Part 12 (2/2)

Evil example, when thus sanctioned by apparent respectability, and by the dazzling blandishment of rank and fas.h.i.+on, is so intoxicating to those who have either suddenly acquired riches, or who are young and inexperienced, that it almost ceases to be a matter of wonder that the fatal propensity to Gaming should become universal; extending itself over all ranks in Society in a degree scarcely to be credited, but by those who will attentively investigate the subject.

At the commencement of the troubles in France, and before this Country was visited by the hordes of Emigrants of all descriptions, who fixed a temporary or permanent residence in this Metropolis, the number of Gaming-Houses (exclusive of those that are select, and have long been established by Subscription,) did not exceed above _four_ or _five_: In the year 1797, not less than _thirty_ were said to be actually open; where, besides _Faro_ and _Hazard_, the foreign games of _Roulet_, and _Rouge et Noir_, were introduced, and where there existed a regular gradation of establishment, accommodating to all ranks; from the man of fas.h.i.+on, down to the thief, the burglar, and the pick-pocket--where immense sums of money were played for every evening, for eight months in the year.[36]

[Footnote 36: The latter part of the Affidavit, already mentioned, also ill.u.s.trates these a.s.sertions, and proves that they are but too well founded: It states--”That Gaming-Houses have increased to such a degree, that there were lately not less than six in one street near the Hay-Market, at all which persons stood at the door to entice pa.s.sengers to play--That the generality of persons keeping these houses are _prize-fighters_, and persons of a desperate description, who threaten a.s.sa.s.sination to any person who will molest them.”]

In a commercial Country, and in a great Metropolis, where from the vast extent of its trade and manufactures, and from the periodical issue of above Twenty Millions annually, arising from dividends on funded security, there must be an immense circulation of property, the danger is not to be conceived, from the allurements which are thus held out to young men in business, having the command of money, as well as to the clerks of merchants, bankers, and others concerned in different branches of trade: In fact, it is well known, that too many of this cla.s.s resort at present to these destructive scenes of vice, idleness, and misfortune.[37]

[Footnote 37: The same Affidavit further states--”That the princ.i.p.al Gaming Houses at the West end of the Town have stated days on which they have luxurious dinners, (Sunday being the chief day,) to which they contrive to get invited merchants' and bankers' clerks, and other persons intrusted with money; and that it has been calculated, (and the calculation was believed not to be over-rated,) that the expences attendant on such houses, amounted to .150,000 yearly, and that the keepers of such houses, by means of their enormous wealth, bid defiance to all prosecutions, some of them having acquired from 50 to .100,000 each; considerable estates have been frequently won by them in the course of one sitting.”]

The mind shrinks with horror at the existence of a System in the Metropolis, unknown to our ancestors, even in the worst periods of their dissipation; when a _Ward_, a _Waters_, and a _Chartres_, insulted public morals by their vices and their crimes: for then no regular Establishments--no systematic concerns for carrying on this nefarious trade, were known.--No Partners.h.i.+ps in Gaming-Houses, were conducted with the regularity of Commercial Houses.

But these Partners.h.i.+ps have not been confined to Gaming-Houses alone.

A considerable proportion of the immense capital which the conductors of the System possess, is employed periodically in the _two Lotteries_, in _Fraudulent Insurances_, where, like the Faro Bank, the chances are so calculated as to yield about 30 per cent. profit to the Gambling proprietors; and from the extent to which these transactions have been, and we fear still are carried, no doubt can be entertained that the annual gains must be immense.--It has, indeed, been stated, with an appearance of truth, that a single individual acquired no less than .60,000 during one English Lottery!

Although it is impossible to be perfectly accurate in any estimate which can be formed; for in this, as in all other cases where calculations are introduced in this Work, accuracy to a point is not to be expected; yet when all circ.u.mstances are considered, there appear just grounds to suppose that the following Statement, placing the whole in one connected point of view, may convey to the Reader no very imperfect idea of the vast and unparalleled extent to which this horrid mischief had arrived; and to which, if not closely watched, it may yet rise once more.

GAMING.

Persons Money Yearly attached. played aggregate for lost and nightly. won.

1. 7 Subscription Houses open one-third of the Year, or 100 nights _suppose_ 1000 2000 1,400,000

2. 15 Houses of a superior cla.s.s one-third of the Year, or 100 nights ---- 3000 2000 3,000,000

3. 15 Houses of an inferior cla.s.s one-half of the Year, or 150 Nights ---- 3000 1000 2,225,000

4. 6 Ladies' Gaming Houses 50 Nights ---- 1000 2000 600,000 --------- 7,215,000

FRAUDULENT INSURANCES IN THE LOTTERY.

350 Insurance Offices at 100_l._ a day average, during the 33 days of the Irish Lottery 1,155,000

400 Insurance Offices at 150_l._ a day average, during the 33 days[38] of the English Lottery 1,980,000 --------- 3,135,000 ---------- Total 10,460,000 ----------

[Footnote 38: The longer the Lottery continues, the greater the evil.

A Lottery of 60,000 Tickets is therefore a much greater evil than one of 50,000: and that in a ratio more than proportionate to the numbers in each.]

This aggregate is only to be considered as shewing the mere interchange of property from one hand to another; yet when it is recollected that the operation must progressively produce a certain loss, with not many exceptions, to all the innocent and unsuspecting adventurers either at Pharo or the Lottery, with an almost uniform gain to the proprietors; the result is shocking to reflect upon.--To individual families in easy circ.u.mstances where this unfortunate mania prevails, as well as to the ma.s.s of the people who are fascinated by the delusion of the Lottery Insurances, it is the worst of all misfortunes.--By seizing every opportunity to take advantage of this unhappy bias, it is no uncommon thing to see the pennyless miscreant of to-day become the opulent gambler of to-morrow: leaving the unhappy sufferers often no alternative but exile, beggary, or a prison; or perhaps, rendered desperate by reflecting on the folly of their conduct, to end their days by suicide,[39] while wives, children, and dependants are suddenly reduced from affluence to the lowest abyss of misery.

[Footnote 39: The Gambling and Lottery transactions of one individual in this great Metropolis, are said to be productive of from ten to fifteen suicides annually.]

In contemplating these vast establishments of regular and systematic fraud and depredation upon the Public, in all the hideous forms which they a.s.sume, nothing is so much to be lamented as the unconquerable spirit which draws such a mult.i.tude of the lower ranks of Society into the vortex of the Lottery.

The agents in this iniquitous System, availing themselves of the existence of the delusion, spare no pains to keep it alive; so that the evil extends far and wide, and the mischiefs, distresses, and calamities resulting from it, were it possible to detail them, would form a catalogue of sufferings of which the opulent and luxurious have no conception.

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