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If they go thither to play, it is because they scheme into successful operation was a loan expect to win. That a few do leave Hom- of ten thousand francs, which he obtained. burg richer than they arrived is just possible, A fortnight after he had started for Homburg, and even probable; but they are exceedingly M. Gourdon received a letter from him, dated rare exceptions to the general rule. A player from a frontier town and which ran thus:may win for a time; if so, he will persevere "I have arrived from Germany, having left, in the hope of continuing to win, and in the you know where, the money I took along with end will assuredly lose both his winnings and me. Want of money has forced me to stop something to boot. He may possess sufficient here. I require a hundred franc in order to resolution to stop after a fortunate stroke; return to Paris, and I beg that you will forward yet he will certainly return to the room again, them to me. He added in a postscripteither on the next day or during another sea- Pray excuse my being without four sous son, and then the company will have its re- wherewith to prepay this letter." The next venge. The greatest and saddest of delusions time M. Gourdon saw him, he said that he is the belief entertained by many that wealth bad reconsidered his system, and discovered can be acquired by gaming. At such games wherein it was defective, On this M. Gouras roulette and rouge-et-noir the beginner has don remarks—“ he could hardly have spoken the same chances as the adept; experience otherwise of a simple error of addition.”— neither gives skill nor teaches prudence. (pp. 225-6). But it is unnecessary to argue the question; how can the original shareholders in the Homburg Gaming Company have received yearly dividends at the rate of one hundred and fifty per cent. on their capital, if those who game carry away much money with them?

When Don Quixote was preparing to set. out as a knight-errant, he furbished up an old suit of armor which had been used by his ancestors, and which he found in his garret. Unfortunately, the helmet was incomplete, there being only a simple headpiece without a beaver. This defect he supplied by forming and fastening to the helmet a vizor of

Just as some men continually delude themselves into the conviction that they have suc-pasteboard. He next proceeded to try the ceeded either in squaring the circle, or in discovering a means for producing perpetual motion, so do others work themselves into believing that they have invented a system of play, which, if practiced, will render losing impossible, and winning a certainty. M. Gourdon assures us, what we can readily believe, that numbers of monomaniacs of the latter kind are to be met with in Paris. He was acquainted with one of them. This was a man, twenty-five years of age, who was well connected, and had been well educated. All the works treating of games of chance he had carefully studied, and thoroughly mastered every system that had been devised. He calculated chances, grouped figures, weighed, so to speak the imponderable, and arrived at conclusions in favor of his own theory with a confidence, a logic, and a precision altogether astonishing. No professor of mathematics could have solved a problem more clearly and satisfactorily. Not only could he demonstrate the goodness of his system, but could incontrovertably explain wherefore the systems of his predecessors had disappointed their expectations. All that he required to put his

strength of the helmet by smiting it with his sword. The first stroke clove it in twain; thereupon, he substituted an iron plate for the pasteboard vizor. As the helmet now seemed sufficiently strong, he thought it needless to test its strength, so placing it on his head he sallied forth to aid and succor the helpless and the distressed. Now a systemmonger acts precisely like Don Quixote. Having invented a system whereby he will infallibly win money at play, he tests it practically, and is beggared in consequence. Detecting the causes of failure, he ingeniously removes them, and thus renders his system perfect in his estimation. Satisfied with its theoretical perfection, he studiously avoids a second mischance and disappointment by again testing it practically. Instead of doing this, he becomes a knight-errant on behalf of luckless gamesters. He publishes his system that they may adopt it, and thus become enlightened and enriched. There are always to be found plenty of unthinking men and women who eagerly purchase every pamphlet professing to contain an infallible receipt for making a fortune by gaming. These

pamphlets are generally sold in sealed covers, | that a succession of unfortunate strokes will and for very high prices; the titles of two of empty his purse, and thus he will be prethem head this article.

cluded by lack of funds from attaining those, results which J. H. B. proclaims to be within the reach of every qualified practitoner of his system.

