An instance of mischievous credulity, occasioned by consulting this impostor, once fell under the review of the Author. A person having property stolen from him, went to consult the conjuror respecting the thief; who having described something like the person of a man whom he suspected, his credulity and folly so far got the better of his reason and reflection, as to induce him upon the authority of this impostor _actually to charge his neighbour with a felony_, and to cause him to be apprehended. The Magistrate settled the matter by discharging the prisoner; reprimanding the accuser severely, and ordering the conjuror to be taken into custody, according to law, _as a Rogue and Vagabond_.

But the delusion with regard to Fortune-tellers is not confined to vulgar life, since it is known, that ladies of rank, fashion, and fortune, contribute to the encouragement of this fraudulent profession in particular, by their visits to a pretended Astrologer of their own s.e.x in the neighbourhood of Tottenham-Court Road: This woman, to the disgrace of her votaries, whose education ought to have taught them the folly and weakness of countenancing such gross impositions, found the practice of it extremely productive.[33]

[Footnote 33: The encouragement which this impostor received from the weaker part of the females of rank and fortune in the Metropolis, raised up others; who had the effrontery to insult the understanding of the Public, by advertising in the News-papers.]

The act of the 9th George the Second, _cap._ 5, _punishes all persons pretending skill in any crafty science; or telling fortunes, or where stolen goods may be found; with a year's imprisonment, and standing four times in the pillory_ (once every quarter) _during the term of such imprisonment. The act called the Vagrant Act, made the 17th year of the same reign, (cap. 5,) declares such persons to be rogues and vagabonds, and liable to be punished as such._

It is sincerely to be hoped that those at least who are convinced from having suffered by the gross imposition practised upon the credulity of the people by these pests of Society, will enable the civil Magistrate, by proper informations, to suppress so great an evil.

Innumerable almost are the other tricks and devices which are resorted to by the horde of Cheats, Swindlers, and Sharpers, who infest the Metropolis.

The great increase of commerce, and the confidence resulting from an intercourse so wide and extended, frequently lays men of property and tradesmen open to a variety of frauds; credit is obtained by subterfuges and devices contrary to the plain rules of common honesty, against which, however, there is no remedy but by an action of common law.

If it were possible to look accurately at the different evils arising from fraudulent and swindling practices, so as to frame a statute that would generally reach all the cases that occur, whenever the barrier of common honesty is broken down, it would certainly be productive of infinite benefit to the community; for, in spite of the laudable exertions of the Society established for prosecuting swindlers, it is to be lamented that the evil has not diminished. On the contrary, it has certainly encreased, and must continue to do so, until the Legislature, by applicable Laws and an improved System of Police, either directly or collaterally attaching to these offences, shall find the means of suppressing them.

CHAP. VI.

_The great anxiety of the Legislature to suppress the evils of Gaming:--The Misery and Wretchedness entailed on many respectable Families from this fatal propensity:--Often arising from the foolish vanity of mixing in what is stiled, Genteel Company; where Faro is introduced.--Games of Chance, though stigmatized by the Legislature, encouraged by high-sounding names, whose houses are opened for purposes odious and unlawful:--The Civil Magistrate called upon by his public duty, as well as by the feelings of humanity, to suppress such mischiefs.--The danger arising from such seminaries--No probability of any considerations of their illegality, or inhumanity, operating as a check, without the efforts of the Magistracy.--The evil tendency of such examples to servants in fashionable Families, who carry these vices into vulgar life; and many of whom, as well as persons of superior education, become Sharpers, Cheats, and Swindlers, from the habits they acquire.--A particular Statement of the proceedings of persons who have set up Gaming Houses as regular Partnership-Concerns; and of the Evils resulting therefrom.--Of Lottery Insurers of the Higher Cla.s.s.--Of Lottery Offices opened for Insurance--Proposed Remedies.--Three Plans suggested to the Author by Correspondents._

Gaming is the source from which has sprung up all that race of cheats, swindlers, and sharpers, some of whose nefarious practices have already been noticed, and the remainder of which it is the object of the Author to develope in this chapter.

Such has been the anxiety of the Legislature to suppress this evil, that so early as the reign of Queen Anne, this abandoned and mischievous race of men seems to have attracted its notice in a very particular degree; for the act of the 9th year of that reign (cap. 14.

