AN OLD MINUTE BY SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES. 5 



have won their money, but also that they are incited to acts 

 of fraud and robbery in order to obtain the means of amuse- 

 ment or of attempting to retrieve their losses; it is therefore 

 the duty of Government to suppress both gaming and cock- 

 fighting as far as possible without trespassing on the free will 

 of private conduct. No man should be allowed to receive any 

 money either directly or indirectly for conducting a gaming 

 table or cock-pit, and winners of money at such places 

 should be compelled to restore the amount to the losers, and 

 should on no account be permitted to enforce payment from 

 those with whom they have gambled on credit. 



Intoxication being a source of personal danger to the 

 community, and the indulgence in that vice being a frequent 

 cause of betraying those who are addicted to it to the com- 

 mission of acts of dishonesty, it is the duty of a good Magis- 

 tracy to throw every obstacle in the way. In the first place 

 the Officers of Police should be required to place in con- 

 straint any person seen in public in a state of intoxication 

 until he becomes sober, and in the next place the vender of 

 intoxicating articles who supplied him with the means of 

 inebriety, should be visited with proof* and fined, and be liable 

 to make good the amount of any loss which the person so 

 intoxicated can prove he suffered during his inebriety from 

 being unable to take care of himself ; the extent of this fine 

 must necessarily be discretionary on the part of the Magis- 

 trate, depending principally on the degree of inebriety pro- 

 duced ; it should always be of such an amount that the fear 

 of being subject to it may be sufficient to outweigh in the 

 mind of the vender the temptation of profit in the sale of 

 his goods ; of course if it should appear in evidence that the 

 individual was supplied with the means of intoxication for the 

 purpose of taking advantage of him in that state, the object 

 converts the simple misdemeanour into a crime according to 

 the particular purpose contemplated, and further punishment 

 to the guilty as well as redress to the individual injured must 

 be awarded accordingly. The use of spirituous liquors, though 

 innocent in moderation, becomes vicious when indulged in to 



* Sic, probably " reproof." 



