Star.
London, England, 1822-12-07 00:00:00

LAWRENCE V. WINTER.-PUGILISTIC AFFRAY.

This was an action to recover damages for an as-
sault committed by the defendant upon the plaintiff.
Mr. Serjeant PELL stated the case to the Jury,
from which it appeared that the plaintiff, a married
man, and father of four children, was by trade a law-
stationer, and, as appeared, by inclination an ama-
teur, at least, of the fancy. The defendant, whose'
real name is IVinter, but whose fancy-appellation is'
Spring, is well-known in the sporting world as a ce-
lebrated pugilist. He is also the keeper of the Wey-
mouth Arms public-house, Weymouth-.street. The
dispute between plaintiff and defendant arose out of
a fight between two pugilists named Stockman and
Brown, to the latter of whom Spring or Winter had
acted as second. The fight took place near Uxbridge.
On the return of the parties to London, they met at
the Plough public-house, near Bayswater. A general
conversation arose here respecting the conduct of
the combatants, which ended in the defendant's
calling the plaintiff a d—d liar, and, as if in punish-
ment of so odious a practice, struck him several
blows with a stick, which cut him severely on the
head. Not being a match for his assailant at such
weapons, he wisely called to his aid those of the law,
and brought the present action. To prove this
James Farrell said, I am the brother-in-law of the
plaintiff. I went with him to see the boxing match
at Uxbridge. We stopped on our way back, at the
Plough, near Bayswater. Winter I saw at the fight,
he was the second of Brown ; Lawrence took no
part in the fight. Lawrence and I took two or three
pints of porter between us at the Plough. We were
both sober ; we were sitting at the door of the pub-
lic-house when Winter came up. A conversation
arose respecting the men who fought : Lawrence as-
serted
that Brown had bit Stockman in the fight,
upon which the defendant told him he lied, and on
his persisting in the assertion, said he was a d—d,
liar. Plaintiff said if he, defendant, said that Brown
did not bite Stockman, he was a liar. Winter
then struck him several blows with a stick, which
cut him severely, and the blood flowed down in
streams on each side his head. Plaintiff was unable
to attend to his business for a few days, in conse-
quence of the severe usage defendant gave him.
Cross-examined by Serjeant VAUGHAN.—We drank
only beer on our way home. lam positive that de-
fendant gave the lie first. Winter is the name of the
defendant, but he is better known by the name of
Spring.—This was the plaintiff's case.
Mr. Serjeant VAUGHAN, for the defendant, con-
tended that this was not a case which called for da-
mages. The plaintiff, who, they were told, had a
wife and four children, and who, they would admit,
might from that circumstance have employed his
time much better than going 15 miles out of town to
see a fight, went to witness one of those pugilistic
contests, and on his way home got into a squabble,
which, according to his own witness, he commenced
by saying that the man whom defendant seconded
had acted unfairly. Now, that was an insult to the
second, and the plaintiff brought the consequences
on himself.

Mr. Justice Buanoucx summed up, and observed,
that whoever attended at those fights had a right to
express his opinion of what passed there, and the
plaintiff only expressed his, when he was wantonly
assaulted by the defendant. With respect to fights
of the kind which they went to see, they were illegal,
and unfortunately of late there had been very fatal
consequences attending them. By a late Act, how-
ever, the Judges were empowered to extend the pu-
❑ishment of manslaughter arising from such fights,
according to the circumstances of the case, and he
believed, in some instances, to transportation. At to
the damages in the present case, the Jury would con-
sider it was not one which called for anything like
heavy damages, but the plaintiff was entitled to his
costs, at all events.--The Jury, after consulting to-
gether for five minutes, found a verdict fot the plain-
tiff—Damages £lO, and costs.