which has flourished under the patronage of her
hereditary legislators and other "Corinthian" supporters. The pugilistic
dynasty came in with the House of Brunswick, and has held divided empire
with it ever since. The Briton who claims Chatham's language as his
mother-tongue may appropriate the dialect of the ring as far more truly
indigenous than the German-French of his every-day discourse. Of the
three Burkes whose names are historical, the orator is known to but a
few hundred thousands. The prize-fighter, with his interesting personal
infirmity, is the common property of the millions, and would have headed
the list in celebrity, but for that other of the name who added a new
invention to the arts of industry and enriched the English language with
a term which bids fair to outlive the reputation of his illustrious
namesake. Around the professors and heroes of the art of personal
violence are collected the practitioners of various callings less
dignified by the manly qualities they demand. The Gangs of Three that
waylay the solitary pedestrian,--the Choker in the middle, next the
victim who is to be strangled and cleaned out,--the larger guilds of
Hustlers who bonnet a man and beat his breath out of him and empty his
pockets before he knows what is the matter with him,--the Burglars, with
their "jimmies" in their pockets,--the fighting robbers, with their
brass knuckles,--the whole set in a vast thief-constituency, thick as
rats in sewers,--these were the disputants whom the emissaries of the
Slave Power called upon to refute the arguments of the Brooklyn
clergyman.

It was not pleasant to move in streets where such human rattlesnakes and
cobras were coiling and lying in wait. Great cities are the
poison-glands of civilization everywhere; but the secretions of those
hideous crypts and blind passages that empty themselves into the
thoroughfares of English towns are so deadly, that, but for her penal
colonies, England, girt by water, as the scorpion with flame, would
perish, self-stung, by her own venom. The legates of the great
Anti-Civilization have colonized England, as England has colonized
Botany Bay. They know the venal ruffianism of the fist and bludgeon, as
well as that of the press. Fortunately, they are short of funds, or Mr.
Beecher might have disappeared after the manner of Romulus, and never
have come to light, except in the saintly fashion of relics,--such as
white finger-rings and breastpins, like those