If you wish to see what influence chess can have upon individuals, just analyze the London Club. The members are not "men of straw," but sound, substantial citizens, with balances at their bankers heavy enough to buy up half-a-dozen lords. Does a Rothschild or a Baring negotiate a loan? Here you will find men to take up the greater part, if not the whole of it. Is capital for a railroad wanted? You need not wander much further. Look around you, and you will recognize many of the foremost of Great Britain's merchant princes; men pushing England's commerce into every bay and inlet of old ocean, carrying the British flag across seas and lakes, and penetrating continents; causing British cannon to thunder at the gates of Pekin, and opening Japan to the commerce of the world. These are the children of the men who first planted foot in Hindostan, descendants of those who established England's colonies. These are the men, the very men, who repealed the Corn Laws in 1846, established the principle of Free Trade, and told a proud, titled aristocracy--"We, the middle class, the merchants, bankers, and manufacturers of Great Britain, are the source of all power in England, as we are the source of her greatness."
An admirable demonstration of these ideas is to be found in the London Chess Club. This association has flourished with never-failing vigor since its establishment in 1807, whilst Clubs have risen, waned, and died at the fashionable end of the town. City men are too patriotic and too proud to allow their Club to languish; and, depend upon it, whilst the old London counts a single member, that one last man will, from his own purse, find funds to keep it alive, inscribe on his colors "_Lateat scintillula forsan_," and shout with stentorian lungs for recruits.
The London Chess Club organized on the 6th of April, 1807, Mr. Augustus Hankey being first President, and the committee numbering among its members Sir Astley Cooper, the celebrated surgeon, Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, and others of almost equal eminence. The meetings took place at Tom's Coffee House, in Cornhill. Such men as Sarratt, Lewis, Walker, McDonnel, Cochrane, Popert, Perigal, Staunton, Fraser, etc., have either been members of the Club or frequenters of it. A good story is told of Perigal, who, for a long period, officiated as the Honorary Secretary. At the time Deschappelles made his ridiculous challenge to play any English amateur a match at Pawn and Two moves, Mr. Perigal was sent out to Paris to arrange preliminaries with the gasconading Frenchman. Deschappelles soon showed how little he was in earnest, and the ambassador returned without having effected any thing. On being questioned at the "London" as to the appearance, manner, etc., of the French champion, he said, with much gravity--"Mr. Deschappelles is the greatest chess-player in France; Mr. Deschappelles is the greatest whist-player in France; Mr. Deschappelles is the greatest billiard-player in France; Mr. Deschappelles is the greatest pumpkin-grower in France, and Mr. Deschappelles is the greatest liar in France."