1827.] Letter on Affairs in general. 525 



case would be different; and though you might he free from the Lash of the 

 Jaw, as in point of fact you are at present, you would be rendered much 

 more amenable to that of public opinion. 



It is argued, however, that this system would facilitate the means of 

 play, and would, therefore, materially increase the practise of it among 

 us. Now I deny the correctness of the premises, on which this argument 

 is founded, and therefore quarrel with the deduction, which is derived from 

 it. I think, that the higher classes of society could not, under any miti- 

 gation of the existing law, which, to its disgrace and condemnation, be it 

 spoken, is never enforced against them have greater facilities for gaming 

 than they have at present, collectively in their clubs, and privately in their 

 mansions ; and that the lower classes of society have, at their fairs, their 

 horse-races, their cock-fights, their bull-baits, their badger-hunts, their box- 

 ing-matches, their skittle-grounds, and their tippling-houses, the most 

 abundant opportunities to indulge, though on a less expensive scale, in the 

 same dangerous, but exciting diversions with their superiors. A question 

 may, perhaps, arise on this point with regard to the middling classes, if, 

 indeed, any diversity of rank be recognized at the gaming-table. Now, 

 though 1 am of opinion that no man, who belongs to this grade of society, 

 can have much difficulty in obtaining admission to any " hell" in this 

 country, if he seriously wishes for it, I will still admit, that even that little 

 portion of difficulty would be obviated by the change which I have ven- 

 tured to recommend in our law : but then it ought to be recollected, that 

 the members of this class are the very individuals who would be most 

 affected both in mind and fortune, and respectability, by the publicity, 

 which, as J have before said, would be attendant on the alleged increase 

 of facility ; and it is my opinion, that " the sway of motion," which 

 they might derive from the latter, would be more than counterbalanced 

 by the repulsive force which would be generated by the former. Be 

 these speculations, however, as they may, I will not pursue them further 

 at present. I have noted them down as they arose in my own mind, not 

 from any hope of seeing them converted into reality, but from a downright 

 detestation of the disgusting cant, which I hear daily about the mischief 

 arising from the toleration of these moral lazar houses. 1 am convinced 

 that much greater mischief arises from the total prohibition of them ; and 

 though I admit, that, if it were practicable to put them down entirely, you 

 would be bound in conscience to do so : still, if such a result cannot be 

 realized, I must contend that it is better to place them under correctional 

 superintendence, in order that the evil, which you cannot eradicate, may 

 be restrained and limited in its destructive ravages. 



T see by the remainder of the paragraph, which I quoted from the 

 Morning Herald, that the Reverend Doctor made " an allusion that could 

 not be misunderstood, to the abominable Pandaemonium, now erecting in 

 St. James' s-street." Leaving you to inquire whether this strange peri- 

 phrasis, to avoid mentioning to " ears polite" the Hell which Crockford 

 is constructing, be the invention of the sermon or the paragraph writer, I 

 proceed to notice an intimation contained in all the papers, that an indict- 

 ment has been found against him for winning 900 odd of a Mr. Dick. 

 Tt would be hard work for you or me to be badgered at once by the ana- 

 themas of the church and the informations of the law : but Crockford, 

 fortunately for himself, is proof against both, and cares little about either. 

 He knows that the first are at present idle words, and trusts that the latter 

 will become so, from the reluctance of Diek's witnesses to. appear .on hi* 



