The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-05-08

public of commerce and place them in the ath
both nations exclaiming, "Let 1t be carried
out"
Prize Fighting ON u Large Scslc-The Great
Bruisers Of EurOpc-A Theme for Preachers
ard AnnsvcTsarfans.
Though pugilism l. in high favor With large
number Of people in this country, and in Eng
land 1t is sort of national pastime, it is con
dewned by the clergy, the moralists and the laws
in both countries The British police make
great efforts to capture the bellgerents and
bring them to justice. Our own police at least
pretend to do their utmost to put a stop to each
prize fight as 1t turns up. Not satisfied with the
ordinary laws which, directed against assaults and
riotous assemblages, necessarily include bruis-
ing" the Legislature, in view of the brutal ex-
hibition between Heenan and Morrissey, in Cana
da last fall, recently passed special act Of
more stringent nature, analogous to that against
duellipg, making it serious offence to give
or accept bruising challenge, to set on
foot aid or abet or be present at a
prize fight in this State; and in order to guard
against evasion of the law, 1t Is further provided
that to leave the State to fight, or
to he present at fight, incurs an infrac
ton of the statute for which the transgressors
are to be severely punished. Notwithstanding
this law, John Heenan, the champion of America
1--WE may go call him, for he has challenged to
6sticufls all the bruisers of the United States,
'all the world and the rest of mankind" as that
old fighting cock Zachary Taylor would say)-
Heenan has addressed specific challenge to
Tom Sayers, the champion of England, 10
order to test the question whether that
est and most scientific hitter-the mau
of best bottom, who can receive as well
as give the most pummelling. This fight is,
therefore, to be for the championship of the
world; and o most frightful designation of 'the
human face divine" may be expected, if not the
death Of one of the combatants It is dis
gusting, horrible exhibition, revolving to hu-
mainly morality and religion; and we do not
wonder that strong law has been passed against
it in this State, and that the clergy should de-
nounce it from the pulpit. We hope the great
guns of the anniversaries, both in England and
here, will not forget it during the coming week
while they discourse so eloquently about the
dark and dismal immoralities of the far distant
heather.
But there is another "affair" coming of, if it
has not already begun-a setto on large
scale-which casts into the shade the battle of
Morrissey and Keenan, the coming event of
Heenan and Sayers, and indeed all the puglistic
encounters combined which have ever taken
place since the beginning of the world, or may
yet take place till "the crack of DOOM"
Not merely will one or two faces be shattered in
this ize fight, but thousands upon thousands of
human beings will be cut, and mangled, and MAIN
ed, and mutilated in every part of the body-hu-
Uan brains will be dashed out and scattered over
the earth; the iron hoofs of the war-horse will
trample down the already wounded, grooming
and agonised human form; the sabre and the
bayonet will dispose of those missed by the
musket, the mimic rife, and the cannon, with
its grape shot and canister, its shrapnel
and spherical case, its solid round shot and
bursting shells, together with all the modern
inventions of diabolical ingenuity by which
the human body may be tortured and human
life may be destroyed on a most extensive
scale. Nor does the suffering stop with the car
mage and slaughter of the battlefield, or even
with Ae innocent women and children of
stormed and sacked cities, when men become
more cruel and msroiless than tigers and
hyenas, and equal in atrocity to the
foul fiends below; the slain have wives and chill
dren, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters
and long is the wall of the widow and orphan
heard in the land after the smoke of the battle
field is cleared away. Then, the taking of 80
many men from their legitimate pursuits who
must be fed and clothed by the industry of
others-the tremendous expense in every way of
campaign-the destruction of vast property
the result of the labor of so many men, lost to
the human family-the consequent poverty, the
depression in business, the national bankruptcy,
the misery and often the starvation and fever the
discomfort and instructions of the people, and
the harsh repression employed in selfdefence by
their despotic understanding more wretched-
ness and further loss of life and limb-all these
are the fruits Of glorious war, which appear
beautiful to the eye, but, like those of the Dead
Sea, turn to bitter ashes on the lips.
A prize fight on large scale, involving these
sufferiDgs and calamities, has been long threat
ened; and we have not heard as yet of any thun-
derbolts of divine vengeance being launched
from the pulpit against the crowned bruisers.
Wa hnIiayo tha ,bak Ia,
and still we do not hear of any denunciations
Of the fearful iniquity A challenge has been
sent by Francis Joseph of Austria to Vic
tor Emmanuel Of Sardinia, to "come to the
scratch in "three days." and Louis Napoleon,
OF France, second Of the bruiser Victor En-
manuel, is "going in" while England, Prussia
and Russia, standing at short distance in
EARNED neutrality" and looking on with ap-
parent dignity and great adherence of war,