Mobile daily commercial register and patriot., 1841-05-28
RESENTMENT BY THE GRAND JURY. To THE HoN. E. $. DARGAN, Judge of the 10th


 The Grand Jurors, before closing their long and arduous session, during which they have endeayored to bring to the knowledge of the court, all the viola tons of the laws, of which they have had cognZance beg leave to present to the consideration of your Honor, what they conceive to be lamentable defect in one of the criminal laws of the State.
 From the multiplicity of indictments returned against persons for gaming, your Honor must have perceived, that this inquest has directed particular attention to that offence. And though they have been successful in bringing to the notice of the Court, ny of those who in the habit of gambling, yet owing to the imperlection of the Law on this sub ect, they have been unable to present others, who standing far above this degraded class in their social position, yet responsible than the profess sional gamester. The Grand Jurors allule to those owners of houses, who annually their tene- ments to these disreputable men, with full knowl- edge, that the Faro Bank, the Roulette Table, and other prohibited games, destructive to the moral sense, utterly at war with the well heinz of ndi- vduas, and the good order of society," to be kept and exhibited in them.
 The Grand Jurors have reason to know that some of their fe0w-ctizens, who stand high in the esti- nation of the pubc-whose elevated position and intelligence should make them shining exemplars to the mass have so far yielded to unworthy craving for pecuniary gam, to willingly lend their aid to the establishment of the vice of gaming in city, by knowingly accepting notorious gamblers as their te- nants.
 
 acerised by commendable severity, do not, in the opinion of the Grand Jurors, embrace the of per- who rent out their houses for the purpose of ga ming, and relinqush for time all control them.
 They believe that the law only reaches the oecu- pant and not the of the tenement though the latter knowingly disposes of it for the unlawful pur pose.
 The Jurors have ascertained that certain localities within the city have been known long as resorts, where the dissolutc and tloughtess find the healthy excitement of gaming, that the owners de- mand and obtain exorbitant for them, forgetting that while they are thus ministering their own d- seased appetite for gain, they are working shoulder to shoulder with that moral bankru, the gambler, in ruining the fortunes and characters of hundreds of their feow-ctizens.
 The Grand Jurors feel no hesitation in expressing their opinions that such conduct is great depar- ture from that correct moral standard, which an en- lightened mind will always build up for its regua- ty, whose moral perceptions have been long bunted by his dishonorabIe calling, and whose soul dead to all impulses, save of the most grovelling nature
 The Grand Jurors would but ill-perfsrm their duty they to neglect to express their strong dsappro bation of such conduct, and their desire that Legisa tive action should be had for its prevention and pun shment. And in order, the particularly to di- the attention of the Legislature to what they ceive to be most unfortunate omission in the laws against gaming, they most earnestly and respectfully request your Honor to lend such judicial sanction to this communication, as will the more readily ensure it the favorable notice of that body. From the character of the statutes prohibiting ga- ming, the Grand Jurors cannot doubt, that the Gen eral Assembly would promptly introduce such amend mcnts as experience and good policy may point out