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The Gaming Table-Vol. 1-Part13_Andrew Steinmetz(1816-1877)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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ruffians and bludgeon-men employed, where gratuities failed;

personal violence and even assassination threatened to all who



dared to expose the crying evil--among others, to Stockdale, the

well-known publisher of the day, in Piccadilly.



Then came upon the nation the muddy flood of French

emigrants, poured forth by the Great Revolution--a set of men,



speaking generally, whose vices contaminated the very atmosphere.

Before the advent of these worthies the number of gambling houses



in the metropolis, exclusive of those so long established by

subscription, was not more than half-a-dozen; but by the year



1820 they had increased to nearly fifty. Besides _Faro_ and

_Hazard_, the foreign games of _Macao, Roulette, Rouge et Noir_,



&c., were introduced, and there was a graduated accommodation for

all ranks, from the Peer of the Realm to the Highwayman, the



Burglar, and the Pick et.

At one of the watering-places, in 1803, a baronet lost L20,000



at play, and a bond for L7000. This will scarcely surprise us

when we consider that at the time above five hundred notorious



characters supported themselves in the metropolis by this species

of robbery, and in the summer spread themselves through the



watering-places for their professional operations. Some of them

kept bankers, and were possessed of considerable property in the



funds and in land, and went their _circuits_ as regularly as the

judges. Most excellent judges they were, too, of the



condition of a `pigeon.'

In a great commercial city where, from the extent of its trade,



manufacture, and revenue, there must be an immensecirculation of

property, the danger is not to be conceived of the allurements



which were thus held out to young men in business having the

command of money, as well as the clerks of merchants, bankers,



and others. In fact, too many of this class proved, at the bar

of justice, the consequence of their resort to these complicated



scenes of vice, idleness, extravagance, misfortune, and crime.

Among innumerable instances are the following:--In 1796, a



shopman to a grocer in the city was seduced into a gaming party,

where he first lost all his own money, and ultimately what his



master had intrusted him with. He hanged himself in his bed-room

a few hours afterwards.



In the same year, Lord Kenyon in summing up a case of the kind

said:--`It was extremely to be lamented that the vice of gambling



had descended to the very lowest orders of the people. It was

prevalent among the highest ranks of society, who had set the



example to their inferiors, and who, it seemed, were too great

for the law. I wish they could be punished. If any



prosecutions are fairly brought before me, and the parties are

justly convicted, whatever may be their rank or station in the



country--though they should be the first ladies in the land--they

shall certainly exhibit themselves in the pillory.'



In 1820, James Lloyd, one of the harpies who practised on the

credulity of the lower orders by keeping a _Little Go_, or



illegallottery, was brought up for the twentieth time, to answer

for that offence. This man was a methodist preacher" target="_blank" title="n.讲道者，传教士">preacher, and



assembled his neighbours together at his dwelling on a Saturday

to preach the gospel to them, and the remainder of the week he



was to be found, with an equally numerous party, instructing them

in the ruinous vice of gambling. The charge was clearly proved,



and the prisoner was sentenced to three months' imprisonment with

hard labour.



In the same year numbers of young persons robbed their masters to

play at a certain establishment called Morley's Gambling House,



in the City, and were ruined there. Some were brought to justice

at the Old Bailey; others, in the madness caused by their losses,



destroyed themselves; and some escaped to other countries, by

their own activity, or through the influence of their



friends.

A traveller of the coachmakers, Messrs Houlditch of Long Acre,






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