The Express.
London, England, 1868-05-30 00:00:00

bRITAN'II 4.

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11101 iIY THY. cram.: 1... t• Nlefoloil.t..
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A SECON D EDITION a the EXPRESS,

Airmo

The Liked Foreign T,rlvg,rams ; tl,e Lutest City ;
hallway, am! other ; !'porting,
Inktiligunce,

PUBLIMiED
EVERY EVENING.

LOA' Ilt-AT, 1/17'1'111).1F, M.ll :i1),

7ETTING.

1- 11,1 yews ag•i we had ii,xl::tg-slitips at
every street collier. ambling was made easy to
the shop lad, the aelie,i!-boy, the petty clerk—
even to tbe common beggar who chose accumu-
late sixpence or a altilling out of his carnage for
the day. Lints were :in view, mill the market
odds given upon all the events ef the year. These
Lung in dingy whitlows or buttered from dis-
reputable doorwa:,•a, mil were carefully Adapted
to the lowest pecuniary capacity. Neither capital,
we knowledge, nor character was required in the

bookmakers. Before every Derby, or St. Low,
or Ascot week they cropped to the surfs*, is
shoals ; after each rave was over Many of
them disappeared suddenly and *mysteriously,
and their places knew them no more:
Ready money was paid over the counter
by the people taking the odds, who re-
ceived a dingy bit of cardboard with
"Sufp/;ce 8 to 1 to Is. Derby," or "Flatcatrher
"4 to 1 to 2s. 6d. et.ester Cup," scrawled on it in
return. In theory the eight shillings or the four
half-crowns were paid to the fortunate investor
the morning after the animal he had backed won.
But this happy consummation depended merely
upon the good faith, or to put it plainly, upon the in-
terest of the list-keeper. If the gains of the latter ex-
ceeded his losses he generally paid, and his con-
nection spread. Rut if the investments on the
winning horse exceeded in amount the sums put
on the animals defeated, the resource of putting
up the " office " shutters and departing without
beat of drum was unfailingly open. The
nobk sportsmen from the desks and tills of
London and our principal provincial towns were
thus provided with a doubk excitement. Their
anxiety as to the performance of the horse of
their choice was supplemented by natural tremors
concerning di, honesty of the stranger they had
trusted. The most pretentious establishments
attracted the greatest confidence, and their gains
were enormous from the multiplicity of petty sums
they received. The smallness of the fish swept into
their net is almost inconceivable now. One respect-
able tavern in Long acre enjoyed quite a reputa-
' tion for aristocratic exclusiveness through refusing
to open lists for a lower slim than five shillings.
Another in the nAghbourhoial of the Strand
watrraide was SlT3i!Arly looked up to for de-
clining shilling beta. At petty cigar shops
lined with dummy boxes, and the whole stock-in-
trade of whirl. might be worth five pounds ; at
shabby little "offices.' whose interior recalled
the medical department in Anne° and Juliet ; at
privat • houses and public-houses ; at barbers',
tailors', and bookmakers', betting lists. The
• evil was eilormoua. (liven the same facilities for
• staking a shilling as 1-r purchasing a tart, and it is
not difficult to estimate the result upon the youug.
The prisons and the hulks every year received
' their quota of iiivenile gamblers who had mistaken
• th:dr masters' money for their own ; society grew
alarmed Aral made energetic protest, until, in
' 1833, betting Louses were si!ppressed by Act of
Parliament. _ .

