The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-01-26
A Wonderful Wager.
A Fashionable Amusement at the Time
of Charles James Fox.
(Trevelyan's History of Fox.l


There exists at Brooks's Club a curious me.
mortal of the society in which Fox lived and
OF the constant and minute attention which
that society bestowed upon all his proceedings.
AS far back as the reign of William the Third
foreigners had observed that on matters great
and small the only sure test of English opinion
was the state OF the odds. Our ancestors were
men of their hands-more ready with sword
and purse than with word and pen-who re-
garded duel as the natural issue of a quar-
rel, and bet as the most authoritative solu-
tion Of an argument. To drag through news
papers and law courts the engthening scandal
OF dispute which single interview in le Of
the parks wsuld settle with credit, if not with
satisfaction, to both parties, was not more re-
puHnant to their idea of what was becoming
and convenient than to spend twenty minutes
III confuting man who had so little faith in
his own views that he would not back it with
twenty guineas. But by the time George the
Third was on the throne, persons of rank and
position were tired of being challenged to
stake their money by frequenters of public
coffee-houses whose capacity to pay was doubt
full, and about whose anticpations as to the
date of the coming dissolution and the desti-
nation Of the next blue ribbon they did not
care farthing. The first London clubs of the
model to which that name is now exclusively
applied, were instituted among other kindred
purposes, with the object of providing the
world OF fashion with a central office for max
ing wagers, and registry for recording them.
And so it comes about that the betting-book at
Brooks's has an interest Of its own which re-
sembles nothing in any library or museum In
the country The entries in its pages, most
characteristic of the time and the men, stand-
ing, each In their proper order, between the
covers within which they were originally
written-uniform in their general character,
but with variety of detail as inexhaustible as
the circumstances of our national history and
the changes in our national manners-form
volume which is to the ordinary collection of
autographs what the "Liber vertatis' of
Claude is to portfolio of detached sketches
by the great masters. Fifty guineas that Thur
low gets tellership Of the Exchequer for his
son; hfty guineas that Mile. Heinel does not
dance at the opera house next winter; fifty
gulneas that ZOO people were at the Pantheon
last evening; fifty guineas that Lord Leicester
gives his first vote in opposition and hits eight
out of his first ten pheasants; 800 to fifty from
no6leman who appreciated the privileges of
bachelor, that the Duke of Devonshire, Lord
Cholmoudeley, and two given commoners are
married before him; five guineas down. to re-
ceve 100 If the Duke of Queensbury dies be-
lore hall an hour after five in the afternoon of
the 9th of June, 1773; 100 guineas on the
Duke OF Queensberry's life against Lord Palm
erston's; lOO guineas that Lord Derby does not
See the next general election, and 100 guinea
between two usually discreet members of the
club, that some one in their eye does not live
ten years from the present date. The batting
was hottest in war times anu during the period
while notorious criminal renamed untried
or unhanged; for the disciples of George Sell
wyn were never tired of calculating the
chances Of people dying elsewhere than in
their beds. The old yellow leaves are scored
thick with bets that one of the Perreaus would
oe hanged; that neither of them would be:
and that Mrs. Rudd would be admitted TO
oaii; that Dr. Dodd would be executed within
two months; that he would anticipate the gal
lows by suicide and that if he killed himself
1t would be by pistol and not by poison. Fltz-
patrick, flying at higher game, laid 500 guineas
10 ten that none OF the Cabinet wert. beheaded
by that day thrse years; and another gentle.
man, who believed the melancholy contingen-
gehcy TO be not only possible but probable, was
Tree spoken enough to name his minister. Still
bolder spirits did not shrink from placing their
money upon prophecies which the delIcacy of
d later age has taken effectual care to render
ineligible, for, indeed, there was no event or
experience In the whole compass of human ex-
lstence which March and his friends Thought
IL necessary to exclude from the field of legiti-
mate speculation. 1t was in alluson to quite
the most Innocent of these personal and do
nestle wagers that Lord Mountford. when
asked whether his daughter was going to pre.
sent him with grandchild, remarked "Upon
my word do not know; have not bet upon
For ten years, from 1771 onward. Cbarles
Fox betted frequently, largely and judiciouslv
on the social and political occurrences of the
times. He laid 200 guineas that Lord North
' would be first Lord of the Treasury in March,
liI5, and tweny guineas that he would still be
First Lord in March, 1776, "bar death. :" I5o to
hity that the tea act was not repealed in the
winter session of 1774; twenty guineas that
Lod Northlngton, who took more kin1ly to
wafer than did mis- father, did not swim one
mile the next time he went into the Thames or
any other river; ten guineas down. to receive
2oo whenever Turkey in Europe belonged to
european power or powers; and a guinea
down, to receive fifty whenever Mr. Croft
forge 8 two honors In Mr. Fox's presence -
ne was Iond OF wagers the settlement of which
was dependent upon an antecedent condition.
Lord Ossory bets Mr.. Charles Fox 100 guineas
to ten that DR.. North is not Bishop of Durham
TINS day two months, provided the present
SSlsuoP S,l oieS within that time" "Mr. E. Foley
oets MI Charles Fox fifty guineas England Is
at war with France this day two years, suppos-
ing Louis XIV. dead" And Mr. Charles Fox
himself bets 100 guineas against the Duke of
ooVohsnire having the Garter within seven
years, the Duke to live or no bet" When
me Perraus were on their trial for forgery Fox
was concerned in five bets out of consecutive
group OF six, and it is pleasant to .emark that
even in his hours of sport the young reformer
OF the penal code was on the side of mercy.
Many pages to- ether, during 1774 and 1775, are
half covered by his uniformed but frank, reso-
lutte and most readable handwriting, and no
single name appears anything like so often as
nis, until at the outbreak of the Revolutionary
war, under the excitement of the downward
and upward rush of consols and of defeats on