A JUDGE ON BETTING.
WHAT THE LEGISLATURE NEGLECTS TO DO.
"At the North Wales Assizes yesterday at Ruthin Mr. Justice Channell in his charge said that if a moral was to be drawn from the calendar it would be as to the mischief which was done by the facilities for betting which were now available. Betting itself the law recognized, but the system of betting upon nominal prices which were called starting prices published in a sporting news- paper for people who knew nothing whatever about the matters that people were wasting their money upon really did lead to the most serious mischief. The first case in the calendar was of per- fectly respectable young men who bad been tempted to commit a gross fraud, with the assistance of one who was connected with the Post Office, to get small sums of money from the betting men. A sort of idea seemed to prevail that it was fair to stoop to any kind of dishonesty to get money out of betting men. It was a peculiar kind of morality. There was another most serious case of burglary or sham burglary by a butler from a well-known house in the county of Merioneth. In admitting a portion of the case charged against him, the prisoner said that it was all through betting. One wishes, said his Lordship, that the Legislature might in some practical manner turn its attention to this matter and do something which, without stopping that which is perfectly legitimate, will stop that which goes on now, and which one knows and sees is not at all legitimate. It is nothing bat a temptation to people to risk their money, with consequences such as have happened here, and to commit some act of dishonesty to replace the money which has gone in this silly business. Many crimes will go on as long as human nature is human nature, but in this matter of betting a great deal might be done to stop it if the Legislature, instead of attending to Impractical things, would turn its attention to this evil."
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