The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-01 00:00:00

trous and translucent atmosphere ; but our meadows
are the greenest in the world. We have not vineyard',
but we have the most punctual corn fields ever
known. We have not a gay life in theppes air;
but we have a better aggregate of hoops than any
other people and while every othev *tins of oar
soil is more fruitful, " CiOD'S acre "is, as we see, less
heavily sown than in other lands. We want much
yet,—much that it is a shame to be still in want of
—to make our national existence what it might be
and ought to be; but still it is true that it is a sin-
gular blessing to live in Old England.

TO-DAY, December the first, the Betting House
, Nuisanoe is to be stopped—it there is any virtue in
"an Act of Parliament. The Legislature has de-
cided that from and after this morning there
shall be no more ruin retailed by sixpennyworths
to shop-boys, clerks, apprentices, pages, men-ser-
vants, or others. There are to be no more
chances for black-legs to play upon the love of
gaming which it is to be feared is too natural
an element in the composition of most of us to
need much temptation to bring it out. The myste-
rious-looking " commission offices," in which, as you
looked into them, there appeared nothing to be sold,
and no one to sell it, are to be closed for ever. The
house where betting transactions shall be carried on'
in future is "to be deemed," the Act says, "a com-
mon nuisance, and contrary to law." The honest
gentlemen who have at behind the pigeon-holes,
and dispensed "promises to pay" fabulous sums
at the cheapest of all rates, are, if they
exercise their innocent vocation in future, "de-
clared liable to a penalty not exceeding
501., and in case of noo-payment to imprisonment
with or without hard labour for any time not ex-
ceeding three months." Here is a ruthless violation
of the vested right that these worthies in tight drab,
trowsera and cut-away coats have hitherto enjoyed
in the ignorance or cupidity of boys and men who
were greedy enough to venture upon the vice of
betting. Will they find a hole by which they can escape
the terrible contingencies consequent upon a viola-
tion of the law ? " Any person (says the Art) keep-
ing any such house, or assisting therein, who shall
receive, directly or indirectly, any money or valuable
thing as a pledge on condition of paying any sum
on the happening of any contingency relating to a
horse race, or any fight, game, &c., and giving
any acknowledgment or receipt purporting to
entitle the bearer to any sum on the hap-
pening of such contingency," is liable to
the tread-wheel. The betting-house keeper's occu-
pation is gone when his shop is declared a com-
mon nuisance, which policemen are authorised to
enter by " breaking doors," &c., "if necessary." His
shop was his castle, his manufactory of riches, his
bank. He can't creep down areas to his clients the
servants, or eater decent men's shops or offices to
look out for his customers the clerks or appren-
tices, or waylay errand boys in the streets,
offering his tickets for sale. Credulous as
his dupes are, they are not likely to be seduced
into folly by the temptations of a man without a
"local habitation or a name." His "office" made
the man. He is nothing without it. He would be
laughed at by the weakest of urchins that ever covered
his chest with a panoply of buttons, if he offered to
sell fora shilling a " promise to pay " for a, although
the same boy would have considered the ticket
cheap at treble the money, if the vendor had
a roof over his head, and could dispense
fictitious millions through the mysterious pigeon-
hole. He will have either to endure the terrible
reality of working for an honest living, or extract-
ing money out of his late clients' pockets by the
rude process of " picking and stealing." The plate
and spoons, the proceeds of which came into his
hands without his incurring any danger, he can now
only expect to obtain as the reward of clever shop-
lifting or desperate burglary. He will no longer be
able to calculate his gains by making a probable
estimate of the wages of the servants and clerks in
the neighbourhood. His California is blotted out of
the map.
But there are other gentry who ought to be affected
by the operation of the stream which the Legislature
has diverted through the Angean Stable of moral
filth generated by betting. There are certain public
prints which have earned a dirty notoriety and a
disreputable position by their advocacy of
the betting-houses, the proprietors et which repaid
the service of the journalistic parasite by advertise-
ments- Each "office" of iniquity was also furnished
with one or two copies of the journal which advo-
cated the corrupt cause, and which contained not
only the " tips," but congenial reports about the
almost extinct ruffianism of the " prize ring." The
destruction of the betting houses will—it is to be
hoped—put an end to all the disgraceful profits
which the journals in question derived from such
sources.

While, however, society has cause for gratulation
in its delivery from one great cause of ruin and
demoralisation of the working classes, it must not be
considered to have met with due protection from the
Legislature until something more oan be done to check
the progress of this " sporting tip " system. The
columns of the newspapers we have alluded to
abound in advertisements from unknown gentry,
_

_ .
who offer to sell invaluable knowledge as to
the result of a coining race on receipt of
a certain sum. These speculators do not
hesitate to establish confidence in the minds of their
dopes by laying claim to the possession of exclusive
knowledge, which, if they really possessed, they
could only have acquired dishonestly. They assert
their perfect knowledge of how a coming affair is to
terminate, while, at the same time, they can only
have this certainty upon the supposition that there
is a conspiracy somewhere, and they have managed to
acquire a knowledge of the details. One paper in
London gives an editorial sanction—such as it is—
to these plunderers of the unwary :—men who deserve
three months of the tread-wheel as richly as any
betting-house scamp in London. If fortune-tellers
arc not allowed to practise upon the credulity of the
public, we cannot see why men, who carry on their
operations upon a scale infinitely more extended
should be suffered to prey upon society. Every man
who pretends to have certain knowledge of the ter-
mination of a race to come, is either an impostor or a
conspirator. He either tells a lie, or has gained his
information dishonourably ; and in either case
he is a tit object for the attention of the
Legislature. The whole system connected with
betting as it was carried un in the " offices " was a
disgrace to the turf, and the manner in which the
system has been fostered by certain newspapers
lis disreputable to the press. The " prophets"
and others who trade upon poor human credulity
arc public pests, and oely find place for their
mischievous effusions in journals which chronicle
the cluing: of the dregs of society, and who choose
their heroes among the ruffians of the ring. But
even in these obscure corners their injurious " doings"
should be stopped by the police.

Poult;GAL.—Letters received from Madrid of the
24th ult. sta.e, that news of an insurrection at Oporto had
been rec•ired in the Spanish c►pital from Galicia. The
Cialllol Puhlieoha► a Utter from Badajos, dated the 21st
ult., which states that the 13th regiment of infantry has
risen in insurrection, in the direction of t►e Douro, and pro-
absed Dun Miguel ; and that Miguelites of note had
already brought many recruits to their rinks.