A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their PreventionColquhoun, Patrick
History
A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their Prevention
Colquhoun, Patrick
Crime -- England -- London; Police -- England -- London
"The witness saw Hazard played at the Gaming-House of the defendant,
in Leicester-street.--Every person who was three times successful,
paid the defendant a Silver Medal, which he purchased from him on
entering the house, at eight for a guinea, and he received six or
seven of these in the course of an hour for the Box Hands, as it was
called. The people who frequented this house always played for a
considerable sum. Sometimes £.20 or £.30 depended on a single throw of
the Dice. The witness remembered being once at the defendant's
Gaming-House about three or four o'clock in the morning, when a
gentleman came in very much in liquor.--He seemed to have a great deal
of money about him.--The defendant said he had not intended to play,
but now he would set to with this fellow.--He then scraped a little
wax with his finger off one of the candles and put the Dice together,
so that they came seven every way. After doing this, he dropped them
into the box and threw them out, and afterwards drew all the money
away, saying he had won it.--_Seven_ was the main, and he could not
throw any thing but _seven_. The young gentleman said he had not given
him time to _bar_.--A dispute arose between the defendant and him. It
was referred to two or three persons who were round the table, and
they gave it in favour of the defendant. The gentleman said he had
lost upwards of £.70. The defendant said, _we have cleared him_. The
witness has seen a man pawn his watch and ring in several instances;
and once he saw a man pawn his coat and go away without it.
"After the Gaming Table was broken by the Bow-street Officers, the
defendant said it was too good a thing to be given up, and instantly
got another Table, large enough for twenty or thirty people. The
frequenters of this house used to play till day-light: and on one or
two occasions, they played all the next day. This is what the
defendant called, _sticking to it rarely_. The guests were furnished
with wine and suppers gratis, from the funds of the partnership, in
abundance. Sunday was a grand day. The witness has seen more than
forty people there at a time. The table not being sufficient for the
whole, half-a-crown used on such occasions to be given for a seat, and
those behind looked over the back of the others and betted."
The person above-mentioned (whose name was Smith) who pawned his coat,
corroborated the above evidence; and added, that he had seen a person
after he had lost all his money, throw off his coat and go away,
losing it also.]
While a vice, ruinous to the morals and to the fortunes of the younger
part of the Community who move in the middle and higher ranks of life
is suffered to be pursued in direct opposition to _positive
statutes_,--surely, blame must attach somewhere!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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