The administration of the game-laws in England is in the hands of persons who are either game-preservers themselves, or who, generally speaking, are not un favourable to the system, and hence the rigour with which offences against the law are visited. Impartiality is scarcely to be expected when those who sit in judgment have to decide upon offenders against their own cherished privileges. Before the act 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 32 was passed, penalties for infractions of the game-laws could be recovered before one justice ; but now conviction can only take place before two justices, and an appeal lies to the quarter-sessions, but a certiorari is not allowed. There was no appeal for merly, and great obstacles were thrown in the way of obtaining a certiorari.
On the 27th of February, 1845, on the motion of Mr. Bright, M.P. for Durham, a select committee was appointed to in quire into the operation of the game-laws. At the close of the session the committee reported that they had not concluded their inquiry, and it was to be resumed in the session of 1846. Certain members of the committee voted against printing the evi dence already taken, and when the chair man, who had given notice of his inten tion, was about to bring the question before the House, the house was counted out. The evidence therefore could not be printed before 1846.
The number of certificates taken out annually to kill game is about 40,000 in Great Britain, and the number of licences to sell game about 800.
In other countries, as well as in Eng land, game-laws have •been an instrument of oppression. In France before the first revolution there were edicts for preserv ing game which "prohibited weeding and hoeing, lest the young partridges should be disturbed ; steeping seed, lest it should injure the game ; manuring with night soil, lest the flavour of the partridges should be injured by feeding on the corn so produced ; mowing hay, &c. before a certain time, so late as to spoil many crops, and taking away the stubble which would deprive the birds of shelter." (Arthur Young's Travels in France in 1787-88-89). The tyranny of the mano rial courts rendered it hopeless to escape from this oppressive system. The Cott stituent Assembly abolished this exclusive " droit de la Chasse," which the seigneurs arrogated to themselves. Offences against the game-taws in France are now few and simple, and the punishment trivial. GAMING, or GAMBLING, is an amusement, or we might properly call it a vice, which has always been com mon in all civilized countries and among all classes, but more particularly those who have no regular occupation. A passion for gaming is not confined to the nations called civilized : wher ever men have much leisure time and no pursuit which will occupy the mind and stimulate it to active exertion, the excitement of gaming, which is no thing more than the mixed pleasure and pain arising from the alternations of hope and fear, success and failure, is a neces sity which all men feel, though In differ ent degrees, according to the difference of temperament. The Germans, says Tacitns (lie Morass Germanorum, c. 24), stake their own persons, and the loser will go into voluntary slavery, and suffer himself to be bound and sold, though stronger than his antagonist ; and many savage nations at the present day are notoriously addicted to gambling. Gaming has been
described by Cotton, an amusing author who wrote in the beginning of the last century, as "an enchanting witchery got ten betwixt idleness and avarice." Be sides the pleasure derived from the ex citement that attends games of chance, there is no doubt that the desire to enjoy without labour is one motive which ope rates on a gambler ; but this motive operates more on those who are practised gamesters than on those who are begin ning the practice ; and instances are not wanting of men strongly addicted to gam ing, who have yet been indifferent to money, and whose pleasure has consisted in setting their property on a die.
In France, and many other parts of the Continent, government has derived a con siderable revenue from games of chance. In Paris, the exclusive right of keeping public gaming-houses was, until the year 1838, let out to one company, who paid an annual sum of 6,000,000 francs (about 240,0001.) for the privilege. They kept six houses, namely, Frascati's, the Salons, and four in the Palais Royal. In a trial in Paris, it came out in the course of the evi dence, that the clear profit for 1837, exclu sive of the duty, had been 1,900,000 francs (76,000/.), of which three-fourths was paid to the city of Paris, leaving the lessee 19,000/. for his own share. The average number of players per day was stated at 3000, and about 1000 more refused ad mittance. The games played were chiefly Roulette and Rouge-et-Noir, of which the 'atter is the favourite. It is very seldom that large sums are staked at Roulette, as the chances against the player are con sidered immense by professional men, a class of gentlemen who are gamblers by profession. Rouge-et-Noir is played with four packs of cards, and the • couleur ' which is nearest 31 wins ; the black being dealt for first, and then the red. All the houses were open from one o'clock in the afternoon till one or two after midnight ; and latterly till five or six in the morn ing. The highest play, especially at Frascati's, was carried on between three and six in the afternoon. Ten or twelve thousand francs were constantly lost at a sitting, and once within these few years 100,000 francs, which constituted the 'Banque' of the day, was won by a French nobleman. The actual chance of the table or Banque' is considered to be 7.1 per cent. above that of the player, supposing the game to be fairly played, as it no doubt was in Paris, under the old system; the cards being examined and stamped by the government, and there being an agent of the police always present and ready to detect any attempted fraud on the part of the company. But admitting the game to be fairly played, the coolness of the croupiers' or dealers, who had no interest at stake (the whole of the losses or gains being taken by the company °, and the large capital of the latter, made it absolutely impossible for the player to win, in the long ran ; nay, it is clear that he must lose, and in that proportion to his stake, which probably is regulated by his means. Nevertheless, under the in fluence of those causes which first lead men to gaming, confirmed by habit and example, they still continue to indulge their passion till they are reduced to beggary, which is often followed by suicide.