Of course the snake was only scotched, not
killed. Lists are still made, petty sums are still
staked, lint-keepers abscond, and youths of
all ages are betting now. But the thing—except
in the ease of the privileged classes or
at ;specified times—has to be done in cor-
ners and away from the face of day.
Perhaps it i 3 a result of this that betting and the
turmoil of odds-giving has increased a hundred fold
epon our great race-courses. The noisy speeders
who make day hideous have been more numerous
than ever at the Epsom meeting which closed
yesterday. Twenty years ago the bookmakers
formed lint an insignificant item in the inclosure
before the (rand Stand. They now fill
it ;led overelow into an interminable series
of supplemeutary enclosures which have
sprung up between it and the paddock. The
two supposed " Welchers " summarily ejected
from the main ring yesterikay, and who were
peeled like oranges, and knocked to and fro like
racket-belle, by their angry creditors until rescued
by the ponce, formed but A fractional percentage
lof the seething mass of bookmakers who, in
eccentric dress, gaady belts, and advertising hats,
which, with name and address printed outside,
made their :strange eearers I ok as if labelled
es curiosities, were to be seen paying away
their gold and crumpled notes directly the
'•^etas asses over. Nor does it in-
ta:iably happen, as is let; down by our old
preacher of hard trot' a that "gambling finds a
"111311 a sully and leave hint a knave." We heard
yesterday of use goteless innocent who was
swindled out of his money through :ielieving in
'i.e eneuly long e-ide given to a '' bonnet " made
ep ass clereynein front the ceauitry ; but such
liettence- ef misplaced con'adence are happily rare.
and, except at raceeeeetirge, it is now always
lieceeniry ro :we:, the list-keepers out.
The pictures in. " Heueehold Words" of a
wail apprentice, parcel ender arm, standing
o: tip toe in the Pmseell.etreet betting-shop to de-
his shilling, and the same shop surrounded
by a elem.} one creird of defrauded urchins on the
ch.y alter a race are mu longer possible. The
bunt who Let must see!: temptation instead
ef havice; it forced upon therm There is,
after all, a wide difference between making a
• pil-
nrinaage to ' The Mine" in Farringdon-street,
" The Trees" in Hyde-park, or the back street by
the famous brewery, there to be pushed and
hustled by a yelling, shrieking, blaspheming, and
the'- .e, to ..nterieg a shop in a respectable
• thoroughfare, and tacit g part in its legitimate
day's trade. Besides, every eow and then the
police ewoop Lionel Nee: :their quarry, and thebetting
men pay Ate penalty of violating the law. That
this is not done oftener is a tacit concession to
the epirit of gambling; and the practice of
our police authorities :beet], t. be to wink
d as long as possible. and then to condone past
ffleilicieecy by a spasmodic but determined raid.
Dot if betting is too deeply rooted in the
national ellsratter to be abolished by police
regulatiove, we may at least insist upon
public (bailey being -lee r ed in its indul-
gence. The whole teller British legislation has
been iii this direction. Ever --ince gaming was,
eccording to CA :I)EN, introduced into this country
by the Saxons, when the losers were sold into
slavery Hee mercliande steady efferts have been
made to teush it. Public gaming-houses were
:abolished in Englaiid forty years before the plague.
• 'ore than 100/. was absolved
I from paying by an enactment passed by the
seeond rle parliament of QUEEN
ANNL decreed that there who lost so much as 10/.
and paid it, might recover their money at common
law. Uo.. Acted game-house keepers were sen-
tenced to hard labour in the reign of Geoece
; and the police sere empowered to break into
I gambling Louses and to take all present—players as
well :e; lieopere and servants—into custody soon
after her Ms.:EsTv came to the Throne. Nor
have thinker, and philosophers been remiss in
protesting against the national vice. That Lord
IfititflEßT of (111.U:II.V, whose memoirs, edited
Ly Eloaene WA Leone, and printed at Strawberry-
feint the first instate e of English auto-
biography, emphatically warns his contemporaries
against the " dicing.houses, where cheaters meet,
and ceeeo young gentlemen out of their money,"
e..ce while admitting the principle of gambling
in the plant warning :

Play not for gain, but port ; who plays for more
Than 1:e crib lose with pleasure, stakes his heart,
l'erhaps his wife 4 too. and whom she bath bore.
iippoati the essence of the whole subject is
c...iltt,ined in this advice. Bat the intemperate
pitmen, who " knew as well as ony mon when
" he'd Lad over much to drink, and who knew

