PURITANISM.
[To THE EDITOR OP TR& "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The vice of the Puritan is that he believes he has a higher standard of morals than his neighbour, and that he is not only justified, but in duty bound, to bring his neighbour as far as possible into conformity with that standard. Your condemnation of incitements to betting is in no sense Puritanism, but only the desire which all good citizens must feel to remove a temptation which is wrecking hundreds of families and encouraging fraud in ill-balanced minds. To those who argue that there is nothing unlawful in betting the answer is, lawful things may not also be expedient, and the rich are not doing their duty to the poor by indulging in what they know is doing endless mischief. It is the case of the body politic which commends abstension, and not the enforce- ment of an arbitrary rule. This consideration must unite all true philanthropists and all true patriots in an endeavour to combat a social evil.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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