face, laid down his razor, swearing that
he would never shave another man so long as he lived, and immediately
became the hero of the card table, the _bones_, the _box_, and the
_Cockpit?_'

Capital was not the only qualification for admission into the
Confederacy of Gambling. Some of the members were taken into partnership
on account of their dexterity in 'securing' dice or 'dealing' cards. One
is said to have been actually a sharer in every 'Hell' at the West-End
of the Town, because he was feared as much as he was detested by the
firms, who had reason to know that he would 'peach' if not kept quiet.
Informers against the illegal and iniquitous associations were arrested
and imprisoned upon writs, obtained by perjury--to deter others from
similar attacks; witnesses were suborned; officers of justice bribed;
ruffians and bludgeon-men employed, where gratuities failed; personal
violence and even assassination threatened to all who dared to expose
the crying evil--among others, to Stockdale, the well-known publisher of
the day, in Piccadilly.

Then came upon the nation the muddy flood of French emigrants, poured
forth by the Great Revolution--a set of men, speaking generally, whose
vices contaminated the very atmosphere.

Before the advent of these worthies the number of gambling houses in the
metropolis, exclusive of those so long established by subscription, was
not more than half-a-dozen; but by the year 1820 they had increased to
nearly fifty. Besides _Faro_ and _Hazard_, the foreign games of
_Macao, Roulette, Rouge et Noir_, &c., were introduced, and there was a
graduated accommodation for all ranks, from the Peer of the Realm to the
Highwayman, the Burglar, and the Pick et.

At one of the watering-places, in 1803, a baronet lost L20,000 at play,
and a bond for L7000. This will scarcely surprise us when we consider
that at the time above five hundred notorious characters supported
themselves in the metropolis by this species of robbery, and in
the summer spread themselves through the watering-places for their
professional operations. Some of them kept bankers, and were possessed
of considerable property in the funds and in land, and went their
_circuits_ as regularly as the judges. Most excellent judges they were,
too, of the condition of a 'pigeon.'

In a great commercial city where, from the extent of its trade,
manufacture, and revenue, there must be an immense circulation of
property, the danger is not to