DEBATE ON THE GAMBLING BILL.
TILE debate of Wednesday in the House of Commons on the Duke of RICHMOND'S bill for the relief of distressed gamblers—waiving the unworthiness of the subject, and the effrontery with which it is forced on public notice—was a model debate. Honourable Mem- bers felt on the subject ; they were perfectly at home in its details : and the consequence was, that the discussion assumed a hearty and business-like character, too rarely witnessed in the debates of that House.
Other branches of national industry may be inadequately repre- sented in the House of Commons, but the "makers of books" have evidently no cause to complain. Scarcely a Member spoke who did not show by his fluency in using the technical language of the trade, and his knowledge of the seasons for its great operations, that he had gone through a course of turf. After all, gambling is perhaps no bad school for the philosopher and statesman. PASCAL— the pious PASCAL—Was brought very near to the discovery of fluxions, by his attempts to comply with the request of a friend who begged of him an infallible mode of calculation to use at the - gaming-table. LAW, the great author of the Mississippi Scheme— the gigantic rival of our South Sea Bubble—developed his theories of .finance at the gaming-table.
The lessons of the turf have not been thrown away upon our legislators ; who can, it is plain, "unloose "its intricate transactions "as familiar as their garters." Sir JAMES Gaaaam went to the root of the matter, when he traced all the embarrassments com- plained of to the system of "making books upon horses on the terms play or pay"; ; delicately hinting at the same time, that the present was an inopportune period for the interference of the Legislature, as it might interrupt half-developed speculations : "It was probable, that up to the very moment when they were speak- ing, bets to a large amount were being made against various horses for coming events upon the terms of play or pay ' ; and a great many of these debts were, no doubt, made under the expectation of what was called hedging' them at some future period.' Cap- tain Roue spoke more plainly, though his language in some pas- sages presents difficulties to the uninitiated from its extreme tech- nicality,—a fault which the Captain has pushed to an extent un- precedented in the House except among the law Members. He declared plumply, that "there were a great many gentlemen now making books upon the Derby ; and if they were to be prevented betting after the 1st of March, a great injury would be done them. For many of them, who had only got on,' or bet against, perhaps twenty horses, would not be able to get round by betting against others; and would thus have to stand to be shot at." Ili these sen- tences the unlearned may detect a shadow of meaning : but the gal- lant Captain soon after abandoned the English language entirely for that of the turf; mounted his hobby—or, to use his own language, "backed the field," and poured out " levanters," " betting off 1001. in the ring," and other specimens of the unknown tongues. Even seher Viscount HOWICK caught the contagion of the moment, and talked.about "hedging" as if he were quite "up to it." Mr. Virstaxr, sticking to his own line of business, took the juve- nile rmblers of the poorer classes—the little players at "pitch and toss, whose amusements are interfered with by tyrannical beadles— under his protection. There was a hint towards the close of Cap- tain Rous's speech upon which Mr. WAKLEY might expatiate with advantage when the bill comes before the House again. The Mem- ber for Westminster said, "The sport of racing was enjoyed quite as much by the poor as by the rich : the rich were thus obliged to keep horses for the amusement of those who could not keep them for themselves." The Member for Finsbury might explain, that as it is apparent from the whole tenour of the discussion that betting is thought necessary to give a zest to horse-racing, the rich only fulfil their " obligation " by halves, in keeping horses. The poor are left to bear the expenses of their own bets,—as witness the "Derby sweep clubs" in every low alehouse, not of the Metro- polis alone, but of Manchester, Birmingham, and all large towns. Mr. WAKLEY might show, that to put a prompt stop to betting would injure the contributors to these clubs much more than gentlemen book-makers because the landlords who manage them always contrive to make the subscribers stake down in advance. The losses, too, would be much more serious, and more widely spread, inasmuch as the apprentice contributors to "juvenile Derby sweeps" (see advertising columns of the flash papers) would be unable to replace the money they had abstracted from the till to subscribe, their masters might be embarrassed in consequence, and themselves sent to the treadmill, whereas gentlemen are only sent to Coventry.
This is a branch of the subject that cannot be touched upon without banishing every inclination to treat it with levity. Cap- tain Rous was never more mistaken in his life than when he affirmed that the harm done to morals by mixing in horse-racing (as at present conducted) "was all humbug." The good it does even " by making friends, concentrating interests, and comparing opinions as to which horse would win," may be doubted. The "interests" are not of the most reputable kind, and the "friend- ships" are hollow and frivolous. But the evil is certain, for the con- tagion of the gambling spirit spreads rapidly and certainly. The horseboy listens with avidity to the immense sums which clever hedgers have a chance of gaining without any risk of loss, and stakes his half-year's wages in half-crown bets, loses, and pilfers to make up what he has lost. His cousin the shopboy learns the trick of him. The groom inoculates the frequenters of the tap he pa- tronizes with the same spirit. Cockney coblers, dustmen, tailors, and mercers' salesmen, not satisfied with riding or driving Jonce a year to the " Derby day," begin to " make books" on a small scale. Landlords institute " Derby sweep clubs," to at- tract customers. The whole of the industrious classes are seized with a gambling furor, to an extent scarcely short of that which seized the wealthier classes of Paris and London at the time of the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles. The plain in- tegrity of humble life is corrupted—the gulf which yawns between honest poverty and petty larceny is narrowed. There are many adventitious aids to preserve the genteel gambler from utter cor- ruption: the eye of the world is on him—his mind has been cul- tivated, he has a variety of pursuits—even that mischievous half- morality the point of honour may do something : but the poor and illiterate have no such aids, and with them the corruption is fatal. It may be conceded to the patrons and palliators of gambling in the higher ranks' that they have a right in this land of liberty to go to the Devil in their own way : but have they a right to kill the souls of the poor by their example ?
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