until at length Rugby football will be a popular profession, with possibly a shred of amateurs, the sole relics of the past, as an appendage.
Nothing, to my mind, can be more instructive than the course which events have run in the Association game since they sanctioned professionalism. Theories are disputable, facts incontestable; and however strong an opinion in favour of the recognition of professionalism may be entertained by some, they cannot help, after they have read the statistics below, confessing that the wave of professionalism has advanced with astonishing rapidity, and that it has swept amateurism before it in its headlong progress.
The Football Association in 1872 founded a cup competition. This is admittedly the great contest of the year, and all the best clubs of the day are engaged in it. Below I give the names of the clubs left in to contest the final tie since the institution of the cup:—
1872. Wanderers and Royal Engineers.
1873. Wanderers and Oxford University.
1874. Oxford University and Royal Engineers.
1875. Royal Engineers and Old Etonians.
1876. Wanderers and Old Etonians.
1877. Wanderers and Oxford University.
1878. Wanderers and Royal Engineers.
1879. Old Etonians and Clapham Rovers.
1880. Clapham Rovers and' Oxford University.
1 88 1. Old Carthusians and Old Etonians.
1882. Old Etonians and Blackburn Rovers.
1883. Blackburn Olympic and Old Etonians.
1884. Blackburn Rovers and Queen's Park.
1885. Blackburn Rovers and Queen's Park.
1886. Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion.
1887. Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion.
