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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN GAMING IN ENGLAND

CHAPTER VI. page 10


In the same year, Lord Kenyon in summing up a case of the kind
said:--`It was extremely to be lamented that the vice of gambling
had descended to the very lowest orders of the people. It was
prevalent among the highest ranks of society, who had set the
example to their inferiors, and who, it seemed, were too great
for the law. I wish they could be punished. If any
prosecutions are fairly brought before me, and the parties are
justly convicted, whatever may be their rank or station in the
country--though they should be the first ladies in the land--they
shall certainly exhibit themselves in the pillory.'

In 1820, James Lloyd, one of the harpies who practised on the
credulity of the lower orders by keeping a _Little Go_, or
illegal lottery, was brought up for the twentieth time, to answer
for that offence. This man was a methodist preacher, and
assembled his neighbours together at his dwelling on a Saturday
to preach the gospel to them, and the remainder of the week he
was to be found, with an equally numerous party, instructing them
in the ruinous vice of gambling. The charge was clearly proved,
and the prisoner was sentenced to three months' imprisonment with
hard labour.

In the same year numbers of young persons robbed their masters to
play at a certain establishment called Morley's Gambling House,
in the City, and were ruined there. Some were brought to justice
at the Old Bailey; others, in the madness caused by their losses,
destroyed themselves; and some escaped to other countries, by
their own activity, or through the influence of their
friends.

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