In a copy of werses I’ve called “The Lament.”
Be this as it may, here I’m ready and willing
This Bendy again to encounter at milling,
And perhaps if I once get him into a line,
Tho’ the first chance was his’n, the next may be mine.
That “next chance,” as Edgar Poe’s raven said, “never, never, never more” came to the turn of the Deaf’un, so far as regarded a meeting with Bendy, although he issued sundry invitations and offers. In March, 1840, occurred the accident to Bendigo, narrated at page 25, which struck the Nottingham hero from the list of “wranglers” for the Championship, and hereupon Burke again came to the front with a challenge. This was quickly responded to by Nick Ward, the younger brother of the renowned Jem. The match was made for the modest sum of £50 a side, and the day fixed for Tuesday, the 22nd September, 1840. The battle, which took place at Lillingstone Level, Oxfordshire, will be found in detail in the Life of Nick Ward, Chapter V. of the present volume.
Poor Burke’s day was gone by; unconquered in heart, his impaired physical powers failed him, and he fell before youth, activity, skill, and length. As we have mentioned in our memoir of Nick Ward that the stakeholder received notice of action for the stakes, it is but just to give the following vindication of the Deaf’un’s conduct as reported in a contemporary journal:—
“The Deaf’un Himself Again!—The Deaf’un took a benefit at the Bloomsbury Assembly Rooms on Tuesday evening, and, notwithstanding his late defeat, found a goodly number of friends, and ‘a strong turn’ in the financial department. The sets-to, although many of them between commoners, were amusing and effective, and conducted with great spirit and vigour. Among the most popular was that between Owen Swift and Maley, in which the quickness and scientific deliveries of the former were happily illustrated. At the conclusion the Deaf’un mounted the stage to ‘wind-up,’ but unfortunately, Caunt having forfeited his promise to appear, he was only opposed to a new beginner called ‘The Cumberland Youth,’ whose inexperience left the star of the night nothing to do but flap him at pleasure. The Deaf’un, after smoothing down his bristles with his dexter digits, and clearing his throat by sundry ‘hems,’ delivered himself of the following oration, which we took down as nearly as could be verbatim. ’Gemmen—I have dis here to say. I’m werry sory as Caunt has not come to sets-to wid me according to his promises, for he gave me his words of honours as he would attend; but dats de way wid dese here mens—when dey gets to the top of de trees, dey do nothing to help a poor fellow as is down; but dey had better minds what dey are abouts, or they’ll be as bad as Jack Scroggins, and look for a tanners when they can’t find it. Gemmen—I mean to say as I do not thinks as I was fairly beat by Bendigo, and I am prouds to say as I am not widout friends what tink de same, and as are ready to back me for a cool hundreds against him, or Nick Wards, or Jem Bailey. Bendigo is wery bounceable now, as he says he has licked me; but I says he took an unfair advantage in regard of my belt; but dats neither one ting nor toder; and if he has friends, if he’s a man, he’ll give me anoder chance, and till he does, I shall always thinks as he has won de belts widout any right to it. I went to Sheffields and Nottinghams to make a match wid him, and now let him show equal pluck and come to London to make a match wid me—my pewters is always ready (applause). Dat’s all I’ve got to say. Gemmen, I thank my friends and patrons for coming here to-night (coughing); but I’ve got something here (pointing to his throat, and the poor fellow appeared overflowing with gratitude) which won’t let me say no mores.’—It is not very creditable to the élite of the Fancy to have abstained from setting-to for the unfortunate fellow; for, although his ignorance may have led him to assume too much, the motto of all professed pugilists should be ‘forget and forgive;’ and ‘if a man’s in distress, like a man to relieve him.’”
In the years 1841–2, the magistracy and police, stimulated into abnormal activity by a sort of clerical crusade against the Ring “and all its works,” set the powers of the law in motion against pugilists and their patrons, and “all persons aiding and abetting in riotous and tumultuous assemblages calculated to produce a breach of the peace,” by issuing warrants, holding them to bail, and indicting them at the quarter sessions of the county wherein the same took place. Among the zealots of this Puritanical campaign against the amusements and relaxations of the people, the Rev. Joshua Cautley, curate of Broughton, in Bedfordshire, distinguished himself with the fervour of Ralpho, the squire of Sir Hudibras; though he, fortunately, escaped the cudgellings, rotten eggs, and stocks, which in rougher times befell his prototype. In an evil hour the Deaf’un came in contact with this clerical suppressor of “anti-knife” congregations, under the serio-comic circumstances we are about to narrate.
On the 9th of February, 1841, at Holcut, in Bedfordshire, an orderly assemblage surrounded a well-arranged inner-and-outer ring, within the latter of which Ned Adams, of London, and Dick Cain, of Leicester, were contending. At a critical period of the battle, the curate of Broughton, the Rev. Joshua Cautley, who was not, as all the “rurals” surrounding the ring well knew, either a magistrate in the commission of the peace, or in any way legally authorised to interfere, appeared at the ring-side in an excess of peace-preserving furor, and not only attempted to take Adams into custody (without any warrant), but cut the ropes with a knife, and behaved otherwise in an outrageous manner. He was afterwards aided by a police constable (John M’Hugh), and by the arrival of the Rev. Edward Orlebar Smith, a Justice of the Peace for Bedfordshire, previous to whose appearance on the scene certain of the country people present had certainly ejected Parson Cautley from the ring. The Rev. Justice of the Peace, as it appears, then put his fellow clergyman and himself on the right side of the law by reading—at a distance, and amidst immense confusion and the continuance of the battle—the Riot Act. The result of all this was that the zealous Parson Cautley procured, upon affidavit sworn by himself, the constable, and the Rev. Mr. Smith, the indictment of thirteen persons (six of them being his own neighbours) at the ensuing Bedford Quarter Sessions. The pugilists indicted were James Burke, Owen Swift, Edward Adams, and Richard Cain, Thomas Brown (the respected landlord of the “Swan,” at Newport Pagnell, who was there in charge of his post-horses and four-in-hand), Messrs. Mark Cross, William Maley (a solicitor), Joseph Goodwin, George Durham, Edward Dawkes, James Morris the younger, Martin Hughes (who died during the proceedings), and Richard Walter Chetwynd, Viscount Chetwynd, Baron Rathdowne. The indictment charged, in its first count, “that they, the defendants aforesaid, on the 9th day of February, 1841, in the parish of Holcut, in the county of Bedford, did then and there, together with other evil-disposed persons, whose names are unknown to the jurors aforesaid, unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assault Edward Orlebar Smith, clerk, one of the Justices of the Peace for the said County, and John M’Hugh, one of the constables of the Peace for the said County, and, then and there, did, in contempt of our said Lady the Queen and her laws, to the great terror, alarm, and disturbance of all the liege subjects of our said Lady the Queen thereabouts inhabiting and residing and being, passing and repassing, to the great damage of the said Edward Orlebar Smith and John M’Hugh, and against the peace of our said Lady the Queen her crown and dignity.” The second count in this formidable document, repeating the names and verbiage, included the same charges against the defendants for riot and assault on the person of the Rev. Joshua Cautley. The third count varied by specifying James Burke as the assailant of the Rev. Edward Orlebar Smith (whom he never touched in any way). The 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th counts merely varied in the names of the parties assaulted, by substituting “Smith” for “M’Hugh,” and “Cautley” for “Smith,” as the persons on whom “with force and arms,” the same defendants “did then and there beat, wound, and ill-treat, and do other wrong, to the great damage of the said E. O. Smith,” &c., &c., “and against the peace of our said Lady the Queen her crown and dignity.”