hed ,
to just • benlior

" as wsE as ony > wh
" but vilio newer _
" bid spougb," was* type of Ig veld.
The people wbo bdinost baud are the.. who
never know when they've hid enough. It tipulil
be useless to inveigh against the eweepstakdr in a
country-house or friendly coterie ; the =oh desi-
derided " interest in the race ;" the modest bet
between friends, or even the moderate public
" investment. " Nor is it desirable that
we should revive such en interference with
the liberty of the subject as that which some
•
eighty years since sent Lady BC VIC INGHAM-.
SHIRE, Lady E. LVITRELL, and Mrs.
STUART to Marlborough-street Police-oftioe, there
to be fined 50/. each for playing faro at the
private house of the former. Nowadays no spite-
ful servants could vent their malice upon their
mistress by bringing her into court on a charge of
gambling. as they did in Lady Bui KI NI iIIAMAH I KWH
case, and there are few people who would be
willing to acknowledge such a power. After all,
betting must be left mainly to the common sense of
the nation. Thefamous medical controversy between
the opponents of, and the advocates for, the use of
tobacco, resolved itself into the admission that it
might be used with comparative impunity, but that
it was universally injurious when indulged in to
excess. The same thing may be said of betting,
which many competent judges declare, despite
restrictions, to be more rife in some quarters than
I ever.

THE REPEAL OF THE UNION.

Sixes their accession to office Her MA., E-sTY.,
Ministers have been unwilling instruments in
effecting various changes which they have described
as seriously impairing the British Consti-
tution. The Hoes SECRETARY in particular must
have been visited by many uneasy pangs, and the
process by which his conscience has absolved hint
would be an interesting study. Last night, how-
ever, he became a party to something which must
be beyond the range of self-forgiveness. As stated
by himself, he formally assented to the Repeal of
the Union. A 'week ago in his no-surrender
speech on Mr. Gi.awirosts's Suspensory Act. Mr.
HARDY spoke in the following terms :—" By the
" step which you take in this bill, and which you
" hope to perfect in a future bill, you are in fact
" and in law repealing the Union. (' No,' and
" cheers.) I say that, having consulted a very
" eminent lawyer on this subject. he told
" me—and I believe him—that unless you
" put in such a bill as this a saving
" clause reserving the Union, the Union
" would be ipso fast" repealed. (Cheers and Oppo-
" sition cries of Name.') I am willing to adopt
" the statement, and therefore as far as I am con-
" cerned I make myself responsible for it.•' Last
night, in reply to a question by Mr. GLADSTONE,
Mr. DISRAELI said of the measure so described :
" I think it is a bad bill and badly drawn ; but I
" do not think it is necessary for us to attempt to
" improve it. Therefore, I shall not offer
" any formal opposition in committee."
As the saving clause to which Mr. HARDY alluded
has not been inserted in the bill, Mr. HARDY,
through the mouth of his PREMIER, becomes a party
to the Repeal of the Union, and he thinksit unneces-
sary to improve an act which, if it passes, IPSO
facto, severs Ireland legislatively from the British
empire. We are unable to credit this in a repre-
sentative of the University- of Oxford, and look
forward consequently to an announcement of the
right hon. gentleman's secession from the Cabinet.

QUALIFIED

POISONS are rightly excluded from the domain of
Free Trade. In future, only properly qualified per-
sons
are to prepare pills. potions, and powders from
certain dangerous drugs enumerated in thesehedule
of a bill now before parliament. After a time no
fresh follower of physic may style himself
chemist and druggist, unless he shall have success-
fully passed an examination similar to the lower of
those now voluntarily encountered by aspirants to
the title of " Pharmaceutical chemist." This is a
wise regulation, for bad surgery is not
more mischievous than bad pharmacy ; the
public is already fairly protected from the one,
and is now offered protection from the other. The
most virulent poison may be :in excellent medi-
cine when administered in minute quanti-
ties, and medicines harmless in appropriate doses
may be poisonous if swallowed too freely. On such
points people generally are neither informed them-
selves, nor have any guarantee that complete
knowledge is possessed by the druggist whose aid
they seek.
Among the indirect effects of the new legislation
will be the rise, it is to be hoped. tsf a class of
tradesmen who will be chemists in reality as well
as in name. Chemistry is now taught in
most schools, and often forms the subject
of amusement and instruction of the family, but
boys usually seek in vain for chemicals, apparatus,
or information of the neighbouring druggist.
The trade in photographic chemicals seems
also to have slipped away from him ; in-
deed in some cases we doubt if he knows how to
test the purity of his own wares. So far as we can
see, the proposed alteration and extension of the
Pharmacy Act can only be,-productive of good.

