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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 22


This last still flourishes greatly, and I am
afraid is likely to flourish, though happily in isolation; for,
as I have before remarked, the "concession" or privilege of the
place has been guaranteed for a long period of years to come by
the expectant dynasty of Hesse-Darmstadt. "_C'est fait_," "It
is all settled," said the host of the Hotel de France to me,
rubbing his hands exultingly when I mentioned the matter. But,
_Quis custodiet custodes?_ Hesse-Darmstadt has guaranteed the
"administration of Hesse-Hombourg, but who is to guarantee
Hesse-Darmstadt? A battalion of French infantry would, it seems
to me, make short work of H. D., lease guarantees, Federal
contingent, and all. I must mention, in conclusion, that within
a very few years we had, if we have not still, a licensed
gaming house in our exquisitely moral British dominions.
This was in that remarkably "tight little island" at the mouth
of the Elbe, Heligoland, which we so queerly possess--Puffendorf,
Grotius, and Vattel, or any other writers on the _Jus gentium_,
would be puzzled to tell why, or by what right. I was at Hamburg
in the autumn of 1856, crossed over to Heligoland one day on a
pleasure trip, and lost some money there, at a miniature
_Roulette_ table, much frequented by joyous Israelites from the
mainland, and English "soldier officers" in mufti. I did not
lose much of my temper, however, for the odd, quaint little place
pleased me. Not so another Roman citizen, or English travelling
gent., who losing, perhaps, seven-and-sixpence, wrote a furious
letter to the "Times," complaining of such horrors existing
under the British flag, desecration of the English name, and so
forth. Next week the lieutenant-governor, by "order," put an
end to _Roulette_ at Heligoland; but play on a diminutive scale
has since, I have been given to understand, recommenced there
without molestation.

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