---- 6, 7,) after reciting, "_that divers lewd and dissolute persons live at great expences, having no visible estate, profession, or calling, to maintain themselves; but support these expences by Gaming only_; Enacts, _that any two Justices may cause to be brought before them, all persons within their limits whom they shall have just cause to suspect to have no visible estate, profession, or calling, to maintain themselves by; but do for the most part support themselves by Gaming; and if such persons shall not make it appear to such Justices that the princ.i.p.al part of their expences is not maintained by gaming, they are to be bound to their good behaviour for a twelve-month; and in default of sufficient security, to be committed to prison, until they can find the same; and if security shall be given, it will be forfeited on their playing or betting at any one time, for more than the value of twenty shillings_."

If, in conformity to the _spirit_ of this wise statute, sharpers of every denomination, who support themselves by a variety of cheating and swindling practices, without having any visible means of living, were in like manner to be called upon to find security for their good behaviour, in all cases where they cannot shew they have the means of subsisting themselves honestly, the number of these Pests of Society, under a general Police and an active and zealous Magistracy, would soon be diminished, if not totally annihilated.

By the 12th of George the Second, (cap. 28. -- 2, 3,) "_the Games of Faro, Hazard, &c. are declared to be Lotteries, subjecting the persons who keep them to a penalty of two hundred pounds, and those who play to fifty pounds_."--_One_ witness only is necessary to prove the offence before any Justice of the Peace; _and the Justice forfeits ten pounds if he neglects to do his duty under the Act_:--and under this Act, which is connected with the statute 8th of George I. cap. 2, it seems that "_the keeper of a Faro Table may be prosecuted even for a penalty of five hundred pounds_."

Notwithstanding these salutary laws, to the reproach of the Police of the Metropolis, houses have been opened, even under the sanction of high-sounding names, where an indiscriminate mixture of all ranks was to be found, from the _finished sharper_ to the _raw inexperienced youth_. And where all those evils existed in full force, which it was the object of the Legislature to remove.

Though it is hoped that this iniquitous System of plunder, has of late been somewhat restrained by the wholesome administration of the Laws, under the excellent Chief Justice who presides in the High Criminal Department of the Country, in consequence of the detection of Criminals, through the meritorious vigilance and attention of the Magistrates; to which the Author of this work, by bringing the evil so prominently under the view of the Public, may flatter himself in having been in some small degree instrumental: Still it is much to be feared, that the time is not yet arrived which would induce him to withhold the following narrative.

GAMING, although at all times an object highly deserving attention, and calling for the exertions of Magistrates, never appeared either to have a.s.sumed so alarming an aspect, or to have been conducted upon the methodized system of _Partnership-Concerns_, wherein pecuniary capitals were embarked, till about the years 1777 and 1778, when the vast licence which was given to those abominable engines of fraud, EO Tables, and the great length of time which elapsed before a check was given to them by the Police, afforded a number of dissolute and abandoned characters, who resorted to these baneful subterfuges for support, an opportunity of acquiring property: This was afterwards increased in low Gaming Houses, and by following up the same system at Newmarket, and other places of fashionable resort, and in the Lottery; until at length, without any property at the outset, or any visible means of lawful support, a sum of money, little short of _One Million Sterling_, is said to have been acquired by a cla.s.s of individuals originally (with some few exceptions) of the lowest and most depraved order of Society. This enormous ma.s.s of wealth (acquired no doubt by entailing misery on many worthy and respectable Families, and driving the unhappy victims to acts of desperation and suicide,) is said to have been afterwards engaged as a great and an efficient capital for carrying on various illegal Establishments; particularly Gaming-Houses, and Shops for fraudulent Insurances in the Lottery; together with such objects of dissipation as the Races at Newmarket and other places of _fashionable_ resort, held out: all which were employed as the means of increasing and improving the ill-gotten wealth of the parties engaged in these nefarious pursuits.

A System, grown to such an enormous height, had, of course, its rise by progressive advances. Several of those who now roll in their gaudy carriages, and a.s.sociate with some men of high rank and fashion, may be found upon the Registers of the Old Bailey; or traced to the vagrant pursuit of turning, with their own hands, EO Tables in the open streets; These mischievous Members of Society, through the wealth obtained by a course of procedure diametrically opposite to Law, are, by a strange perversion, sheltered from the operation of that Justice, which every act of their lives has offended: they bask in the sun-shine of prosperity; while thousands, who owe their distress and ruin to the horrid designs thus _executed_, _invigorated_ and _extended_, are pining in misery and want.

Certain it is, that the mischiefs arising from the rapid increase, and from the vast extent of capital employed in these Systems of ruin and depravity, have become great and alarming beyond calculation; as will be evinced by developing the nature of the very dangerous Confederacy which systematically moves and directs this vast Machine of destruction--composed in general of men who have been reared and educated under the influence of every species of depravity which can debase the human character.

