The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-12-19
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1859

When the Reverend CHADBAND, in DICKENS
story, seeks down his hair with his fore6nqer
and wiping his mouth with his napkin, says to his
auditors Truth my beloved brethrenl-What
lis TRUTH he propounds question which it is
vastly more easy to ask than to answer In spite
OF that liked and immutabe character which Is
supposed TO be the peculiar property and distin-
gushing characteristic of Truth, and especially OF
Moral Truth, it is very certain that the standards
of Right and Wrong have been essentially differ
ent in different ages of the world Instead of one
sure and uniform rule, we have a sort of
s,idino scale. The lines which separate Yir-
tra from Vice have scarcely ever remained the
same for hundred years together Whole COM
munities and generations of men have applauded
and justified practices which another age has CON-
demned as sinful, and regarded with Ioathing
and adherence. Men have been worsbinped
as heroes for doing that which at another time and
place might have cost them their lives, and would
have consigned their memories to perpetual infamy
In the primitive ages of the world and in thedeserts
of Arabia, polygamy was thought no sin. The
attempt TO revive the patrarchal institution in the
wilds of America has excited universal indicpa
ton and disgust Piracy was once considered an
honorable method of getting ones living. The
fleets of Athens, in time of peace, were almost
invariably employed in pratical enterprises
and the best blood of France and England
claims the honor of descent from
those old free-booters-the Vikings. Even the
Save-Trade once found defenders and apologists
and was considered not only gentleman-like,
but q pious and Christian sort of traffic
When Queen ELIZABETH knighed that bold
navigator, Sir JOHN HAWKINS, The Her
AIDS Office gave him for crest, a demi-Moor
manacled and the good bishop, LAS
CAsAs expressly justified and recommended
the stealing Of negroes, and their shipment to
America, as a means of preserving the Indians
from determination. Yet no one would think now
Of quoting the good bishops authority in extenua-
ton of the horrors of the Middle Passage, and
unless it be Mr.. CHARLES B. LAMAR, we know of
no gentleman who is ambitious of the reputation of
a successful SLAYER. Among the ancient Romans,
suicide was considered not only iustifable, but
highly creditable method of making ones exit
from life 1t was the natural resource of a disap-
pointed philosopher or an unsuccessful politician,
tons, which ancient history affords of coniugal
love and womanly heroism, is the story of the
Roman wife teaching, by the forttude of her own
example, her husband how to die. More modern
laws have denied to the suicide even the rites of
decent sepultnre, and consigned his corpse to a
dishonored grave, where two crossroads
meet, with a stake driven through his
body; and should as soon think Of en-
couraging our widows to practise the
Hindoo suttee, rs Of commencing to our wives
the example of ARIA. Swearing was at one
time considered not only fashionable, but a
lady-ke accomplishment. We know that Queen
BEss-who was not q saint, however-swore like
trooper, and of CHAUCERs Priorsss, who is
represented as pattern of all feminine grace and
goodness, read that
Hire gretest othe mas but by SENT Eloyr
We should scarcely esteem it high commendation
OF pious woman, nowadays, to he told that
her choice of oaths illustrated the mdness of her
disposition. Not TO multiply examples, unneces-
sarly, we know no stronger illustration of the
fact, that in morals as in physics, what is one
mans meat is another mans poison, than is
furnished by the change which public opinion has
undergone in this community, and within period
of less than fifty years, On the subject of Lotter-
les. There is no doubt that fifty years ago, men
as decent and reputable as any that now live,
approved and sanctioned the system which all
now agree in pronouncng IL curse and a dis
grace to society, and which it is the desire of all
good men to see put down by law. We have
seen reprints oflottery schemes bearing the honored
a,,,ps ccc 1,.1,o +l,o;,
A collector ofautographs in Boston treasures among
his choicest curosities lottery ticket having the
signature Of WASHINGTON. Works of public i'm
proyement-colleges, and churches even have
been founded or endowed with the proceeds
of Lotteries. Lotteries were gotten up for their
express benefit, and the best men in the COM
munity charged themselves with the duty of seeing
that they were fairly and honorably conducted
Yet all this does not justify the system, any
more than the example of JACOB justifes bigamy,
or that Of LAS CAsAs, the Slave-Trade The
practice Of one age generation cannot be quoted
in defence Of q system which another age con-
demus-Otherwise there is no abuse for which the
authority Of precedent and the warrant of past
example might not be found The lottery system
must be tried and judged by its effects as we ex-
perleuce them, and by present standards of moral
ity, and not by those which existed fifty years
ago, when different ideas prevailed, and when the
lotteries were far differently managed and for
altogether different purposes. We know that of
all forms of gambling, the most seductive and the
most ruInous IS lottery gambling. We know that
II Is the prolific source of poverty misery and
crime among the lower and more ignorant
classes of our population, and we demand that
TINS temptation shall be removed from their path.
We know that the sale of lottery-tickets is for
hidden by the Constitution of the State-that it
Is criminal as well as immoral-and we insist
that this plain letter of the law shall no longer be
suffered to he broken, through the neglect of the
Legislature to provide adequate penalties for the
violation OF the Constitutional prohibition.