0 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.

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 . . . . . . . . . . . . .