powder, to which Fox wittily alluded, after the duel,

saying--`Egad, Adam, you would have killed me if it had not been
Government powder.' See Gilchrist, Ordeals, Millingen, Hist.

of Duelling, ii., and Steinmetz, Romance of Duelling, ii.
The following are authenticanecdotes of Fox, as a gambler.

Fox had a gambling debt to pay to Sir John Slade. Finding
himself in cash, after a lucky run at Faro, he sent a

complimentary card to the knight, desiring to discharge the
claim. Sir John no sooner saw the money than he called for pen

and ink, and began to figure. `What now?' cried Fox. `Only
calculating the interest,' replied the other. `Are you so?'

coolly rejoined Charles James, and pocketed the cash, adding--`I
thought it was a _debt of honour_. As you seem to consider it a

trading debt, and as I make it an invariable rule to pay my Jew-
creditors last, you must wait a little longer for your money.'

Fox once played cards with Fitzpatrick at Brookes' from ten
o'clock at night till near six o'clock the next morning--a waiter

standing by to tell them `whose deal it was'--they being too
sleepy to know.

On another occasion he won about L8000; and one of his bond-
creditors, who soon heard of his good luck, presented

himself and asked for payment. `Impossible, sir,' replied Fox;
`I must first discharge my debts of honour.' The bond-creditor

remonstrated, and finding Fox inflexible, tore the bond to pieces
and flung it into the fire, exclaiming--`Now, sir, your debt to

me is a _debt of honour_.' Struck by the creditor's witty
rejoinder, Fox instantly paid the money.[127]

[127] The above is the version of this anecdote which I
remember as being current in my young days. Mr Timbs and others

before him relate the anecdote as follows:--`On another occasion
he won about L8000; and one of his bond-creditors, who soon

heard of his good luck, presented himself and asked for payment.'
`Impossible, sir,' replied Fox `I must first discharge my debts

of honour.' The bond-creditor remonstrated. `Well, sir, give me
your bond.' It was delivered to Fox, who tore it in pieces and

threw it into the fire. `Now, sir,' said Fox, `my debt to you is
a debt of honour;' and immediately paid him .

Now, it is evident that Fox could not destroy the document
without rendering himself still more `liable' in point of law. I

submit that the version in the text is the true one, conforming
with the legal requirement of the case and influencing the debtor

by the originality of the performance of the creditor.
Amidst the wildest excesses of youth, even while the perpetual

victim of his passion for play, Fox eagerlycultivated his taste
for letters, especially the Greek and Roman historians and poets;

and he found resources in their works under the most severe
depressions occasioned by ill-successes at the gaming table. One

morning, after Fox had passed the whole night in company with
Topham Beauclerc at Faro, the two friends were about to separate.

Fox had lost throughout the night, and was in a frame of mind
approaching to desperation. Beauclerc's anxiety for the

consequences which might ensue led him to be early at Fox's
lodgings; and on arriving he inquired, not without apprehension,

whether he had risen. The servant replied that Mr Fox was in the
drawing-room, when Beauclerc walked up-stairs and cautiously

opened the door, expecting to behold a frantic gamester stretched
on the floor, bewailing his losses, or plunged in moody despair;

but he was astonished to find him reading a Greek Herodotus.
On perceiving his friend's surprise, Fox exclaimed, `What would

you have me do? I have lost my last shilling.'
Upon other occasions, after staking and losing all that he could

raise at Faro, instead of exclaiming against fortune, or
manifesting the agitation natural under such circumstances, he

would lay his head on the table and retain his place, but,
exhausted by mental and bodilyfatigue, almost immediately

fall into a profound sleep.
Fox's best friends are said to have been half ruined in annuities

given by them as securities for him to the Jews. L500,000 a-
year of such annuities of Fox and his `society' were advertised

to be sold at one time. Walpole wondered what Fox would do when
he had sold the estates of his friends. Walpole further notes

that in the debate on the Thirty-nine Articles, February 6, 1772,
Fox did not shine; nor could it be wondered at. He had sat up

playing at Hazard, at Almack's, from Tuesday evening, the 4th,
till five in the afternoon of Wednesday, the 5th. An hour before

he had recovered L12,000 that he had lost; and by dinner,
which was at five o'clock, he had ended losing L11,000! On

the Thursday he spoke in the above debate, went to dinner at past
eleven at night; from thence to White's, where he drank till

seven the next morning; thence to Almack's, where he won
L6000; and between three and four in the afternoon he set out

for Newmarket. His brother Stephen lost L11,000 two nights
after, and Charles L10,000 more on the 13th; so that in

three nights the two brothers--the eldest not _twenty-five_
years of age--lost L32,000![128]

[128] Timbs, _ubi supra._
On one occasion Stephen Fox was dreadfully fleeced at a gaming

house at the West End. He entered it with L13,000, and left
without a farthing.

Assuredly these Foxes were misnamed. _Pigeons_--dupes of
sharpers at play--would have been a more appropriate cognomen.

WILBERFORCE AND PITT.
These eminent statesmen were gamesters at one period of their

lives. When Wilberforce came to London in 1780, after his return
to Parliament, his great success signalized his entry into public

life, and he was at once elected a member of the leading clubs--
Miles' and Evans', Brookes', Boodle's, White's, and Goosetree's.

The latter was Wilberforce's usual resort, where his friendship
with Pitt--who played with characteristic and intense eagerness,

and whom he had slightly known at Cambridge--greatly increased.
He once lost L100 at the Faro table.

`We played a good deal at Goosetree's,' he states,; and I
well remember the intenseearnestness which Pitt displayed when

joining in these games of chance. He perceived their increasing
fascination, and soon after abandoned them for ever.'

Wilberforce's own case is thus recorded by his biographers, on
the authority of his private Journal:--`We can have no play to-

night,' complained some of the party at the club, `for St Andrew
is not here to keep bank.' `Wilberforce,' said Mr Bankes, who

never joined himself, `if you will keep it I will give you a
guinea.' The playfulchallenge was accepted, but as the game

grew deep he rose the winner of L600. Much of this was lost
by those who were only heirs to fortunes, and therefore could not

meet such a call without inconvenience. The pain he felt at
their annoyance cured him of a taste which seemed but too likely

to become predominant.
Goosetree's being then almost exclusivelycomposed of incipient

orators and embryo statesmen, the call for a gambling table there
may be regarded as a decisive proof of the universal prevalence

of the vice.
`The first time I was at Brookes',' says Wilberforce,

`scarcely knowing any one, I joined, from mere shyness, in play
at the Faro tables, where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend, who

knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim decked out for
sacrifice, called to me--"What, Wilberforce, is that you?"

Selwyn quite resented the interference, and, turning to him, said
in his most expressive tone, "Oh, sir, don't interrupt Mr

Wilberforce, he could not be better employed."
Again: `The very first time I went to Boodle's I won twenty-five

guineas of the Duke of Norfolk. I belonged at this time to five
clubs--Miles' and Evans', Brookes', Boodle's, White's, and