' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 341.
[629] I doubt the justice of my fellow-traveller's remark concerning the
French literati, many of whom, I am told, have considerable merit in
conversation, as well as in their writings. That of Monsieur de Buffon,
in particular, I am well assured, is highly instructive and
entertaining. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 253.
[630] Horace Walpole, writing of 1758, says:--'Prize-fighting, in which
we had horribly resembled the most barbarous and most polite nations,
was suppressed by the legislature.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_,
iii. 99. According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec._ p. 5), Johnson said that his
'father's brother, Andrew, kept the ring in Smithfield (where they
wrestled and boxed) for a whole year, and never was thrown or conquered.
Mr. Johnson was,' she continues, 'very conversant in the art of boxing.'
She had heard him descant upon it 'much to the admiration of those who
had no expectation of his skill in such matters.'
[631] See _ante_, ii. 179, 226, and iv. 211.
[632] See _ante_, p. 98.
[633] See _ante_, i, 110.
[634] See _ante_, i. 398, and ii. 15, 35, 441.
[635] Gibbon, thirteen years later, writing to Lord Sheffield about the
commercial treaty with France, said (_Misc. Works_, ii. 399):--'I hope
both nations are gainers; since otherwise it cannot be lasting; and such
double mutual gain is surely possible in fair trade, though it could not
easily happen in the mischievous amusements of war and gaming.
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