APPENDIX. 



Law of wagers. — A wager on a race-horse is legal, 

 provided the race which is the subject of the bet, 

 be run for fifty pounds or upwards, or twenty-five 

 pounds deposited by each party; but horse races 

 against time on a high-way, or for a stake of less than 

 fifty pounds are illegal. A wager upon an indifferent 

 matter, which has no tendency to produce any public 

 mischief, or individual inconvenience is legal ; but to 

 make the wager legal, the subject matter of it must 

 be perfectly innocent, and have no tendency to im- 

 policy or immorality. A wager between the voters 

 on the event of an election, or concerning the produce 

 of the revenue, or tending to inconvenience or degrade 

 the courts of justice, or concerning an abstract ques- 

 tion of law, or legal practice in which the parties 

 have no interest, is illegal and void. A cock-match, 

 or wager upon it, is illegal — so a wager prejudicial to 

 the interest or feelings of a third person, as on the 

 sex of a person, is illegal. A wager whether an un- 

 married woman had borne a child, was held void. A 

 wager tending to restrain marriage is void. A person 

 may lay a wager on his own age, and there is no 

 illegality in betting a rump and dozen. — Notes of a 

 Lawyer. 



Extract from the Transactions of the Society 



