The idle vanity of being introduced into what is generally, but erroneously, termed genteel society, where a fashionable name announces an intention of seeing company, has been productive of more domestic misery and more real distress, poverty, and wretchedness to families in this great City (who but for their folly might have been easy and comfortable,) than many volumes could detail.
A mistaken sense of what constitutes human happiness, fatally leads the mass of the People who have the means of moving in any degree above the middle ranks of life, into circles where Faro Tables and other games at hazard are introduced in private families:—Where the least recommendation (and Sharpers spare no pains to obtain recommendations) is a passport to all who can exhibit a genteel exterior; and where the young and the inexperienced are initiated in every propensity tending to debase human character; while they are taught to view with contempt every acquirement, connected with the duties which lead to domestic happiness, or to those qualifications which can render either sex respectable in the world.
When such infamous practices are encouraged and sanctioned by high-sounding names,—when sharpers and black-legs find an easy introduction into the houses of persons of fashion, who assemble in multitudes together, for the purpose of playing at those most odious and detestable games of hazard, which the Legislature has stigmatised with such marks of reprobation, it is time for the Civil Magistrate to step forward:—It is time for him to feel, that, in doing that duty which the Laws of his Country impose on him, he is perhaps saving hundreds of families from ruin and destruction; and preserving to the infants of thoughtless and deluded parents that property which is their birth-right: but which, for want of an energetic Police in enforcing the Laws made for their protection, is now too frequently squandered; and the mind is tortured with the sad reflection, that with the loss of fortune, all opportunities (in consequence of idle habits) are also lost, of fitting the unfortunate sufferer for any reputable pursuit in life, by which an honest livelihood could be obtained.
In this situation, the transition from the plain gamester to the fraudulent one, and from that to every other species of criminality, is easily conceived: and it is by no means an unfair conclusion, that this has been the fate of not a few who have been early introduced into these haunts of idleness and vice; and who, but for such an education, might have become useful members of the State.
The accumulated evils, arising from this source, are said to have been suffered to continue, from a prevailing idea, that Persons of Rank and their immediate associates were beyond the reach of being controlled, by laws made for the mass of the People; and that nothing but capital offences could attach to persons of this condition in life.
If these evils were, in fact, merely confined to Persons of rank and fortune, and did not extend beyond that barrier where no general injury could accrue to Society, there might be a shadow of excuse (and it would be but a shadow) for not hazarding an attack upon the amusements of the Great, where the energy of the Laws to controul their œconomy may be doubtful: but surely in the present case, where the mischief spreads broad and wide, no good Magistrate can or ought to be afraid to do his duty, because persons in high life may dare to sanction and promote offences of a nature the most mischievous to Society at large, as well as to the peace, comfort, and happiness of families.
If the exertions of the Magistracy are to be suspended until the Higher Ranks see the frivolity, the shameful profligacy and the horrid waste of useful time, as well as the cruel destruction of decent and respectable families in that point of view which will operate as an antidote to the evil, it is much to be feared that it must, under such circumstances, become incurable.
But there are other inducements, more nearly allied to the occurrences in humble life, which render it in a particular degree incumbent on Magistrates to make trial, at least, whether there is not sufficient energy in the law to control the hurtful vices of the higher, as well as the middling, and inferior ranks of the People: The examples of the great and opulent, operate most powerfully among the tribe of menial servants they employ; and these carry with them into the lower ranks that spirit of gambling and dissipation which they have practised in the course of their servitude; thus producing consequences of a most alarming nature to the general interests of the Community. To the contagion of such examples, is owing in a great measure the number of persons attached to pursuits of this kind, who become the Swindlers, Sharpers, and Cheats, of an inferior class, described in the [preceding Chapter]: and from the same source spring up those Pests of Society, The Lottery Insurers, whose iniquitous proceedings we shall in the next place lay before the Reader.
These, with some exceptions, are composed of persons, in general very depraved or distressed: the depredations committed on the Public by their means are so ruinous and extensive as to require a consideration peculiarly minute: in order to guard the ignorant and unwary, as much as possible, against the fatal effects of that fraud and delusion, which, if not soon checked, bid fair to destroy all remains of honesty and discretion.—These Classes consist of
Sharpers, who take Lottery Insurances, by which means gambling, among the higher and middling ranks, is carried on, to an extent which exceeds all credibility; producing consequences to many private families, otherwise of great worth and respectability, of the most distressing nature; and implicating in this misery, the innocent and amiable branches of such families, whose sufferings, arising from this source, while they claim the tear of pity, would require many volumes to recount; but silence and shame throw a veil over the calamity: and, cherished by the hopes of retrieving former losses, or acquiring property, in an easy way, the evil goes on, and seems even yet to increase, in spite of every guard which the Legislature has repeatedly endeavoured to establish.