The Ven. Archdeacon J. W. Diggle on Wednesday read a
paper before the Church Congress on gambling, which was remarkable for both eloquence and moderation. He refused except as a counsel of perfection to condemn modest games of chance such as are played in households, but accepted Mr. Herbert Spencer's description of gambling as "gain without merit and through another's loss." The appetite for gambling, he said, soon degenerated into a lust, the lust of covetousness, and then became a mania. That is sound enough, but when he proceeded to attack speculation the Archdeacon rather stretched his theory. He was horrified because on one occasion £9,000,000 of a railway stock had changed hands without any one making a permanent invest.. ment. Would he think it very wrong to bay wheat in expectation of a rise P The buyer does not take the wheat any more than the speculator in shares, and if his trade is unlawful there will never be wheat stored.
Previous page
