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l wrong, we should have to regard ninety-nine gamblers out of a hundred as wrong-doers. Let it suffice to point out that, whether believing in his luck or not, the gambler is blameworthy, since his desire is to obtain the property of another without giving an equivalent. The interchange of property is of advantage to society; because, if the interchange is a fair one, both parties to the transaction are gainers. Each exchanges something which is of less use to him for something which is of more use. This is equally the case whether there is a direct exchange of objects of values or one of the parties to the exchange gives the other the benefit of his labor or of his skill acquired by labor. But in gambling, as where one man robs another, the case is otherwise. One person has lost what he can perhaps ill spare, while
the other has obtained what he has, strictly speaking, no right to, and what is almost certainly of less value to him than to the person who has lost it. Or, as Herbert Spencer concisely presents the case :--'Benefit received does not imply effort put forth, and the happiness of the winner involves the misery of the loser: this kind of action is therefore essentially anti-social; it sears the sympathies, cultivates a hard egoism, and so produces a general deterioration of character and conduct.'
BETTING ON RAGES.
WHEN I was traveling in Australia, I saw a good deal of a class of men with whom, in this country, only betting men are likely to come much in contact -bookmakers, or men who make a profession of betting. What struck me most, perhaps, at first was that they regarded their business as a distinct profession. Just as a man would say in England, ' I am a lawyer or a doctor,' so these men would say that they were bookmakers. Yet, on consideration, I saw that there was nothing altogether novel in this. Others, whose business really is to gain money by making use of the weaknesses of their fellow-men, have not scrupled to call their employment a trade or a profession. Madame Rachel might have even raised her special occupation to the dignity of 'a mystery' on Shakespearean grounds (' Painting, sir, I have heard say is a mystery, and members of my occupation using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery '); and if taught of wrong in his employment could be made out to the satisfaction of a bookmaker, his answer might be Shakespearean also, ' Other sorts offend as well as we-
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