“MR. EDITOR,――I respectfully ask that you will admit into your columns this declaration on my part: That my match with Langham is the result of a dispute that can only be settled, so far as I am concerned, by an appeal to the fists. That the articles will be strictly abided by on my part, and that so far from throwing any impediment in the way of the match it is my anxious desire to bring it to an issue in the Ring. Thus far, I beg my friends will take my assurance of ‘honourable intentions.’ Were they but aware of the personal nature of the affair, such assurance would not be needed; but, as many must necessarily be unacquainted with its cause of origin, it is due to my own character to take the course I have now done in writing to you an emphatic statement of my intentions, which I solemnly assert are unalterable, until that result comes to pass which shall prove either me or my antagonist the better man. “Yours, &c., BENJAMIN CAUNT. “‘Coach and Horses,’ St. Martin’s Lane, London, May 27th, 1857.” To which the editor adds:―― “Ben has also paid us a personal visit, and repeated the statements contained in his letter, and in addition has given up all claim to the forfeit, which, from the first, we believe was not his own doing.” The atmosphere thus cleared, all went on serenely, the _bona fides_ of the match, which had been sorely doubted and even ridiculed in sporting circles, being now placed beyond dispute. If “there is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous,” however many gradations there may be before arriving at the last step but one, we think the reader will agree that it was taken by Caunt in the affair we will now briefly relate. In the month of June Tom Sayers (see Life of SAYERS, _post_) beat the “Old Tipton Slasher” (Wm. Perry) in a battle for the Championship and the “Belt,” from all claim to which Caunt had years before publicly retired. Among the challengers of Sayers’s remarkable position as a 10-stone Champion we find――_risum teneatis, amici?_――Caunt, although then engaged in articles with an 11-stone man. Ben shall here speak for himself:―― “_To the Editor of_ ‘BELL’S LIFE IN LONDON.’ “SIR,――Unaccustomed as I am to public challenging, long laid upon the shelf as I have been, it may perchance startle the sporting world to learn that Ben Caunt is once more a candidate for the Championship. Win or lose with Langham, I challenge Tom Sayers for £200 a side and the Championship, the contest to take place within six months of my forthcoming fight. My money is ready at your office, and I trust that this offer will be accepted, in order that the world may be as speedily as possible undeceived with regard to the merits of the much-vaunted new school of British boxing.