Wherever Interest or resentment suggests to their minds a line of conduct calculated to gratify any base or illegal propensity; it is immediately indulged. Some are taken into this iniquitous Partnership for their dexterity in securing the dice; or in dealing cards at Faro.--Informers are apprehended and imprisoned upon writs, obtained, by perjury, to deter others from similar attacks. Witnesses are suborned--officers of justice are bribed, wherever it can be done, by large sums of money[34]--ruffians and bludgeon-men are employed to resist the Civil Power, where pecuniary gratuities fail--and houses are barricadoed and guarded by armed men: thereby offering defiance to the common exertions of the Laws, and opposing the regular authority of Magistrates.

[Footnote 34: An Affidavit, made not very long since in one of the superior Courts of Justice, ill.u.s.trates this observation in a very striking degree. It is in these words--"That it is almost impossible to convict persons keeping Gaming-Houses before the Magistrates, by reason of the enormous wealth generally applied to the corruption of unwilling evidence brought forward to support the charge--That on an information exhibited against one of the Partners of a Gaming-House, he got himself discharged by deterring some of the witnesses from appearing, and by the perjury of another partner who was examined as a witness, and for which he then stood indicted--That divers of these Gaming-Houses were kept by practising attornies, who, by threatening indictments for pretended Conspiracies, and other infamous means, have deterred persons from prosecuting them."]

It is impossible to contemplate a Confederacy thus circ.u.mstanced, so powerful from its immense pecuniary resources, and so mischievous and oppressive from the depravity which directs these resources, without feeling an anxiety to see the strong arm of the Law still further and unremittingly exerted for the purpose of effectually destroying it.

Whilst one part of the immense property by which this confederacy was so strongly fortified was employed in the establishment of _Gaming-Houses_, holding out the most fascinating allurements to giddy young _men of fortune_, and others, having access to money, by means of splendid entertainments,[35] and regular suppers, with abundance of the choicest wines, so as to form a genteel lounge for the dissipated and unwary; another part of the capital was said to form the stock which composes the various Faro-Banks which were to be found at the routes of _Ladies of Fashion_: Thus drawing into this vortex of iniquity and ruin, not only the _males_, but also the _females_ of the thoughtless and opulent part of Society; who too easily became a prey to that idle vanity which frequently overpowers reason and reflection; and the delusion of which is seldom terminated till it is too late.

[Footnote 35: The expence of entertainments at a Gaming-House of the highest cla.s.s, during eight months, has been said to exceed _Six Thousand Guineas_! What must the profits be to afford such a profusion?]

Evil example, when thus sanctioned by apparent respectability, and by the dazzling blandishment of rank and fashion, is so intoxicating to those who have either suddenly acquired riches, or who are young and inexperienced, that it almost ceases to be a matter of wonder that the fatal propensity to Gaming should become universal; extending itself over all ranks in Society in a degree scarcely to be credited, but by those who will attentively investigate the subject.

At the commencement of the troubles in France, and before this Country was visited by the hordes of Emigrants of all descriptions, who fixed a temporary or permanent residence in this Metropolis, the number of Gaming-Houses (exclusive of those that are select, and have long been established by Subscription,) did not exceed above _four_ or _five_: In the year 1797, not less than _thirty_ were said to be actually open; where, besides _Faro_ and _Hazard_, the foreign games of _Roulet_, and _Rouge et Noir_, were introduced, and where there existed a regular gradation of establishment, accommodating to all ranks; from the man of fashion, down to the thief, the burglar, and the pick-pocket--where immense sums of money were played for every evening, for eight months in the year.[36]

[Footnote 36: The latter part of the Affidavit, already mentioned, also ill.u.s.trates these a.s.sertions, and proves that they are but too well founded: It states--"That Gaming-Houses have increased to such a degree, that there were lately not less than six in one street near the Hay-Market, at all which persons stood at the door to entice pa.s.sengers to play--That the generality of persons keeping these houses are _prize-fighters_, and persons of a desperate description, who threaten a.s.sa.s.sination to any person who will molest them."]

In a commercial Country, and in a great Metropolis, where from the vast extent of its trade and manufactures, and from the periodical issue of above Twenty Millions annually, arising from dividends on funded security, there must be an immense circulation of property, the danger is not to be conceived, from the allurements which are thus held out to young men in business, having the command of money, as well as to the clerks of merchants, bankers, and others concerned in different branches of trade: In fact, it is well known, that too many of this cla.s.s resort at present to these destructive scenes of vice, idleness, and misfortune.[37]

[Footnote 37: The same Affidavit further states--"That the princ.i.p.al Gaming Houses at the West end of the Town have stated days on which they have luxurious dinners, (Sunday being the chief day,) to which they contrive to get invited merchants' and bankers' clerks, and other persons intrusted with money; and that it has been calculated, (and the calculation was believed not to be over-rated,) that the expences attendant on such houses, amounted to .150,000 yearly, and that the keepers of such houses, by means of their enormous wealth, bid defiance to all prosecutions, some of them having acquired from 50 to .100,000 each; considerable estates have been frequently won by them in the course of one sitting."]

