“SIR,――I have long contemplated leaving the Ring altogether, and would not offer myself again to your notice, had you not inserted a challenge for the Championship, accompanied by a tempting stake; to which challenge I gave a suitable reply, stating at the time my readiness to fight the Unknown for £500, or a smaller sum――say £300 or £400 a side. I am not only willing to fight for the above sums, but to allow the Unknown three months to deliberate upon it. “I perceive that Deaf Burke calls himself ‘Champion of England,’ and offers to make a match with me for £100 a side. Considering that I am in business, such a sum is not worth contending for, especially as a considerable portion of it must be expended in training and other incidental expenses. If Deaf Burke means fighting me, I will accommodate him for £200 a side, and no less. Should this not meet his views in a reasonable time, my intentions are to retire from the Ring _in toto_; to that the Unknown and Deaf Burke will know what to do. JAMES WARD, Champion of England.” “Liverpool, October 2, 1833. The Deaf’un seemed now doomed to the sickness of “hope deferred.” He was too good for any of the 12-stone men except the Champion, whose price, even lowered to £200, was still too high for him. Numerous letters passed and repassed between O’Rourke and Burke; and on one occasion O’Rourke dragging in the name of Ward, Jem offered to stake £300 to O’Rourke’s £200 and fight him in Ireland. To this O’Rourke made no response, and soon after sailed for America. Ward then offered to meet Burke £300 to £200; but even at these odds the Deaf’un could not find backers, at which we need not be surprised when the comparative merits of the men were weighed in the balance. Burke, who had certainly, in addition to his great powers as a boxer, a fund of native and quaint comicality, now utilised his talent as a public exhibitor of models of statues from the antique, for which his athletic development well fitted him, alternating them with displays of the Art of Self-defence. In these tours, wherein his attendant or agent in advance was the well-known Tommy Roundhead, the trainer (whom the Deaf’un dubbed his “Secretary”), Burke visited Wales, Bristol, and the West, and subsequently the Midlands and the North. An incidental notice in a newspaper published in “the Potteries” gives us a peep at the Deaf’un on his travels.