New-York daily tribune., 1856-02-26
breaches OF trust have become more ard nor


alarming. Experience shows that ordinary ssgso
itv and prudence il frequently insufficient to secure
against serious loses by these means, and hence
a great exten,ion of tgr criminal code, and from
year to year the subjecting - severe punishments
many acts which till lately were liable to no pun
i.hment at all.
So with regard to drinking shops and gambling
saloons-it used TO be very common opinion that
nobody was in danger Of being led on By them 10
ruin except those whose inOrdinate and ungoVerua-
bic appetites, passion for excitement, and, In the
case of gambling, beadlong love Of gain, predes-
tined them to inevitable ruin at any rate. But the
careful study given to these subjects within the last
fifty years has led 10 great change OF opinion. Ii
is now admitted by all thoughtful and well-ih-
formed men, that considering the average weak
ness of human nature, every grOgshOp and gam
bling. hell must be regarded pitfall-a trap set
for the innocent and unwary the cause of ruin and
misery to Il ousands who, had they not been ex-
posed TO those temptations, would have lived
useful, happy and reputable. Hence gambling
hells and drinking-hells have come to be looked at
not merely with horror but with general alarm;
and legislation has been modified, as in other cases
to suit this change in public OpniOn-a mOdifca
ton made, however, not 40 much in a spirit of ven
geance against the keepers of these fountains of
evil, az in the very spirit of the Lords Prayer
Lead Us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil.
But even apart from this view of the case The
Ne,rs has no solid ground to stand upon. Its ae-
CATION s that the keeping of drinking and gambling
bells differs from other criminal acts by involving
the voluntary participation of the injured victim,
and On that ground it thinks no laws should be
passed against them Now, suppose the party
upon whom theft or some great personal outrage
is committed is a child, or an insane person who
has been induced voluntarily to submit to the out
rage does that take away the necessity, or pro-
priety or policy of legal punishment And in
what other light except that of children incompe-
tent to speak or act for themselves, incompetent
TO consent, and therefore much the more needing
the guardianship of the law, can we regard those
unfortunate persons aboring under that infatuason
Of which the professional gamblers, or that in
famed appetite of which the professional rum
sellers take advantage, after having first pro-
duced it
Besides, the assumption of consent on the part of
the injured victims is false in fact. The man who
drinks and the man who CANDLES is by no means
the only injured victim. He has father aud
mother a wife and children, creditors and others,
who have claims on his sobriety, his industry and
bis thrift He may consent-thOugh even his con
sent is often but that of the bird charmed by the
serpent-he may consent but they do not. If
"yctims" injured without their own cor sent are
necessary in the view of The Ne,os to Justify Grim
inal prOceedngs thousands and tens of thousands
Ofsuch victims are forthcoming in the shape of
heart.b broken wives and beggared children and un.
paid creditors. In truth, not man of property in
this city, whose enormous tax bills are swelled to
support drunken paupers with their families, and to
keep up police establishment FIVE times as large
as would be necessary if there were no grogshops-
not single such tax payer is there among us, but
he is one of these involuntary " injared victims"
II would b. as natural as chiyalrOus if those to
whom political gambling is means now of excite
m, Mt and now Of gain, should step forward in be-
half of gamblers generally. We can well under
stand the party interest which politicians OF cer
tain school have in sustaining grog shops, as being
quite essential to the well-working of their
political machinery. But if The Ne,rs is going to
rely upon argument to carry the public with ii, it
will be necessary TO put the on some less hol-
low ground.