Of the fascinating charms of gambling, history has left us too many records to make us insensible of the importance of the safe-guards which society ought to erect, to defend itself from the poison of so infectious a contamination. Who would believe, that the great _Wilberforce_ was once a gambler! That even _Pitt_ once stood on the brink of a gambler's hell. But Wilberforce was cured by _winning_ £2000 at _Holland-house_--and such was the pain he felt for those who had lost their money, that it prevented all "his future triumphs in the infernal regions." But in those regions, flourished the greatest statesmen and wits of the age--who fell victims to the prevailing fascination of the gaming-table. What destroyed _Charles James Fox_, as a statesman? _Gambling!_ What brought the brilliant _Sheridan_ to the grave? Intoxication, brought on by the ill-starred luck of the ruined gamester? "_Holland-house!_" immortalized as the resort of genius, as well as for its orgies of dissipation, is not less renowned to infamy, as having been the "hell" of respectable gamesters.
There is a kind of democracy of crime, contended for by Mr. Freeman, that has its charms to the ears of the groundlings. He is opposed to a law that punishes _one_ class of gamblers only, instead of bringing _all_, within the focus of its penalties! There is much truth in this. Laws ought to be equal in their operation--but if they cannot be equal, this is no reason why there ought to be no laws at all. This conclusion is not warranted by any rule in logic or in government.
No man has a right to dispose of his property to the corruption of the public morals. Mr. Freeman adduced the instance of a father having a right to disinherit one son and prefer the other. This is not a parallel case. The parallel would be a rich man leaving his fortune to found an Institution of demoralizing tendency--say to teach you the art of cheating! The laws would annul such a bequest. Society has an original, inherent right to defend itself from all evil--and that gaming is an evil, whether played with cards, lotteries, dice, stocks, or betting, not even Mr. Freeman could seriously deny.
In the late debate between these celebrated speculators,--one reformed, the other confirmed in his vicious career--it was observed, what a tower of strength _truth_ gives to the man who espouses the _just_ cause. Mr. Green stood self-vindicated by his very position--while the labour of _Sisiphus_ devolved on Mr. Freeman. But the stone would not stay rolled up hill. It was no sooner at midway from the summit, but back it rolled upon its unfortunate and panting labourer.