`I have found cards and dice in many places where people were in
want of bread. I have seen the merchant and the artisan staking

gold by handfuls. A small farmer has just gamed away his
harvest, valued at 3000 francs.'[60]

[60] Dusaulx, _De la Passion du Jeu_, 1779.
Gaming houses in Paris were first licensed in 1775, by the

lieutenant of police, Sartines, who, to diminish the odium of
such establishments, decreed that the profit resulting from them

should be applied to the foundation of hospitals. Their number
soon amounted to twelve; and women were allowed to resort to them

two days in the week. Besides the licensed establishments,
several illegal ones were tolerated, and especially styled

_enfers_, or `hells.'
Gaming having been found prolific in misfortunes and crimes, was

prohibited in 1778; but it was still practised at the court and
in the hotels of ambassadors, where police-officers could not

enter. By degrees the public establishments resumed their
wonted activity, and extended their pernicious effects. The

numerous suicides and bankruptcies which they occasioned
attracted the attention of the _Parlement_, who drew up

regulations for their observance, and threatened those who
violated them with the pillory and whipping. The licensed

houses, as well as those recognized, however, still continued
their former practices, and breaches of the regulations were

merely visited with trivial punishment.
At length, the passion for play prevailing in the societies

established in the Palais Royal, under the title of _clubs_ or
_salons_, a police ordinance was issued in 1785, prohibiting them

from gaming. In 1786, fresh disorder having arisen in the
unlicensed establishments, additional prohibiting measures were

enforced. During the Revolution the gaming-houses were
frequently prosecuted, and licenses withheld; but notwithstanding

the rigour of the laws and the vigilance of the police, they
still contrived to exist.

LOUIS XVI. TILL THE PRESENT TIME.--In the general corruption of
morals, which rose to its height during the reign of Louis XVI.,

gambling kept pace with, if it did not outstrip, every other
licentiousness of that dismal epoch.[61] Indeed, the

universal excitement of the nation naturally tended to develope
every desperatepassion of our nature; and that the revolutionary

troubles and agitation of the empire helped to increase the
gambling propensity of the French, is evident from the magnitude

of the results on record.
[61] It will be seen in the sequel that gambling was vastly

increased in England by the French `emigres' who sought refuge
among us, bringing with them all their vices, unchastened by

misfortune.
Fouche, the minister of police, derived an income of

L128,000 a year for licensing or `privileging' gaming houses,
to which cards of address were regularly furnished.

Besides what the `farmers' of the gaming houses paid to
Fouche, they were compelled to hire and pay 120,000 persons,

employed in those houses as _croupiers_ or attendants at the
gaming table, from half-a-crown to half-a-guinea a day; and all

these 120,000 persons were _SPIES OF FOUCHE!_ A very clever
idea no doubt it was, thus to draw a revenue from the proceeds of

a vice, and use the institution for the purposes of government;
but, perhaps, as Rousseau remarks, `it is a great error in

domestic as well as civil economy to wish to combat one vice
by another, or to form between them a sort of equilibrium, as if

that which saps the foundations of order can ever serve to
establish it.'[62] A minister of the Emperor Theodosius II., in

the year 431, the virtuous Florentius, in order to teach his
master that it was wrong to make the vices contribute to the

State, because such a procedure authorizes them, gave to the
public treasury one of his lands the revenue of which equalled

the product of the annual tax levied on prostitution.[63]
[62] Nouv. Heloise, t. iv.

[63] Novel. Theodos. 18.
After the restoration of the Bourbons, it became quite evident

that play in the Empire had been quite as Napoleonic in its
vigour and dimensions as any other `idea' of the epoch.

The following detail of the public gaming tables of Paris was
published in a number of the _Bibliotheque Historique_, 1818,

under the title of `Budget of Public Games.'
STATE OF THE ANNUAL EXPENSES OF THE GAMES OF PARIS.

Under the present Administration, there are:--
7 Tables of Trente-et-un.

9 ditto of Roulette.
1 ditto of Passe-Dix.

1 Table of Craps.
1 ditto of Hazard.

1 ditto of Biribi.
--

20
These 20 Tables are divided into nine houses, four of which are

situated in the Palais Royal.
To serve the seven tables of _Trente-et-un_, there are:--francs

28 Dealers, at 550 fr. a month, making . . . . 15,400
28 Croupiers, at 380. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,640

42 Assistants, at 200. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,400
SERVICE FOR THE NINE ROULETTES AND ONE PASSE-DIX.

80 Dealers, at 275 fr. a month . . . . . . . . 22,000
60 Assistants, at 150. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,000

SERVICE OF THE CRAPS, BIRIBI, AND HAZARD,
12 Dealers, at 300 fr. a month. . . . . . . . . 3,600

12 Inspectors, at 120 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,440
10 Aids, at 100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,000

6 Chefs de Partie at the principal houses, at
700 fr. a month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,200

3 Chefs de Partie for the Roulettes, at
500 fr. a month. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,500

20 Secret Inspectors, at 200 fr. a month. . . . . .4,000
1 Inspector-General, at . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,000

130 Waiters, at 75 fr. a month. . . . . . . . . . .9,750
Cards a month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,500

Beer and refreshments, a month. . . . . . . . . . .3,000
Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5,500

Refreshment for the grand saloon, including two
dinners every week, per month . . . . . . . . . 12,000

Total expense of each month . . . .113,930
---------

Multiplied by twelve, is. . . . . . . . . . . .1,367,160
Rent of 10 Houses, per annum. . . . . . . . . . .130,000

Expense of Offices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,000
---------

Total per annum. . . . . . . . . 1,547,160
If the `privilege' or license is . . . . . . . 6,000,000

If a bonus of a million is given for six years, the
sixth part, or one year, will be . . . . . . . 166,666

---------
Total expenditure . . . . . . . .7,713,826

The profits are estimated at, per month,. . . . .800,000
---------

Which yield, per annum, . . . . . . . . . . . .9,600,000
Deducting the expenditure . . . . . . . . . . .7,713,826