PECKSNIFF AS SPORTSMAN.
[To THE EDITOR OP TEE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—Your observations in regard to Pecksniff and the Sporting League petition are smart enough, but unfor- tunately for the writer they are based on an entire mis- apprehension of the law as the Judgment in the Dunn case has for the time being left it. You assume that the dis- inclination of the petitioners to resort to " illegal places " has no more solid cause than mere Pecksniffian virtue ; but in this you are altogether wrong.
The Dunn judgment in effect lays down that any one man, betting as a matter of business in an inclosure, may by so doing convert that inclosure into "a place" within the meaning of the Betting Houses Act. Section 2 of that Act expressly declares that any such " place " is "a common gaming house " within the meaning of 8 and 9 Vic. c. 109, and Section 2, 8 and 9 Vic. c. 109 renders any such place liable to be raided on the warrant of a Magistrate (which warrant may be issued on mere suspicion), and the police, after breaking into it, are empowered to arrest and search every person found there, and to carry them off to a lock-up- Thus one man, by shouting "2 to 1 on the field" in front of the Stand at Goodwood, has it in his power to convert the whole inclosure, which includes the lawn, luncheon-tables, and Stand itself, into one common gaming house, and Sir Henry Hawkins himself, if—as is probable—he should happen to be in that inclosure, could not claim immunity from arrest, search, and conveyance off to Chichester, should some Magistrate have decided to put the law in operation. You will thus see, I venture to think, that the grievance of those who do not wish to find themselves suddenly involved in a common gaming house, with its attendant ignominy and dis- comfort, has a very solid foundation, and one to which the attention of the Legislature may well be invited.—I am,
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