PECKSNIFF AS SPORTSMAN.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The writer of your article in the Spectator of April 3rd found fair game in the Sporting League Petition. It is ridicule that kills, and his satire has helped to deal the fatal blow. There are many signs of this. Of the few large daily papers (not being simply betting prints) which have not deserted the professional betting system, the Newcastle Chronicle frankly acknowledges that the main statement of the Petition is misleading and untrue. Other Press advocates of the bookmakers equally condemn it; " these silly petitions " is a cruel phrase to be used by the friends of the Sporting League. The Hon. Secretary now shifts his ground in your columns, and leaving derelict the incorrect language of Clause 2 of the Petition, which speaks only of betting, brings forward the fact that " betting as a matter of business " (this is the "obnoxious betting" named in the judgment) might cause some inconvenience to the "innocents abroad" who go into the betting-rings merely to view the races, and upon whose behalf the Petition is ostensibly drawn up, if the authorities chose to proceed under the Gaming Act section of the Act of 1853. In answer to the invitation to follow the scent of this red-herring, it is sufficient to say that ample powers are given, under Section 1 and 3 of the 1853 Act, to deal with owners and users without applying the section alluded to; and that the guardians of public order are unlikely to use this reserve power unless the law is defied, so that these persons of tender conscience will have due warning.
But the sting of the comparison with Pecksniff is the im- plication that the Sporting League does not really care a jot for such parties, who do not add to the traffic of the profes- sional betting-market. How well founded such a charge is may be seen by going through the lists in the Sportsman news- paper of the names of the petitioners who have backed their signatures with subscriptions. It is easy to recognise scores of bookmakers, hangers-on of the Turf, racecourse officials, and gambling punters who feed the illegal traffic ; but it will be difficult to find the "innocents abroad " whom we have mentioned, unless a firm of betting-house keepers, not now in England, can possibly be considered as coming within that
Hon. Sec. National Anti-Gambling League. 7 Adam Street, Adelphi, April 12th.
[We can publish no more letters on this subject.—En. Spectator.]
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