J. H. B., the author of one of the pamphlets, is very exacting in the qualifications which must be possessed by the gamester who can reasonably hope for success. He must be cool, calculating, prudent; must never lose his temper, and must never despair. He must play a well-considered game, a game which provides for every emergency, and is suited for coping with unexpected mishaps. It is only on condition of his being so qualified, and being master of such a game, that he "ceases to be a gamester and becomes a speculator." Hence, to purchase J. H. B.'s pamphlet may avail little; to master his system may be time thrown away, seeing that only a chosen few can use that system with effect. But something more than brilliant personal qualities are requisite: "An isolated player whose means are limited cannot gain real and lasting advantages in spite of all the prudence, skill, and strategy he may possess and manifest; sooner or later he must succumb." To sadden the prospect still more, J. H. B. emphatically assures his readers that the greatest illusion they can entertain, the one which will certainly endanger their repose and their purses, is for them to suppose that without funds to start with they will be other than losers in the end. "With a few florins, or even a few hundreds of florins, and the best of all possible systems, there is nothing to gain, and everything to fear from games of chance." The minimum with which they can begin is seven hundred, and the maximum four thousand florins. By acting on his advice in the employment of these sums, they will be increased tenfold in the twin-"Let all gamesters come to me, make a comkling of an eye. What, then, is the pith of his system? It is simply to do in a complicated manner what others have done to their cost in a simpler manner: increase the stake after every loss, and diminish it after every gain. Thus, if three florins are staked and lost, four must be staked the next time; if The Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, with the four are lost, then five must be staked, whose consent the gaming-house was estaband so on. On the other hand, if three flor-lished in his capital, who profits by the ruin ins are staked and an equal number won, two of the visitors to the rooms, and whose minare withdrawn, the remainder being staked; ister supervises the company's affairs, can if the result of the next stroke be in favor of neither believe in the dictum ascribed to Nathe player, he again withdraws two, and, in poleon the First, nor in the possibility of a fact, continues to do so after every successful gamester growing rich, since every inhabitant stroke. The danger, nay, the certainty is, of Homburg is forbidden, under very heavy

"A Retired Attorney" professes to have discovered a more practicable way than that chalked out by J. H. B. for becoming enriched by gaming. The gamester who embraces the attorney's system need not bring to the practice of it either extraordinary cloverness or uncommon self-command. According to him it is an exceedingly easy thing to acquire wealth by frequenting a gaming-room. To ensure success, however, it is indispensable to avoid being excessively impatient and precipitate. In other words, while showing how money can be made, he expresses disapproval of making it too rapidly. No one need hope to do more than augment his capital fiftyfold within the period of six months. He agrees with J. H. B. in this, that the player who follows a system ceases to be a gamester and becomes a speculator. From . the frequency with which this is insisted on, it would seem as if the highest object of human ambition were to acquire the character and title of speculator! How success is to be attained, the retired attorney does not clearly explain. No prophet of a sporting newspaper could be more oracular than he is. reader who fails to comprehend his system is informed that "there are certain modifications essential to its success, which can be given orally, but not in writing, because requiring too lengthy explanations." In default of containing lucid explanations the pamphlet closes with an unmistakable appeal :

The

mon purse, follow my system, and one day the remark of Napoleon will be verified; the gaming banks will be conquered by calculation." "

Between J. H. B. and the retired attorney there is this difference; the latter is the greater quack of the two.

penalties, from entering the gaming-house | facilities granted them for indulging in disand engaging in play. creditable and reprehensible gambling. The Of late years there has been a general out- lottery system, as generally practised throughcry throughout Germany against the gaming-out Germany, amounts to a public encouragehouses. Their suppression has been vehe- ment of avarice and indolence, because that mently demanded in the interests alike of system renders it possible to acquire by chance public morality and sound policy. This ex- and without exertion the wealth which should pression of public feeling resulted in the con- be the sure if tardy recompense of study and sideration of the question by the Federal honorable industry alone. Diet. The Diet called upon the Governments There is hardly a German State in which of the different States of Germany to say what lotteries are not legalized. In Austria a large they were prepared to do with a view to put- portion of the revenue is derived from the ting a period to the public encouragement of proceeds of the State lottery. If an English gaming. The Government of the Grand company call for capital wherewith to conDuchy of Baden replied that it intended clos- struct a railway, it is readily subscribed, on ing the Baden establishment even before the the public being assured of receiving a fair termination of the contract. On the other rate of interest in return. On the other hand, hand, the Nassau Government maintained it is customary for a German railway comthat it was impossible to abolish the gaming-pany, to offer money prizes as well as prombanks of Wiesbaden and Ems, the proprie- ise dividends to those who subscribe for shares. tors of which had constructed the thermal establishments there, in 1807 and 1810, and had kept them in repair ever since at their own cost. It promised, however, not to grant any new concessions in future. The Government of Mecklenburg-Schwerin offered to suppress the Dobberan gaming-house in the event of the Governments of the other States suppressing those within their jurisdictions. The Government of Waldeck refused to suppress the gaming-houses at Pyrmont and Wildungen, the concessions for which were in force till 1873 and 1905, unless public gaming should be prohibited throughout the Confederation, a measure to which it would agree. The Government of Hesse-Homburg denied to the Diet the right to entertain the question at all, until it should have abolished the public lotteries authorized within the territories of the Confederation.

