First mention of the Stock Exchange—Attempt at hoax—Daniel’s fraud—Berenger’s fraud—Bubbles of 1825—The Railway Mania—30th Nov. 1845 at the Board of Trade—The fever at its height—The Marquis of Clanricarde pricks the bubble 254 CHAPTER XXI The Comic side of the Railway Mania—“Jeames’s Diary,” &c.—Universal Speculation, as shown by Parliamentary Return—Rise of Discount—Collapse—Shareholders not forthcoming—Widespread Ruin—George Hudson 266 CHAPTER XXII Permissible gambling—Early Marine Assurance—Oldest and old Policies—Lloyd’s—Curious Insurances—Marine Assurance Companies—Fire Insurance—Its origin and early Companies—Life Insurance—Early Companies—Curious story of Life Insurance 275 INTRODUCTORY Difference between Gaming and Gambling—Universality and Antiquity of Gambling—Isis and Osiris—Games and Dice of the Egyptians—China and India—The Jews—Among the Greeks and Romans—Among Mahometans—Early Dicing—Dicing in England in the 13th and 14th Centuries—In the 17th Century—Celebrated Gamblers—Bourchier—Swiss Anecdote—Dicing in the 18th Century. Gaming is derived from the Saxon word _Gamen_, meaning _joy_, _pleasure_, _sports_, or _gaming_—and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736; whilst Johnson gives Gamble—_to play extravagantly for money_, and this distinction is to be borne in mind in the perusal of this book; although the older term was in use until the invention of the later—as we see in Cotton’s _Compleat Gamester_ (1674), in which he gives the following excellent definition of the word:—“_Gaming_ is an enchanting _witchery_, gotten between _Idleness_ and _Avarice_: an itching disease, that makes some scratch the head, whilst others, as if they were bitten by a _Tarantula_, are laughing themselves to death; or, lastly, it is a paralytical distemper, which, seizing the arm, the man cannot chuse but shake his elbow. It hath this ill property above all other Vices, that it renders a man incapable of prosecuting any serious action, and makes him always unsatisfied with his own condition; he is either lifted up to the top of mad joy with success, or plung’d to the bottom of despair by misfortune, always in extreams, always in a storm; this minute the Gamester’s countenance is so serene and calm, that one would think nothing could disturb it, and the next minute, so stormy and tempestuous that it threatens destruction to itself and others; and, as he is transported with joy when he wins, so, losing, is he tost upon the billows of a high swelling passion, till he hath lost sight, both of sense and reason.”