HC Deb 24 February 1860 vol 156 cc1722-3
MR. HADFIELD

said, he rose to call attention to the Petition of the Inhabitants of Sudbrook Park, Petersham, and Ham, complaining of a meditated breach of the peace in England by a pugilistic contest between a British subject and an American citizen for the so-called Championship of England, and the consequences likely to arise therefrom; and to inquire of the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the notices of the contemplated proceedings in the public Newspapers, and whether he intends to take measures to put down the intended disturbance of the public peace. He felt confident that the Government would do all that was possible to prevent further proceedings in relation to the disgraceful contest which he saw by the newspapers had been arranged to take place between a British and an American subject. The petitioners deprecated the very vicious consequences that would arise from such an exhibition. It appeared that both the time and place of the contest were tolerably well known, and the petitioners, therefore, looked to the House of Commons to take proper measures for the purpose of preventing an exhibition so contrary to the moral and religious sense of the community at large. While the wreck of the Birkenhead and the defence of Lucknow were remembered, it needed no such brutal exhibitions to prove either the courage or the powers of endurance of our fellow-subjects. He, therefore, wished to know whether the public might rely upon the Home Secretary doing his best to prevent an exhibition so brutal and so demoralizing to the rising generation as this contest between the so-called Champion of England and the "Benicia Boy."