The mind shrinks with horror at the existence of a System in the Metropolis, unknown to our ancestors, even in the worst periods of their dissipation; when a _Ward_, a _Waters_, and a _Chartres_, insulted public morals by their vices and their crimes: for then no regular Establishments--no systematic concerns for carrying on this nefarious trade, were known.--No Partnerships in Gaming-Houses, were conducted with the regularity of Commercial Houses.

But these Partnerships have not been confined to Gaming-Houses alone.

A considerable proportion of the immense capital which the conductors of the System possess, is employed periodically in the _two Lotteries_, in _Fraudulent Insurances_, where, like the Faro Bank, the chances are so calculated as to yield about 30 per cent. profit to the Gambling proprietors; and from the extent to which these transactions have been, and we fear still are carried, no doubt can be entertained that the annual gains must be immense.--It has, indeed, been stated, with an appearance of truth, that a single individual acquired no less than .60,000 during one English Lottery!

Although it is impossible to be perfectly accurate in any estimate which can be formed; for in this, as in all other cases where calculations are introduced in this Work, accuracy to a point is not to be expected; yet when all circ.u.mstances are considered, there appear just grounds to suppose that the following Statement, placing the whole in one connected point of view, may convey to the Reader no very imperfect idea of the vast and unparalleled extent to which this horrid mischief had arrived; and to which, if not closely watched, it may yet rise once more.

GAMING.

Persons Money Yearly attached. played aggregate for lost and nightly. won.

1. 7 Subscription Houses open one-third of the Year, or 100 nights _suppose_ 1000 2000 1,400,000

2. 15 Houses of a superior cla.s.s one-third of the Year, or 100 nights ---- 3000 2000 3,000,000

3. 15 Houses of an inferior cla.s.s one-half of the Year, or 150 Nights ---- 3000 1000 2,225,000

4. 6 Ladies' Gaming Houses 50 Nights ---- 1000 2000 600,000 --------- 7,215,000

FRAUDULENT INSURANCES IN THE LOTTERY.

350 Insurance Offices at 100_l._ a day average, during the 33 days of the Irish Lottery 1,155,000

400 Insurance Offices at 150_l._ a day average, during the 33 days[38] of the English Lottery 1,980,000 --------- 3,135,000 ---------- Total 10,460,000 ----------

[Footnote 38: The longer the Lottery continues, the greater the evil.

A Lottery of 60,000 Tickets is therefore a much greater evil than one of 50,000: and that in a ratio more than proportionate to the numbers in each.]

This aggregate is only to be considered as shewing the mere interchange of property from one hand to another; yet when it is recollected that the operation must progressively produce a certain loss, with not many exceptions, to all the innocent and unsuspecting adventurers either at Pharo or the Lottery, with an almost uniform gain to the proprietors; the result is shocking to reflect upon.--To individual families in easy circ.u.mstances where this unfortunate mania prevails, as well as to the ma.s.s of the people who are fascinated by the delusion of the Lottery Insurances, it is the worst of all misfortunes.--By seizing every opportunity to take advantage of this unhappy bias, it is no uncommon thing to see the pennyless miscreant of to-day become the opulent gambler of to-morrow: leaving the unhappy sufferers often no alternative but exile, beggary, or a prison; or perhaps, rendered desperate by reflecting on the folly of their conduct, to end their days by suicide,[39] while wives, children, and dependants are suddenly reduced from affluence to the lowest abyss of misery.

[Footnote 39: The Gambling and Lottery transactions of one individual in this great Metropolis, are said to be productive of from ten to fifteen suicides annually.]

In contemplating these vast establishments of regular and systematic fraud and depredation upon the Public, in all the hideous forms which they a.s.sume, nothing is so much to be lamented as the unconquerable spirit which draws such a mult.i.tude of the lower ranks of Society into the vortex of the Lottery.

The agents in this iniquitous System, availing themselves of the existence of the delusion, spare no pains to keep it alive; so that the evil extends far and wide, and the mischiefs, distresses, and calamities resulting from it, were it possible to detail them, would form a catalogue of sufferings of which the opulent and luxurious have no conception.