London was half-shocked and half-amused on Monday by a police
raid on two gambling-clubs, the Field and the Adelphi. Moved, it is said, by the prayers of the ladies of two wealthy families, the police entered these clubs in force early on Sunday morning, and found in the former a curious collection of Peers, rich men, and fashionable card-players, and in the latter a more motley group of sporting-men, all engaged apparently in playing for high stakes. They were taken before the Magistrates, and those among them accused of keeping the tables were in the course of the proceedings said to be liable to fines of £500. Those, however, who were only playing can only be fined 6s. 8d. The latter amount seems ridiculously small ; but it is probable that the idea of the Legislature is to punish the rooks by positive fines and the pigeons by the public exposure of their folly, —a shrewd notion, the only defect of which is that the pigeons suffer most. London is, of course, ringing with stories of men who just escaped—one of them by only five minutes—and the incident gave much actuality to a discussion on gambling in the Lower House of Convocation on Wednesday. The Committee on the subject denounced the growing prevalence of the practice in fitting terms, and recommended, sensibly enough, that the law on gambling should be assimilated to the law on lotteries—which would kill bookmaking,—but made the usual mistake of trying to define gambling as a sin. They say, "It is immoral for a Christian man to seek to increase his estate by unproductive labour," which will not hold water. Suppose he lives by buying stocks for the rise, or playing a barrel- organ, is that immoral P
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