a gambling spirit, only to be corrected by innumerable generations of steady labor; and, unfortunately, even in the steadiest work, the element of chance enters largely enough to render the corrective influence of such work on the character of the race much slower than it might otherwise be. Every man who has to work for his living at all, every man who has to depend in any way, on business for wealth, has to trust to chance, in many respects. So that all men, in some degree, more or less, have their characters modified by this peculiarity of their environment. The inherited tendency of each one of us towards gambling, in some one or other of its multitudinous forms, is undoubtedly strengthened in this way.” First, we see, it cannot be said that gambling is immoral, sinful, or irreligious. Second, it is clear the propensity to gamble is as natural as the temperament or complexion. The law can no more destroy the natural inclination of the mind, than it can make “one hair white or black.” If an evil (which in the absolute sense I deny), it is not to be prevented by legislation. It is no more possible, by direct effort, to change the gaming proclivity in man than to stem the torrent, or check the eternal progress of the glacier. The growth of centuries, down it moves through the years in an irresistible march. Absurd seem all our demonstrations; how idle, the beating of the air. When one form passes away another immediately takes its place. Disappearing here, it appears there. Apparently suppressed in one place it breaks out with more vigor in another. Continue it will, and continue it must, whether practiced openly or in secret. If it is not the faro-bank or lottery it is something worse. If not the gambling-rooms of a Morrissey, a Daly, a Pendleton or a Hankins, it will be the mammoth palaces (boards of trade and chambers of commerce, so-called), which now are a feature of every city in Christendom, and wherein millions upon millions are wagered annually upon the very bread and meat wherewith our life is sustained; wherein billions are lost and won, sometimes to the injury of every department of actual production. There are the open boards of trade, too, wherein the petty transactions aggregate many millions. I am told by those who have made it a study for years, that more than 80 per cent of the transactions on the exchange are fictitious: mere betting on the rise and fall of commodities in price. All authority in this matter is practically powerless. Inclinations will be satisfied, and until inclinations change, the demand will be supplied; this, moreover, in the face of laws however stringent, or police supervision however effective. Such methods are not only ineffective, but absolutely injurious to society. No nation or government has succeeded in restricting, limiting, or curing the gambling spirit and practice. That this is true, I call upon every candid and fair-minded man of experience to bear witness.