THE SPORTING WORLD. 197 



purpose, is quite another aifair. Probably he 

 was the iu direct means of doing this. So is 

 the gin palace keeper the indirect means of 

 psrsons getting drunk, but gin palaces are 

 allowed to go on. 



There is a little secret attached to this, or 

 (let me correct myself) no secret at all. Gin 

 produces a vast revenue to Government, so the 

 more there is drank in them the more Government 

 gets and the more the public are demoralized. 

 Now, I think we may fairly infer by this that 

 our philanthropic and wise legislators who so 

 promptly put down, in the case of the betting 

 houses, what they conceived was prejudicial to 

 the morals of the people, to which in this case 

 they were so keenly alive, would, as in the case 

 of the gin palaces, had the revenue got a per 

 centage and betting-lists been so numerous as 

 to bring in the same revenue to Government, 

 have let them go on to eternity, leaving the 

 morals of the people to take care of themselves. 



