FOURTH PERIOD : VICTORIA 159 



from legislation ; in another, not. On the one 

 hand horse-racing (unless within ten miles of the 

 Metropolis, in which case a license is required) 

 has been legalized, the old qui tain actions (em- 

 ployed by common informers for the purpose of 

 levying blackmail on the strength of clauses in 

 obsolete but not repealed statutes) have been 

 rendered impossible, vexatious restrictions have 

 been removed, and wagering, in a general way, is 

 not now declared illegal, but treated as a low sort 

 of proceeding which no respectable legislature 

 can condescend to so much as notice. On the 

 other hand, keepers of list-houses and all other 

 places where betting on deposit is permitted, or 

 where a person or persons habitually attend to bet 

 with all and sundry resorting thereto, and com- 

 mission-agents (who cannot recover what they 

 may have disbursed on behalf of a principal, 

 though a principal can recover winnings from 

 them), though they consider themselves, for some 

 inexplicable reason, a body essential to the turf, 

 have been roughly handled and driven from pillar 

 to post, and even to Holland, and yet are more 

 difficult to squelch than the heads of the hydra, 

 and rather increase than diminish after every 

 ' scotching.' Such a phenomenon Is by no means 



