venturers for snuff-boxes, &c.
Despair is the gloomiest feature of the French character, and of which
gaming produces a frightful proportion, notwithstanding all that our
neighbours say about _our hanging and drowning in November:_
witness their suicides:--

In 1819: Suicides, 376; of which, 126 women.
1820: do. 325; do. 114 do.
1821: do. 348; do. 112 do.

Of the suicides of these three years 25, 50, and 36, were attributed to
love, and 52, 42, 43, to despair arising from _gaming, the
lottery_, &c. In the winter of 1826, several exaggerated losses by
gaming were circulated in Paris with great _finesse_, to enable
bankrupts to account for their deficiencies, many of whom were exposed
and deservedly punished.

A few words on the _prevention_ of gaming, the consideration of
which gave rise to this hasty sketch; I mean by dramatic exhibitions of
its direful effects. On our stage we have a pathetic tragedy by E.
Moore, which, though seldom acted, is a fine domestic moral to old and
young; but the author

"Was his own Beverley, a dupe to play."

It is scarcely necessary to allude to the recent transfers of a
celebrated French _expose_ of French gambling to our English stage,
otherwise than to question their moral tendency. The pathos of our
_Gamester_ may reach the heart; but the French pieces command no
such appeal to our sympathies. On the contrary, the vice is emblazoned
in such romantic and fitful fancies, that their effect is questionable,
especially on the majority of those who flock to such exhibitions. The
_extasies_ of the gamester are too seductive to be heightened by
dramatic effect; neither are they counterbalanced by their consesequent
misery, when the aim of these representations should be to outweigh
them; for the authenticated publication of a single prize in the lottery
has been known to seduce more adventurers than a thousand losses have
deterred from risk. But they keep up the dancing spirits of the
multitude, and it will be well if their influence extends no further.

PHILO.

[1] As the Palais Royal may be considered the central point of the
_maisons de jeu_, or gambling-houses, it will not be irrelevant
to give a brief sketch of them:--

The apartments which they occupy are on the first floor, and are
very spacious. Upon ascending the staircase is an antechamber, in
which are persons called _bouledogues_ (