all, it pays. A
thousand persons are found to give three
guineas each for the privi'ege of being car-
ried to it in the dark early hours of a cold winter's
morning. And the newspaper which gives the

best account of the battle sells more evils than '
when it reported the victory of the Alias or the
taking of Sebastopol. The state of public feeling
which these facts imply is infinitely more serious
than the physical suffering sustained by the com-
batants, or the shock given to the nerves of
country justices by the invasion of their domain.
And it is one which criminal prosecu-
tions can do nothing to correct. There is
not the slightest reason for believing that the
judgment of the reflecting public concerning prize
' tights has undergone the least change during the
hit three years. But in every large community
there is a considerable amount of latent black-
guardism not at all inconsistent with literary
education and the "language of gentlemen,"
which chafes and frets under the restraints of the
public conscience, and watches its opportunity to
break loose. The revival of the prize ring, like
the apologies openly made for slavery and the
public extenuation of irregular unions in the place
of marriages, is a sign of the times. It betokens
not so much a reaction and demoralization of public

opinion as a temporary disorganization of the
moral forces of society which, until lately, operated
for its restraint. In this respect it is worthy of
public attention.