We heartily disapprove the conduct of the Hesse-Homburg Government in the matter of gaming, yet we admit that it did well in returning the foregoing answer to the Federal Diet. So long as gaming-houses shall remain open in certain German towns, these towns will continue to be the scenes of irreparable ruin to thousands, will be the favorite haunts of the depraved, and the opprobrium of the enlightened. But they will not stand alone. For wherever lotteries shall receive, as they now do, open sanction from the State authorities, and shall be freely employed by them for the purposes of raising revenue and borrowing money, all classes will have improper

States in which public opinion has little influence are not more cursed with lotteries than States wherein public opinion reigns supreme. Nowhere is the fondness for lotteries more apparent, and the passion for gambling more recklessly gratified, than in the free cities of Hamburg and Frankfurt.

If German gaming-houses and lotteries were injurious to Germans only, we should deplore their existence, but should refrain from condemning the conduct of those who sanction and conduct them. Their baneful influence, however, extends to England also. Thousands of Englishmen visit Germany every summer, and lose their money in the gamingrooms at Homburg or Baden, Wiesbaden or Ems. Throughout the entire year, lotterytickets find as ready a sale in England as in Germany. Hence, to suppress these lotteries and gaming-houses would be to render an inestimable service to both countries.

In England, both public lotteries and gaming-houses have been suppressed by Act of Parliament. If gaming be sometimes practised in this country, it is not because the law is weak or leniently enforced. The difficulties put in the way of keeping a gaminghouse are almost insuperable; the penalties being very severe, and the police being armed with ample powers. It is hard to understand why visitors to Newmarket should there find opportunities for gaming which they cannot have elsewhere; why the forbidden games of hazard, rouge-et-noir, and roulette should be played there with impunity. Perhaps this

is allowed on the principle of its being fair to of Queen Elizabeth first employed it as a afford those who have won money by betting, an opportunity of losing it at play.

medium through which to tax the people indirectly. In 1567, proposals were issued Public lotteries, though as illegal as gam- "for a very rich lottery general, without any ing-houses, are by no means so rare. They blankes, contayning a great number of good are called by the more euphonious and un- prizes, as well of redy-money as of plate and meaning names of Art-Unions. The prizes certain sorts of merchandize, having been are pictures or statues in place of coin. The valued and prized by the queen's most exprofessed objects of Art-Unions are noble and cellent majesties' order, to the extent that praiseworthy; they are to encourage the Fine such commodities as may chance to arise Arts, and to convert England into a nation thereof after the charges borne may be conof followers and admirers of art. This is a verted towards the reparations of the havens most ingenious disguise under which to prac- and strength of the realme, and towards such tice gambling. For very similar reasons bet- other good workes. The number of lotts ting on horses is practised, and prize-fights shall be four hundred thousand, and no are commended. It is argued that were bet-more; and every lott shall be the sum of ten ting prohibited, horse-racing would cease, shillings sterling, and no more. The drawand that were there no racing, the breed of ing began at the west door of St. Paul's horses would deteriorate. We are told that Cathedral, on the 11th of January, 1569, and had we no prize-fights, a muscular Christian was continued without intermission till the would become as great a rarity as the Moa. 6th of May following. Forty-five years afterNow, it may delight two men to pound each wards, " King James, in special favor for the other into jelly, and others may delight in present plantation of English colonies in Virwitnessing the performance; but it would be ginia, granted a lottery, to be held at the as absurd to maintain that Englishmen owe west end of St. Paul's; whereof one Thomas their pluck and muscle to prize-fights, as that Sharplys, a tailor of London, had the chief the ancient Romans were made magnanimous prize, which was four thousand crowns in by gladiatorial combats, and that the Span- fair plate."* During succeeding reigns, both iards had been rendered courageous by bull- public and private lotteries were common and fights. Even more ridiculous and contrary to popular. In the reign of Queen Anne, howfact is it to maintain that art has been encour-ever, they were suppressed on the ground of aged by Art-Unions, or that they are any- being public nuisances. They were revived thing better than disguised lotteries, and and licensed in 1778. From that time till as such ought to be prohibited. If a sub- 1825, a lottery bill was passed every session. scriber to an Art-Union draw a prize, he can | The gross yearly income received by the Govimmediately convert it into money. If the ernment from lotteries was seven hundred and holder of a lottery ticket draw a prize, he can fifty thousand pounds. A treasury minute, buy a picture or statue with it. The distinc-dated the 18th of October, 1827, closed all tion between the two cases is impalpable to the public lottery offices, and this kind of ordinary minds; but that some do perceive a distinction is evinced by their eagerly subscribing to Art-Unions, and holding lotteries in abhorrence. In like manner and with equal consistency, those who consider it pollution to enter an ordinary theatre and witness a regular play, crowd to an "entertaingiven in a hall or gallery, and consisting of plays on a reduced scale, all the parts being filled by one actor and actress.

ment "

Those who value an abuse in proportion to its antiquity, will regret that Parliament should ever have interfered with so venerable an institution as the lottery. It was in full operation a century before the National Debt was dreamt of. The astute ministers

gambling, first introduced and sanctioned by the ministers of Queen Elizabeth, has been stigmatized as illegal, and we hope terminated forever, by an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Queen Victoria.