Tut: overseers at Salford have decided, as far as
their powers extend, the debated question of
woman suffrage. After giving the matter their
best attention, they have arrived at the conclusion
that " they love no alternative but to place all
" duly qualified females on the next parliamentary
" register for the borough." The new Reform Act
distinctly limits the franchise to " every man" who
satisfies the conditions laid down ; but the overseers
areof opinion that this does not necessarily exclude
women, as an act passed in the thirteenth year of
her MAJESTY provides " that in all acts words im-
porting the masculine gender shall be deemed
and taken to include females . . unless
the contrary as to gender . .is expressly
provided." The Manchester Gwarrl;au disturbs
the delight of the Salford ladies by a hint as to
what the Revising Barrister may say, and by doubting
whether overseers' law possesses the authority of a
dictum from the Court of Queen's Bench.

PAIIK-LANE.—in the matter of the Park-lane
Improvement Bill, the committee Lave agreed to a 'pedal
report, published this morning, to the effect that, in their
opki,n, the inconvenience at present experienced from
the over-crowded state of the teethe of Palk-lone would be
best obviated by opening up Hamilton-place as a thorough-
fare for public traffic, with a w:clth of not less than GO feet
midway, to be obtained by removing the hcn s and other
buildings on the eastern aide. _ _ .

There appears to be still a brick demand for emi-
pmt ships at Queenstowr. TLe Cunard extra steamer
Siberia called them on Wednesday sal tuck away 170
p 'imagers for New lork. . _ .

The Viceroy of Egypt is about to embark for
Paris. During the absence of the Vice:oy Shir:ff Naha
will act as his regent

(TUB Y.)

In the opinion et Ike Timms, the constitutional
disorganisation which now prevails renders it imperative
civic tie 'primae:A t, socelerate the dissolution; and
the public suspicion will not be allayed until something
mere than vogue &aliveness are put forwards. an earnest
that what every one preform to desire shall be realised.
In otter aiticies the Tines treats of a paper in the Reeve
des Lea: Monde, attributed to the bead of the Orleans
family, in which the Irish church is discussed; supports
Mr. 'Saline Cothran* in his arguments on behalf of a
change f It. for the new law courts from the Carey-
street tide to the embankment ; and discusses the evils
which follow excessive turf beta.

The Doily Nina soonest' that Mr. (Redstonels iota• I
station that if ministers do not act promptly in arranging
foe a general election the House of Commons most take
the matter Into its own hands, will probably relieve Mr.
Disraeli of some of the scruples which he now feels at
hastening the registration. The report of the aelikt com-
mittee on the Boundary Bill will, in the opinion of the
Daily News, be received with satisfaction by the country.
The short statement of its contents made by Mr. Walpole
last night enables us to estimate its results with
sufficient accuracy to perceive that some of the
most objectionable features of the meuu•e are now
proposed to be eliminated from it. In another
column the Daily News claims the result of the Rest
Worcesteoshire election as a proof of the failure of the
new election tactics which the ministerial party have
adopted during the last three mouths. The impottant
Protestant oonatikiesey which voted yesterday has not
been so led astray by the rhetoric of archdeacons as to see
defenders of its faith in ministers who would create a
Roman catholic university, pay its expenses, and endow
its scholarships and oolkges.
Mr. Disraeli, the Post says, scarcely takes the trouble
to conceal from the bppoeition th►t be treats them and
their votes with the most utter contempt. With the
threat of immedi►te dissolution in case of s refusal to
grant the neoessery supplies, he knows he can tide corer
the remainder of the session.
The Telegraph is in favour of the appointment of a select
committee to investigate the difficulties of the position
respecting registrations.
The Star threatens Mr. Disraeli with the censure of
parliament if be fail to fulfil the pledge given by Mr.
I Hardy, that legislative provision shall be distinctly made
for a dissolution on the naiad possible day.
According to the Standard, Lord Russell was utterly
discomfited last night by Lord Malmesbury, whs has
seldom been heard to better advantage.