The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-12 00:00:00

PUGILISM.

EDWARD DONNELLY AND DANIEL COLLINS, FOB
251. asinu.—The pugilistic pretensions of a brace of
novices, so far as regards the London ring, could
hardly be expected to excite such general interest and
attention as the competitors of yesterday evidently
awakened; this, however, was mainly owing to the
high character which had gone before them. The
first-named man had the reputation of being the
champion of Glasgow and parts adjacent, and
unmatched by " any thing on two legs" at his
own weight, 9st. 111 b., or not to be particular,
had several times given away a stone or two, and
not regretted the advantage accorded to his huge
adversaries: These, of course, were mere hardy
roughs ; his last exploit was conquering James, of
Nottingham, whose defeat by Grant, was eclipsed by
Donnelly, for while one took one hour and a half,
Donnelly completed the same task in less than a third
of the time. Collins, on the other hand, stood high
in the esteem of many of the best judges of dawning►
merit, his height, and length of reach, together with
a remarkable aptitude in acquiring the cleverest
stops, bars, parries, and hits of the London
school, pointing him out as a likely one to
lower the pretensions, and baffla the efforts,
of the INorthern Star. Preliminaries arranged, a
steam trip was determined on, and the Dryad being
officially engaged, started from Waterloo-bridge on
her downward voyage at an early hour. An
adverse tide and several delays made it nearly one
o'clock when she brought to near Dartford Creek.
The men were soon in the ring. Donnelly esquired by
Macdonald, and Nick Ward, of Liverpool, Collins by
Walsh and his brother Charles. The attitude and
fighting style of Collins, who stood over his opponent
by more than two inches, was beautiful,
and his stops and parries remarkable for
their neatness. If his hitting occasionally
seemed to want power, perhaps from too much
practice in mimic fight and too little in actual com-
bat, he in some measure compensated for the defici-
ency by the skill and strength with which, in almost
every close, he threw his burly, broad-boned adver-
sary. Donnelly is, certainly, a most remarkable man,
and a most unlucky trial horse for any aspirant to
make his maiden essay on. To hands as hard as
granite he adds shortish arms of immense muscular
development, a back preternaturally broad, and loins
fit for

" Him who bore on shoulder poised
The earth's huge sphere."
His neck, too, and head, a cross of the taurine and
human, matched the rest of his frame. He struck us
as too fleshy, but that may be his habit. The fight
was remarkable throughout. Collins continually
popped, and popped his left on Donnelly's visage
without any very striking effect, but in the third
round managed to hit Donnelly off his legs with the
left, to the great delight of the Southwark lads. In
so doing he somewhat damaged his sinister fist.
The battle went on, each showing indomitable courage,
but Cellins, though the best wrestler, evidently
having less wear and tear than the stranger, till
it appeared at one time as if daylight would not
suffice to close the performance At length Donnelly's
stamina and lasting qualities were evidently tell-
ing their tale ; he turned the tables several times by
getting home heavily on Collius's ribs and cheekbone,
and, after several attempts on the part of the latter, to
get down for the purpose of compelling a " draw,"
on the plea of the approach of darkness, the referee
declared that Collins had fallen without a blow, and
therefore that Donnelly must be hailed as victor
The time was three hours and four minutes, and the
number of rounds 78. A paddle in the dark through
the marshes, a scramble down the boulder stones of
the river wall, a roll and a stumble into sundry
Gravesend and Purfleet skiffs out of the mud, a climb
up the steamer's side, and a night voyage to the
Blackwell terminus, completed the agremens of the
day's adventures.