The attempt recently made to abolish beerdrinking on Sundays, however ridiculous and blameworthy, was admirably timed and likely to prove successful, when compared with the efforts made by the legislators of the 18th century, to effect the suppression of gaming. Act after Act was passed, yet the evil waxed daily more formidable and intolerable. That the provisions of these Acts were stringent enough will be understood from the following * Gentlemen's Magazine. Vol. 85, p. 341.

specimens. Thus, an Act passed in 1739 | Lady Ossory, "I was diverted last night at

Lady Lucan's. The moment I entered she set me down to whist with Lady Bute, and who do you think were the other partners? the Archbishopess of Canterbury and Mr. Gibbon.” Be it remembered, this took place five years after the publication of the volume of the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Now, we take credit to ourselves for tolerance, because in our day the Test Act has been repealed, and because Roman Catholics are no longer persecuted on account of their religion. But are we really so tolerant as those of our forefathers whom we are ac

made it illegal to play such games as ace of hearts, faro, basset, and hazard. The keepers of houses or other places for gaming purposes were to forfeit two hundred pounds on conviction, and those who played, fifty pounds each. A justice of the peace refusing to convict, forfeited ten pounds for each offence. Another Act, containing still more stringent provisions, was passed in 1749, in which roulette, or roly-poly, was included among the forbidden games. These and other Acts proved wholly ineffectual, because those who sanctioned, were the foremost in breaking them. They were never enforced against customed to revile? For instance, what would persons of quality, who were the principal offenders. Moreover, a special clause in these Acts exempted the royal palaces from their operation. Now, the royal palaces were nothing better than huge gaming-houses, and the sovereign was the greatest gamester in the kingdom. The truth is, gaming was the| fashionable vice, and a vice must cease to be fashionable before men will cease to practise it. Till then, they regard it as a virtue.

the Record and Exeter Hall say, were they to learn that Bishop Colenso and the Archbishopess of York had been partners at whist? Would it not be predicted that, before a week elapsed, the world would certainly come to an end?

The rage for gaming was at its height toward the close of the eighteenth century. Prior to the first French Revolution, not more than four or five gaming-tables were in operation; but at a subsequent period, upwards of thirty houses were open every night.* This was done in defiance of the law. Several members of the aristocracy kept faro-tables at their own houses. Lady Buckinghamshire, Lady Spencer, and Lady Mount Edgcumbe, had an unenviable notoriety for so doing. They were christened "Faro's Daughters." Referring to them, Lord Kenyon said on the 9th of May, 1796, They think they are too great for the law; I wish they could be punished. If any prosecutions of this sort are fairly brought before me, and the parties are justly convicted, whatever be their rank or station in the country-though they should be the first ladies in the landthey shall certainly exhibit themselves on the pillory." At the beginning of March, 1797,

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Horace Walpole has put on record numerous specimens of the reckless and ruinous kind of gaming in which his contemporaries indulged. In 1770, he tells Sir Horace Mann, "the gaming at Almack's, which has taken the pas of White's, is worthy the decline of our empire, or commonwealth, which you please. The young men of the age lose five, ten, fifteen thousand pounds in an evening there. Lord Stavordale, not twenty-one, lost eleven thousand there last Tuesday, but recovered it by one great hand at hazard: he swore a great oath, Now, if I had been playing deep, I might have won millions!""" In a letter to the Hon. S. A. Conway, dated 1781, he relates that his nephew, Lord Cholmondeley, the banker à la mode, has been demolished. He and his associate, Sir Willoughby Ashton, went early the other night to an information was laid against Lady BuckBrookes's, before Charles Fox and Fitzpatrick, who keep a bank there, were come; but they soon arrived, attacked their rivals, broke their bank, and won about four thousand pounds. There,' said Fox, 'so should all usurpers be served.' He did still better; for he sent for his tradesmen, and paid as far as the money would go."

Another circumstance mentioned by Walpole is even more extraordinary than the foregoing feats at play. In 1781, he informed

inghamshire, Lady E. Luttrell, and some other ladies and gentlemen of rank, for keeping faro-tables in their houses; and on the 11th of that month they were convicted of the offence, but Lord Kenyon seems to have forgotten his former threat, and he only subjected them to rather severe fines.†